Buglife in Toft Garden

The warmish but very humid weather over the last few days has brought out a wonderful selection of weird bugs both in the scientific use of the word (the Red Bug first and later stages, Hairy Bug) and wider for all the rest of my tiny friends. Great to see two species of Weevils on the Hollyhocks, and plenty of interesting flies around the pond and on the daisies with bees and the Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp. 

Juniper Hall Final Morning

 A bit out of sequence but this post completes the record of what we photographed on the RPSNature Residential Weekend at Juniper Hall in Surrey and a very handsome collection of insects they are either from the moth traps of the vegetation in that area..

Week 10 2026 Butterfly Survey Trumpington Meadows

 Fortunately the weather (17 degrees, 50% to full sun) was much better than forecast and the butterflies were on the wing. Here distant shots of some of out finds to help me confirm IDs. Delighted to see our first Marbled White, lots of Painted Ladies and the first Ringlet (not photographed), Red Admiral, Small White, Common Blue, Comma and Meadow Brown,,  Only single Bee and Common Spotted Orchids found - hopefully there will be more with the recent rain. The Vestal Cuckoo bee and Mother Shipton Moth were nice additions to the collection 

Infrared Images from Juniper Hall Trip

Images  taken with a Sony RX100 compact camera converted to record infrared light. The first images were taken early in the morning on one of the moth trapping sessions; the others later in the day around Juniper Hall with its wonderful gardens complete with lots of different habitats (as you would expect from a Field Studies Centre!!).

Thursley Unusual Flora

Unfortunately I didn't take a macro or wide angle lens to Thursley not anticipating such interesting plants including large areas of Sundew complete with a trapped beetle and Lesser Bladderwort, another carnivorous plant, in some ditches. There were many areas of Marsh orchids, Crossleaved Heath (with mystery growths). Mosses and Royal Ferns plus Bracken