Ceanothus

The ceanothus I blipped a few days ago is about at its height now, and before too long will start to lose its blossom. It's very good this year, as all the spring blossom seems to have been. However, there are remarkably few bees visiting it. Five or so years ago it was covered in bees at this time, both honeybees and bumblebees, but they seem to have declined a lot since then. One year there were a lot of tree bees, but I haven't seen any this year so far. 

Yesterday we noticed that the swifts had returned, pretty much on schedule - its usually around 16 May. It's always a delight to see them back for the summer.