Bustling bee and other insects

Late this morning I took a coffee break outside in the cabin. The sky was rather overcast, with just occasional beams of sunlight breaking through the clouds. I had come prepared with camera and patience to wait for the woodpecker to come back to the bird feeder, opposite the open cabin window, through which I was looking.

Tits, finches, dunnocks, robins, bullfinches and long-tailed tits all visited the two feeders. Swifts, magpies, crows and a buzzard flew quite closely overhead. Eventually the woodie deigned to descend, but as soon as I moved my lens, he was disturbed, so I only got a couple of shots of him hidden behind the feeder. So no close-up blip of him yet.

Then Helena returned, accompanied by my friend John W. and his dog Roly, whom I haven't seen since he helped me in building the raised beds, lower down the garden. I made more coffee and we had a good catch up. When John left, I went to sit closer to the feeders sitting on the patio table. There I noticed this bee buzzing about this Aquilegia plant, which has just begun to flower. I love to see bees at work with their collection of pollen on their legs and obviously happy to be gathering their food in such abundance. From the table I didn't notice the other fly on the flower nor all the greenfly which I can now see in the photo. You've got to get close, which I aim to do more often; I'm thinking of getting some extenders to increase my range. I will check with John, whose particular love is photography down microscopes, so he should know.