Honey bees?

I think I might be lucky enough to be hosting a honey bee nest. I lifted the lid off the compost bin to empty the hoover and about six bees came flying out! I was Very Scared and threw the lid on and ran away. I've popped back out, which is how I got the photo, and I'm pretty sure they are honey bees. I rang some local beekeepers and they are talking amongst themselves about hopefully coming out to double check that is what I've got (and ideally if there is any chance they can adopt them).

If they are bees they should be safe to pass in and out of the house, obviously I don't want to disturb them, but I fear Jacob might be a bit unhappy about it. Really, I'm not too happy with the positioning myself, could be a bit farther away from the entrances to the house - I won't be able to open my kitchen window while they are there. But to have a bees nest, I haven't seen one of those in the garden since I had some bumble bees, so I'm very excited!

Feeding Garden Birds

I read recently that feeding wild bird seed in a mix wasn't a very good idea. There's a lot of waste, and some birds won't visit. So recently I invested in a few more feeders, and now I feed peanuts, peanut chunks, sunflower hearts and niger seed. Which is all I could find in the local shops.

I have had chaffinches visiting since I planted the teasal a few years ago, but I was really pleased to see a goldfinch a couple of days ago. I've also had some great tits as well. I think there have been other birds as well, that I would have called 'sparrows' without my binoculars, but I'm not confident enough to really try to identify them in public.

It's not a very good picture, but on the green feeder to the left is my goldfinch. There were two, but one flew off while I was getting my phone out. I think I will ask my son to leave his digital camera out, so I can try to get some better shots.

Tadpoles now have legs, but every time I try to take a photo Fred sticks his head in the pond and picks out all the plants.