Hairy Colletid Bee

I found this bee outside in my laundry basket. I took some photos of it against the white plastic and then placed it on a sage flower. It dived into the flower to sip the nectar and then rested on an empty calyx.

This is a New Zealand native solitary bee of the Leioproctus family. At 1cm in length it was a lot bigger than the usual solitary bees I see here.

The bee uses the hairy parts to collect pollen, which with nectar, is stored in each nursery chamber with a single egg. The burrows are in soil.

Porters Pass

I went to Porters Pass to look at the wildlife. There has been snow in the last couple of days, but it has melted quickly. The summer sun is hot when it shines.

The hillside above the pass

A Southern Tussock Grasshopper (I think)

Roadside plants

Coral Broom, Carmichaelia crassicaulis

Small Hover fly, Melanostoma fasciatum

Snowberry, Gaultheria sp.

White moss and lichen

Dracophyllum longifolium is the main plant in this area

Summer Snow

The first two days of summer have been cold, with two falls of snow on the mountains.

Mount Torlesse, the Rubicon Peak

Back Peak and Otarama

Castle Hill Peak and The Gap

More Snow!

Castle Hill Peak and The Gap

Evening Moonset

Crescent Moon Setting at 9.42 pm, November 24th 2014

Mayfly

Yesterday a mayfly came into the house and settled on a curtain.

This morning it shed its skin.

Now its wings are transparent.

Lake Lyndon

Lake Lyndon looking to the head of the lake

 All these shots were taken from The Great Alpine Highway, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Lake Lyndon, the west arm

Porters Skifield from Porters Pass

The old roadman's hut on the way up to Porters Pass

Second Snow of Autumn

Castle Hill Peak

Mount Torlesse

Back Peak and Otarama

The Ellerslie International Flower Show

A few things that caught my eye at the show.

Shadows

Stop the Clock, a sculpture by Jane Downes

A brilliant water feature

A bumblebee nest in a Perspex box

Green flowers on red stems

Porters Pass Fauna

The moon and mountain flax

Dark coloured cicada, the most common that I saw. It had a sharp intermittent call.

A brilliant green cicada that really stood out.

A green grasshopper

A well camouflaged grasshopper

A fine striped grasshopper

A hairy grasshopper

Orbweb spider

Another orbweb spider. Abdomen only. The thorax is tucked under.

Porters Pass

Porters Pass is on Highway 73, The Great Alpine Highway. The elevation is 1000 metres. These are some of the natives I found at the roadside.

Celmisia spectabilis, the cotton daisy

Acaena, bidibid. The blue scraps are fallen borage flowers.

Copper Butterfly. The blue on the upper wing suggests that it is a male boulder copper,  Boldenaria boldenarum

This is the rare coral broom, ‪Carmichaelia crassicaulis‬. Unfortunately I was too late to see the colour of the flowers. Here they are dying. The plant is enclosed for protection.

An unknown green beetle. It was about 10mm long

Harebells, Wahlenbergia albomarginata. Such tiny delicate plants growing on the bare ground exposed to all the elements.

White Gentian, Gentiana

Early This Morning

Mount Torlesse on an early summer morning

Dalethorp Road as the sun rises

Fledgling thrush that is still being fed by its parents, growing fat on my fruit

Wind in the Barley