Dear All Many greetings – I am up at Lake Turkana in a remote site by the Turkwel River in northern Kenya. I have been teaching an ecology course for the last week and there are so many amazing things to talk about… We spent some time looking at bugs on the invasive Prosopis bushes … Read more
Dear All Many thanks for your kind comments. I have just been in the rainforest in Western Kenya talking about pollinators with farmers and schoolchildren. The beautiful Tithonia were blooming all along the roads through the forest and absolutely covered in stingless bees, honeybees and other creatures. Here are some of the interesting creatures we … Read more
Hello – back in Kenya here. The Whistling Thorns are just starting to flower on the plains… There are lots of different insects visiting the flowers, including these bees. It seems like the bees are the most efficient pollinators of this acacia’s flowers.
The forests and mountains of Borneo are also home to some incredible bees… The first day in the forests of the Danum Valley I spotted this amazing nest in the arms of a magnificent Koompassia tree (which is over 80 m tall!). These are Giant Asian Honeybees. They construct their combs in the open draped … Read more
Dear All – Hello many greetings and thanks to everyone for the kind comments. I was just in the Kakamega forest where I spent part of the day climbing Lirhanda Hill. At the top of the hill as I paused to catch my breath and cool down in the shade of a Combretum tree, I … Read more
More from the lush, flowering bush of Laikipia. In this particular flower, that I photographed the Amegilla bee on, the flowers are clustered along the stems of the plant, and have an interesting shape – tubular with a slight kink in the tube that is formed by the petals. This design is in place no … Read more
Dear All – here are some pictures to share of some very important and yet overlooked insects. Mangoes are one of the most delicious and widely grown tropical fruits. In Kenya we are very lucky to have lots of mangoes available at the moment – absolutely luscious and so tasty. As we all enjoy our … Read more
Dear All More from my travels in the bush. At a spiny succulent euphorbia in Laikipia the other day I was looking at some Groove-winged Flower Beetles. These are tiny beetles who feed on flowers, often in groups. Here are a couple pictures of the beetles – and what I took to be a happily … Read more
Dear All – thanks for the kind comments. The rains we have had in Kenya have meant that a lot of bees are out and about pollinating. On a recent visit to Mt Nyiru, I managed to photograph some very interesting bees visiting the flowers of a succulent tree euphorbia… Here are some of the … Read more
With recent rains on the plains, the bush has sprung back to life and there are flowers and insects everywhere. On a recent evening walk I noticed a lot of hawkmoths whirring about a flowering Turraea bush. They were feeding on the nectar with their long tongues – the proboscis – which can be uncoiled … Read more