Flycatchers and Flies

As most of you know, my walks are often coincide with wet weather, so it came as a nice surprise, when after a dull start to the day, the sun actually came out as I took a walk around Stanton Park.

Main highlight this afternoon was watching a pair of Spotted Flycatchers catching insects and then returning to their nest to feed the youngsters.

Other highlights were, unsurprisingly, were the number of flies about with Blue Bottles, Green Bottle, Flesh Flies, Golden Dung Flies, Sawflies, Drone Flies and lots of Snipe Flies.

Here are a few images from this afternoon:

Spotted Flycatcher

A Garden Warbler chasing flies......

........and then catching them in a more orthodox fashion, by working its way through the undergrowth and hedgerow.

A female Common Blue Damselfly. The only damselfly I came across today!

Mining bee - Andrena chrysosceles. I think

A Snipe Fly, Chrysopilus cristatus

This is a male and they were everywhere especially by the dipping pools.......

.......and here is the female.

  

Swollen-thighed Beetle and a micro moth sp.

Possibly a pair of Swollen-thighed Beetles. The males tend to be brighter and glossier than the females. Female on the left I believe.

Soldier Beetle, Cantharis pallida

Cantharis pallida tend to have orangey heads

A worker Early Bumblebee

Drone fly, Eristalis tenax

Marmalade hoverfly

Sawfly, Macrophya annulata

Long-jawed Orb-weaver Spider. This one is light brown, but the colour can range from creamy-yellow to green or pale brown.

Nursery Web Spider, usually found in nettles or other dense vegetation

Chicken of the Woods, also known as Sulphur Polypore, Laetiporus sulphureus

This one is growing on an Oak tree and is very fresh

Birds Recorded were: Mute Swan, Mallard, Moorhen, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Swallow, 2 Pied Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, 2 Reed Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 4 Blackcap, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Treecreeper, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Bullfinch and 1 male Reed Bunting.

Also: Blue Bottles, Green Bottle, Flesh Flies, Golden Dung Fly, Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum), Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis), Soldier Beetle (Cantharis pallida), Mining Bee (Andrena chrysosceles), Drone fly (Eristalis tenax),  Early bumblebee - worker (Bombus pratorum), Marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus), Sawfly (Macrophya annulata), Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis), and Long-jawed Orb-weaver Spider (Tetragnatha extensa)