Autumn Equinox

  

Today is officially the Autumn Equinox, although there are days to come which have more equal day and night. Sunrise is definitely getting later and the evenings are noticeably drawing in but the weather here in Sussex was very warm and sunny for most of the day. So much so that our garden was buzzing with insects. 

There were at least four small copper butterflies.  They have three broods in a year so they manage to look fresh and young, even when most species are tatty and faded.  Their bright coppery wings really stand out.

There were also a lot of bumblebees.  One small copper knocked a bumblebee off a flower but I am sure that it was just a clumsy accident as bumblebees are much chunkier.

Most of the bumblebees were buff tailed but on closer inspection there were also cuckoo bumblebees. As the name suggests, they parasitise bumblebee nests, the queen emerging later so that the host species have started nesting.  They have no pollen baskets as they do not collect pollen.

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