Signs of Autumn

The appearance of the Ivy bees in the garden, timed to coincide with the Ivy flowering, is a sign that autumn is approaching. Lots of insects yesterday both on the ivy flowers and on the nettles below where the nectar has dropped, even a very tatty Speckled Wood. The Kite-tailed Robberfly was finding plenty of prey. The final two images are of an extraordinary looking very small plant bug - both its nymphal stage and adult that was hiding in the grass at my feet.

Royston Heath Butterflies etc

We visited Royston Heath on the hottest day so far and the butterflies responded by flying around pretty freely though in small numbers compared to a 'normal' year. The Essex Skipper and Gatekeeper were in pristine condition but some of the others were fairly battered and the Marbled White had the worst infestation of mites I've seen. We finished the morning photographing these Kite-tailed Robber flies mating.