For many years blue tits have nested in a box close to our bedroom windows. The present box was new last year, after a woodpecker damaged the other and (we think) took the chicks. The blue tits happily adopted the new box, but this year they've been gazumped - by bees. These are tree bumble bees, a comparatively new species to Britain, first recorded in the UK in about 2003, and a natural arrival rather than an imported invader like the Asian hornet. They like to nest in holes in trees, so take readily to bird boxes, and I'd put a box where I thought they might like it, but no, they had to have this one instead. Tree bumble bees come in various sizes, depending on their role in the colony, but all have a grey abdomen with a black tip, and a fuzzy ginger thorax with a dark grey diamond on it. When our rambler rose is in bloom (not far off now), they will be there in numbers!
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