Lockdown Diary: Monday 8.6.20

A quiet day day (wildlife wise) today, when staring at the Tree Bumblebees around the nest box outside our kitchen window is the most soothing pastime. They have just about completely plugged the entrance hole (which is big enough for a Great tit when the bees aren’t in occupation). I am not sure if it is mud or wax they have used, and I am not about to get close enough to find out…
I am very fond of these recent colonists. Our garden has very few actual flowers (it is more of a shady, leafy place) for them, but they like the tiny pink flowers of a snowberry bush we have.

Tree Bumblebees in the partially blocked entrance to a nest-box, our garden, Peterborough June 2020
And talking of that bush, it lines the fence bordering the garden which used to have a swathe of light-blocking leylandii trees. My one concern about their recent removal is that they may have housed nesting birds. I have no direct evidence of this, but today I watched a pair of Collared Doves snuggling up in one of our cherry trees. They indulged in a bit of flirtatious behaviour, then there was some ‘allofeeding’ (courtship sharing of food, bill to bill) followed by a bit of mating!
Were these birds which had been evicted from the neighbours’ trees? I guess I will never know.