STOP 7: The Boat

Periwinkles - creeping vinca or creeping myrtle is great ground cover and produces a mass of purple flowers from March to May so it is an early source of nectar for Mainbee and other insects who can access the flowers easily as they are so wide open. The seeds of this plant are dispersed by a combination of ants, wind and water! 

Winter: Flowers

Spring: Flowers

Honey bees - These familiar bees to our garden are under threat from disease. It is particularly important in urban environments that they have plenty of native trees and flowers to feed from. This means they don’t have to fly so far from their nests. The queen lays 800,000 eggs in her lifetime but each worker bee only produces a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime (a maximum of 6 months depending on when they are born!) to feed these young. That’s why it is important we don’t eat all of the honey from a hive. 

Jackdaws - the smallest members of the crow family with a grey neck and blue eyes (juveniles). They have a distinctive “jack jack” call and are highly intelligent. Some have been trained to recognise humans.They nest together in groups in chimneys and holes in trees and often feed and roost together (making quite a din while they dine!). They like eating seeds, fruit and invertebrates so watch out Mainbee!