Striped Insects on the Ivy

 The Hoverflies, Other flies, Wasps and even Moths were enjoying the nectar on the Ivy flowers today, and several spiders have already reduced the hundreds of Ivy bees that are out foraging in the garden amd village

Macro at Paxton

 Yesterday we had a Macro day at Paxton for Volunteers and were lucky with the weather - mainly bright and not too windy especially in the morning. Several wasp Spiders located - this one has a Dark Bush Cricket prey. Other favourites were the Vapourer moth caterpillar, the Green Leaf Hopper and the various stages of the Dock Bug. Large numbers of Migrant Hawkers on the wing and pleased to photograph for the first time a Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Life in Miniature in the Garden

I decided last week to do a bit of sweep netting on the cut meadow and margins to see what lives at ground level. Before I started the sweep my eye was taken by this very small Pond Olive with spectacular eyes, a relative of the Mayfly. The Leaf Hopper is a miniature version of the Common Leafhopper

September Survey, Paxton Pits 1. The Gully

Yesterday was our final survey for the year at Paxton Pits and we split this between a gravel area with a strip of reeds along the centre, known as the Gully and another gravel area. The sun was slow to come out but it was warmer than recently and plenty of insects etc to record.

Garden Insects etc as 'Autumn' Starts

Most of my rose bushes, especially the wild dog rose shoots, are full of Sawfly larvae now able to thrive as the various tits and other small birds have fledged. Here two different species. Yesterday was a mix of sun and showers gradually getting warmer throughout the day - ideal for insect hunting and for cleaning mouthparts as this Rhingia campestris shows - amazing how it can fold that back into the rostrum. Still trying to get that 'perfect' flower spider image