What's buzzing or flying near you 2023 ?

Thanks Sheal, I know nothing about insects. There were a lot of honey bees at the coneflowers so I decided to photograph a few. Then, I saw what I think was a very tiny bee, a little more than 1/4" long. It had so much pollen I am amazed it could fly. It is a bee, but I don't think a honeybee, bottom image.

 

That looks like some sort of fly, not a bee. Female (since it appears to have an ovipositer).

 

I will have to take your word for it, I know nothing about bugs.

 

Another visitor to the coneflowers, a black swallowtail.

 

I've never seen so many flies as there are this year There's always some coming into the house, big fat bluebottles as well as smaller flies, all buzzing around getting on my nerves. They come in all the time, and after I get rid of them more keep coming in.

I've always got the windows open so you can expect an insect or two to fly in but this year there's a procession of them one after the other.
I flip a cloth or something at them and they go quiet for a while but then start buzing again.
And since the windows are open you'd think they'd fly out again, but they don't.

I don't like using a fly spray killer but this year I have used one, and it makes them go away, but in a short while more come in.

They are also outside, I've never seen so many flies in the garden, they're everywhere you look. I don't see lots of other insects, so why so many flies ...

 

Hummingbird on the left.

 

Blackbird

 

Ahem! That's not flying or buzzing, it's swimming!

Joking aside, it's nice to see someone putting out water for birds.They do enjoy a splash (and a dust bath too, fine unless it's in a seed bed). That looks like rather a new bird.

 

Quite right, but there isn't a thread for birds bathing Drahcir, so this was the best place to post.

Many people feed birds but don't think to supply water for them. I clean the bath every day throughout the year if possible. There is a lochan about 4-500 yards away in the valley that backs onto my garden but I like to see the birds drinking or taking a dip.

 

Red Kite over the Vyne NT gardens near Basingstoke, distant but always nice to see particularly as they are virtually absent from Dorset.

 

I have a lovely fresh water creek at the back end of our garden. Birds love it.

What majorly bothers me, when I was in Arizona, visiting relatives. and in the desert. they all have "treated" swimming pools. that draws birds, those birds do not need to drink that water. Sad

 

Having lunch in the garden and had a Merlin being mobbed by House Martins fly overhead.

 

Male Sanderling with some Summer plumage colour, already on it's way south from the Arctic.


Dunlin also in Summer plumage.


The two together.


Ringed Plover.

 

Imperial moth. first noticed it from my deck on the grass, flopping, fluttering, trying to move forward. Got a small stick and it climbed on it, then I put it on the tree. If it did not move would have thought it just another yellow leaf. So pretty.