Blue Banded Bee

The weather has been wonderful these past few days and the garden is becoming increasingly noisy. The cicadas have begun a symphony of tick, tick, ticking that will accompany us well into autumn, and the birds are making the most of the flowering callistemon that actually grows in our neighbour’s yard but hangs well into ours, arching gracefully over that back fence. This is a favourite spot for the cats most mornings, for although the flowering branches are well out of reach, they remain vigilant just in case…

I joined them outside this morning, fertilising the plants in pots and noticed  this little bee gathering nectar.  

She is a blue banded bee, one of Australia’s native bee species. Although they prefer, and are attracted to blue flowering plants, they will also feed on the flowers of tomato plants as this one was doing. These bees make their nest by burrowing into river banks, soft stone or mortar between bricks, and as we now have limestone retaining in the back garden, I’m hopeful of seeing a few more of these little guys.

A Visitor...

A young kookaburra has been visiting the garden of late. I spotted him on the woodshed late Friday evening but couldn't get a good shot of him through the kitchen window. Here's a not very clear one I took of him earlier, perched in the Chinese Silk tree, that shades the back garden.

I've seen him catching the big grasshoppers that have suddenly appeared in the garden from who knows where. Sometimes they are beaten on a tree branch and devoured straight away, whereas at other times, he flies off towards the river, gripping the grasshopper firmly in his beak. Kookaburras breed at this time of year, and as last years offspring help to nurture the latest family members, I'm guessing there's a nest in one of the hollows in the trees growing along the river's edge.