Where the bee sucks...

Another garden blip, found after a very hot day of fieldwork round a Cambridgeshire quarry.Chris came with me, as about half an hour before I left I realised that they might well require me to be accompanied if I was going near water. He was dragged from his bed after a rather late night, but still managed to be ready in record time. I was very glad he came, as the terrain was quite treacherous in places, and I wouldn't have felt very confident doing some of it on my own.

This year our garden has been full of honeybees, but with many fewer bumblebees than last year. The honey bees particularly like our marjoram. This one is careflly holding the flower still while she probes it with her elongate mouthparts, sucking up all that delicious nectar.