Bee

Another day with only a single photograph taken! Despite the continuing grey skies and brisk wind, I forced myself out to finish the monitoring quadrats on the Wittering Ford road verges at Barnack. A couple of weeks ago they were colourful, with large stands of common knapweed, greater knapweed and field scabious still in bloom. Today they were mostly brown.

The lack of flowers and the less-than-perfect weather meant I saw hardly any insects. This Common Furrow Bee, spotted while I was recording some particularly rank grassland, was sheltering on a knapweed seedhead and was reluctant to move, allowing me to get a close shot. Sad to think that in a few weeks there won't really be any insects around at all...