I did not travel far for this month’s pictures all were captured within or just outside my garden.

Wood Mice and Bank Voles can be a bit of a pest getting up into the roof space of the house and causing havoc. These were live trapped and photographed in a set before being released into the garden.

Bank Vole

Bumblebee Beetle is a frequent visitor to flowers where it feeds on pollen

The Speckled Wood Butterfly is a relative newcomer to area. In recent years the butterflies’ range has expanded north form Southern England at the same time the Scottish population, once confined to a couple of small pockets on the Moray Coast and in Argyll, have now joined up by moving through the Great Glen.

Gypsy Cuckoo-bees as their name suggests is parasite of the nests of other true bumblebees. The female cuckoo-bee usurps the rightful owner of the nest and lays her own eggs which are nurtured by the remaining bumblebee workers. Male Cuckoo-bees hang around on flower heads feeding and waiting for virgin queens to emerge. They tend to be rather easier than other bumblebees to approach and photograph.

A male Siskin feeding on Common Sorrel seeds