And so Spring returns

At last, the temperature is climbing and the sun is out.

There is still a quite cool breeze in the air however, which makes some insects a little lethargic, which I of course don't mind as I have more time to get into position.

The fields nearby are full with bright orange yellow dandelions. It took 2 years before someone finally picked me up on the fact that I was pronouncing the name of this flower wrongly: "Dan-dellion" was my version, with English being my 2nd language.  Each time I see these little yellow suns in the fields and lawns it makes me smile.

The warmer temperatures are encouraging all that buzzes and at last there is a little more variety about. But first we have to do some homage to the mining bee again. They are so tiny, and so very busy ... 

At first they make a point of looking quite cute and harmless ... innocently minding their own business ... 

... willingly showing their best side ...  

... then suddenly there is a full fight going on ...

... it appears that mining bees don't like to share ... this one here was not having any of it and did its best to rid of the intruder ... 

... but eventually both fall off the flower head.

This is a first, I had not seen bees fight each other for the sake of pollen.

In a different corner the motto clearly is: make love not war!

I don't think I have seen a single 'single' dock beetle today ... 

Here it is again, this ever so shy and very quick beetle. For some time now has it been teasing me with sticking its head around the corner to flash its shiny shell and then to quickly dissapear as soon as the camera was ready. But today we surprised each other and my reaction was quick enough to get a reasonably sharp snapshot.  Oh, and it is a ground beetle.

You shall not pass!!

Nettles are loved by many insects for shelter and so its of course a perfect choice for setting up camp if one is a spider. There is an abundance of spiders this year and I will dedicate a page for them when I get round to sorting out all the photographs. 

A 'St.Mark's Fly' - quite small still. There were hundreds of them about today, all very lethargic and I had to watch my step when wandering over crumbled stonewalls as they all were sitting on them to soak up the stored heat.

More sunshine and rising temperatures announced for the rest of the week. I might even manage to get back to that ancient woodland again.