Bumble bee on the Goat Willow (Salix caprea)

Late in the afternoon the sun finally burnt through the clouds and a beautiful blue sky appeared. I poked my camera out of my study window as I watched various wildlife buzzing around the Goat Willow, or pussy willow. I saw bluetits, blackcaps, male and female bullfinches, goldfinches and dunnocks all perching and occasionally pecking at the  yellow flowers.

But it was the bumble bees which caught my senses most of all with their audible presence and their powerful flights between buds. Getting progressively covered in pollen, specks of which would fly off when the resumed flight after a good trawl through all the realms of these flowers.

Why is goat willow called Goat Willow?
The Latin specific epithet caprea means "goat". This, and the common name goat willow, probably derive from the first known illustration of the species in Hieronymus Bock's 1546 Herbal, where the plant is shown being browsed by a goat.