Hoppers and Crickets

What's lovely about looking at the sightings and lovely photos on the Swindon Birds and Wildlife  Blog is that you get to hear about the lovely places there are to visit within a 10 mile radius of Swindon. So today I spent a wonderful hour in the fields at Wanborough Here. after reading about Martyn Jelley's visits there recently.

There were a few birds about with Red Kite, Wood Pigeon, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Robin, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit,
Treecreeper, Wren, Magpie and Goldfinch.

Butterflies seen: Large Whites, Small Whites, Green-veined Whites, 6 Small Skippers, dozens of Meadow Browns and 2 Gatekeepers.

Also: 1 Roesel's Bush Cricket (Metrioptera roeselii), Common Green Grasshopper (Omocestus viridulus), Meadow Grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus), lots of Green Leaf-hopper (Cicadella viridis), Hogweed Bonking Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva), Common Blue Damselflies, Southern Hawker and Greater Water Boatman (Notonecta glauca)

Here are a few photographs of what I found:

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Meadow Brown

Small Skipper

Small Skipper

Ringlet

Common Green and Meadow Grasshoppers on a mole hill. It wasn't just this molehill either, as others were providing heat! for many more grasshoppers.

Common Green and Meadow Grasshoppers

Roesel's Bush Cricket

Roesel's Bush Cricket

Green Leaf-hopper

Hogweed Bonking Beetles

Greater Water Boatman

Common Blue Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly