Andrena cineraria. Females create nests underground by excavating burrows in bare/sparsely vegetated earth often in sandy soils, so the acid grasslands at Crouch End Hill is a good place to find one. They feed from a wide variety of spring flowers and shrubs, including buttercups, hawthorn, blackthorn, gorse and fruit trees. Photo Tristan Bantock
Banded General, Stratiomys potamida. Soldier flies get their name from their bold and bright colours and markings. This one looking like a very flat wasp. Often seen feeding on umbellifers and Bramble in wet areas. Larvae are amphibious, feeding in ponds and ditches.
Batman Hoverfly, Myathropa florea. This hoverfly has bold yellow and black markings and gets its common name from the dark outline on the thorax which resembles the famous batman symbol.
Bindweed, Convolvulaceae. With its beautiful white trumpet head this is one of those plants that gardeners love to see, as long as it’s not in their garden. Its brittle perennial root system means that it can regrow from even the tiniest of cuttings and its vigorous growth can suffocate many plants.Photo: Stephen Middleton
Birdsfoot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus. A member of the pea family. Its three yellow petal flowers appear in small clusters. They are followed by seed pods that look distinctly like bird’s feet or claws. It’s an important food plant for the caterpillars of the common blue, silver-studded blue and wood white butterflies and when there was more grassland on Parkland Walk it […]
Bittersweet nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. Purple flowers with yellow stamens give way to bright red berries, edible for some birds, which disperse the seeds widely, but the berry is poisonous to humans and livestock. WT
Black and yellow longhorn beetle, Rutpela maculata. These beetles are usually found in areas close to woodland, where there is plenty of dead wood for their larvae to feed on. They have long antennae but no horns! Females lay their eggs on fallen trees and branches, or rotting stumps. The larvae live within the wood, feeding on it, for two […]
Black-headed Cardinal Beetle, Pyrochroa coccinea, Adults are short-lived and have a brief season, usually appearing in April and often seen under loose bark. Their red colouring, often a sign of toxicity, puts off other insects from predating on them.
Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla. A distinctive greyish warbler, the male has a black cap, and the female a chestnut one. Its delightful fluting song has earned it the name ‘northern nightingale’. Although primarily a summer visitor birds from Germany and north-east Europe are increasingly spending the winter in the UK. They eat insects and berries. Photo: © Kevin B Agar
Bladder campion, Silene vulgaris. Bladder campion has large, bladder-shaped swellings behind its white, five-petalled flowers. Flowers May to September. It is categorised by the Royal Horticultural as ‘Perfect for pollinators’. WT
