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It was fascinating to see literally thousands of Mining Bees on the cliff face at Beer, East Devon this afternoon, in very strong sunshine. They were using small holes which they have excavated themselves. It was very interesting to see them coming and going. Apparently it is not unusual to see Mining Bees in large aggregations when conditions are right. They are only active in sunlight, and it was very sunny this afternoo! There were two obvious sizes, the larger ones were females I think, and the much smaller ones males who were coming and going with laden pollen sacks. I am sure that this is not an unreported phenomenon here at Beer. At the moment I don't know the exact species except to say that they belong to the Colletes species of Mining Bees. There are 8 species resident in the UK so it will not be too hard to name this species accurately. I have just noticed in the photograph that they are all facing the same way, not sure if there is any significance in that but when I see them agin, because I plan to return and try for better photos, I will look more carefully. 

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It has been a glorious day today with non-stop sunshine from dawn till dusk. We did however, have some rain again in the night and when I went to the hide first thing this morning, it was almost flooded again. I sat, very uncomfortably in water, (I was wearing waders), and it didn't take long to get cold. I was not really all that interested in getting a photo of the Kingfisher, I just wanted to see her and know that she is OK because, apart from a very quick glimpse of her yeaterday I have not seen her for almost a week now. No sign of her this morning, nor this evening either……… very worrying! I did see some very interesting Butterflies though. At least four Small Coppers flying in the morning sunshine on the banks of the Alphin Brook, quite a sight. They are very pretty, but also very small. This picture (below), is twice life size. Apparently, if conditions are good they can have as many as four different hatchings, so this is what I was wtnessing today. A nice sight in the first week of October.

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