Pitcher Pollen

The second flower on the pitcher plant has now fully opened.



In the process a couple of the strands bearing pollen fell off. I placed them under my LCD microscope to try taking some closer shots.

The ruler (cm / mm markings) shows how small they are:


The resolution is reasonable, though as expected, the depth of field in shallow:



Those tiny grains of pollen are really minute.



In case you don't remember the LCD microscope I use .......





It works from 5V, has a memory card which can store photographs and video and connects to a PC / laptop so the card content can be copied across.

Hibiscus

The Hibiscus bush is at about its best at the moment, or was before last night's thunder storm soaked all the flowers. It has been a bit of a relief as it produced very few flowers last year and looked dead in the Spring.





Lots of bees visiting but so far no butterflies.





A bit of slow motion video.
As usual it may need 'forcing' to show in HD



All photos and video taken with an iPhone 6s

Fill Those Baskets

Not just humans gleaning an Autumn harvest from the hedgerows. Recently the Ivy around the village has been swarming with bees making the most of a final harvest of pollen, leaving with bulging pollen baskets. Some Ivy growths have so many bees visiting that the hum from their wings can be heard well before nearing the plant.









I have noticed there seem to be far fewer wasps around this Autumn. Normally by now they would also be swarming over the Ivy but I have only seen the occasional one.

Busy Autumn Bee

Not many bees around now that Autumn is well under way. This was the one I was watching on an Autumn Crocus when I spotted the micro moth I wrote about yesterday:





It was busily collecting pollen.
Towards the end of these video clips you can see it scraping the pollen in to its pollen sacs:

Ivy Visitors

 


Not many in the way of flowers for insects to feed on these days. The one exception is Ivy. This must be the best years I have seen for the amount of flowers on my Ivy. Some in the front hedge and a clump at the back have been attracting scores of flying insects.

While the Sun was out yesterday one clump was attracting bees which were filling their pollen sacs.



Outnumbering the bees were flies by the score:



They are making the most of the dwindling pollen and nectar supply as the flowers are fading fast.