Ivy Bee

I had a wonderful morning walk at Old Sulehay, starting off in the quarry where common eyebright (now not so common - see extra!) was blooming profusely along with the tiny purple flowers of basil-thyme and the magenta flowers of wild basil.

Walking along the track to the wood, I spotted a cascade of flowering ivy growing next to a fruiting wild service tree. There was a large number of hornets foraging over it, and I saw two catch and devour wasps, that were also there in large number. The diversity of insects using the ivy blossom was high, including several species of hoverfly and a solitary wasp, but I was most pleased to see plenty of  ivy bees, such smart little creatures, and a species I'd never seen before at this site, even though they've been in the Peterborough area for several years. It was later confirmed that ivy bees are nesting in the adjacent private quarry which is now being developed as a nature reserve, having formerly been used for four-wheel drive events.