Insects abound

My herb bed has finished being edible for the year and is flowering like crazy - of particular attraction to legions of hoverflies and hordes of Tachina Fera is the mint. The mint is nice to eat for about a month in late spring, then it bolts and goes to seed, or flower, or whatever. Given mint is so easy to grow I could rip it up and do something else with the space but it is good for the bugs and then it saves me replanting it in the spring.

Tachina fera on mint

I also planted some kind of sunflower as it said it was good for bees and butterflies - tithionia is the latin name. So far it is living up to its billing and there are loads of things on it, including ants for some reason. Anyway, I dusted off the macro lens and took a few photos. Very hard work, birds are a lot easier!

Honeybee - not as common as they used to be

I think this is Myathropa florea, or the Common Batman Hoverfly