Ted's First Walk

Today, Dawn and I took Ted out for his first walk without a lead and I must admit he was very well-behaved for a 3 month old Bichon Maltese puppy. It was also a great opportunity to visit Stratton Wood and see if I could find some Marbled Whites, which I'm glad to say were about. Anyway less of the writing and a few photos of our walk.

Dawn, Benji and Ted

Freedom - Ted's off the lead and away..............

...............much to the annoyance of Benji who just wanted a chilled walk.

Wild flowers in abundance

Small Skipper

Small Skipper

Lots of Gatekeepers

Gatekeeper

Ringlet

Marbled White

Ringlet and Small skipper in flight and Hogweed Bonking Beetles on a thistle.

Hogweed Bonking Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) and pollen beetles sp. on an umbellifer.

Shaded Broad-bar moth

Apparently there are there are three main forms of the Harlequin - succinea, spectabilis and conspicua. And to make it even more interesting each of these three forms also have large amounts of variation within them. The species shown here is Harmonia axyridis spectabilis. More on Harlequins here.

Common Flesh Fly, Sarcophaga carnaria

Syrphus torvus hoverfly

Orchids sp.

And a slightly closer view.

Birds noted: Wood Pigeon, House Martin, Swallow, Dunnock, Robin, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Greenfinch.

Butterflies, Moths, other insects noted:

Butterflies: Dozens of Ringlets, Large Whites, Gatekeepers and skippers. Also seen 4 Marbled Whites, a few Meadow Browns and a couple Small Tortoiseshells.

Moth: Shaded Broad-bar moth

Other insects seen were: Hogweed Bonking Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva), Harlequin (Harmonia axyridis spectabilis), hundreds of pollen beetles (species unknown), Red-tailed Bumblebees, White-tailed Bumblebees, Honeybees, Flesh Fly and Hoverfly (Syrphus torvus),  (Martin Adlam)

It's Back

For the third year running a Hummingbird Hawk-moth has visited the Buddleia in the back garden. However this is the earliest one to have been recorded, with September being the favoured month from the last two years. The Buddleia was also swarming with bees, hoverflies, 6 Small Tortoiseshells, 1 Red Admiral, 2 Large White and a nice surprise a Meadow Brown.

As I turned away from the Buddleia a huge spider caught my eye as it ran up the wall of the house. You couldn't really miss it as it was a good 3" in length and it turns out it could be either Tegenaria saeva (usually known as Tegenaria atrica) or Tegenaria gigantea (also referred to as Tegenaria duellica).

Here are a few images from today:

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

Large White

Giant House Spider

Busy Bees

Months back, Dawn bought me a bamboo bee house from Aldi and up until today it's been uninhabited. Not anymore as a colony of Leaf Cutter bees (Megachile sp.) have taken it over.

Nestled between a thornless Bramble, climbing Rose, Burberry, Pyracantha and Purple Loosestrife the bamboo bee home is pretty well placed against the fence.

One of at least 5 bees using the bamboo.

There are certainly plenty of "homes" to choose from.

And some are worth investigating.

The choice is endless.

One of the bees emerging having taken a a leaf in.

and then returning again with more bits of leaf.

Others came to look and were checking out new homes.

Some of which were.........

...........already taken.

Another homes in. 

And this one has its eye on a nice bamboo...

....right next to a sealed one.

The rose leaf in the middle is about to be cut.

And within.........

.........under 4 seconds.......

.......their was a chunk missing.

It certainly didn't need to travel far for leaf parts.

And having placed the leaf deep inside the nest, it reappears with a bit still in its mandibles.

It isn't rose leaves, this a leaf of a Purple Loosestrife with two cuts in it another behind.

And a rose leaf  with 3 or 4 bits missing. 

And a close-up of a sealed nest.

More Leaf Cutter Bees Here.