How it feels like we are saving the world one bee at a time

For some reason, last week seems to be the week to give the wildlife a helping hand.

Monday

We had a young starling in the garden, I think it may have been lost or confused as it wasn't with the rest of the flock it was on its own near the bird feeder.  I'm going to assume he was waiting for the rest of the flock to come back.

Unfortunately for him, one of the magpie's from next door swooped down and grabbed him!  I happened to see this happen as I walked passed the window and ran out and rescued the fledgling.  Amazing, he was unhurt and flew off up into the tree!

Tuesday

On the way to school, my son noticed a stag beetle in the middle of the payment.  I don't know why she was there, I think she may have had some cobweb on her face, but it was unclear and I really don't like stag beetles, and as a rule, try to avoid getting too close!

However, my 9-year-old was getting stressed that the beetle was on the pavement, so armed with an umbrella and some sticks we moved her to the bush.  He wanted to take her home and check her over, but we had no means of carrying her, so now I have a "school walk" kit!

That evening I went out to feed the birds and saw a bumblebee in the birdbath trying and failing to get to the edge!  I used the cup that had the birdseed in and scooped him up and brought him inside to dry!!  I was by the back door and placed him on some kitchen towel and fed him something sweet, although he didn't seem to want that, and seemed to be angry!  I started to think that maybe he was enjoying his swim!!

I kept an eye on him, and after around 5 minutes he'd dried himself and started buzzing around the room, which obviously I forgot they do and tried not to freak out, while hubby very gradually guided him out the room!

Wednesday evening

I went out into the conservatory, which is not the best-kept room in the house and saw a bee fly in and straight into a web!  It was only a couple of stands big but enough to trap him and in the time it took me to get a butter knife (the first thing that came to mind), this little spider had come out thinking it was Christmas!  It was a race to the bumblebee and fortunately, I got there first, managed to clear the web and off he flew.   

Thursday

To finish off our week of wildlife rescue, again on the school run we saw a very large bee on the floor, in fact, I think she was a queen bee judging by the size of the male who was attached to her!   She was also in the middle of the pavement, nothing wrong with either of them but this part of the pavement has heavy footfall seeing as it is opposite a high school.

My son was not sure what was going on and thought at first it was a wasp trying to eat the bee.  I put the mating couple on a leaf, a lot of buzzing but no flying was going on, and hid them behind a bush stump in our neighbour's garden.

I checked on them on the way back from the school run and the little bee had gone and the Queen Bee flew off, as I disturbed the leaf.

Friday was a normal day.

So there we have it, a week in the life of the school run!  I need to research supplies now so we are better equipped to rescue bees and move stag beetles!