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)