Butterfly Walk at Trumpington Meadows

Joined a butterfly walk at Trumpington Meadows, a Cambridgeshire  Wildlife Trust Reserve. We eventually found the three target species, the Small blue, Purple Hairstreak and White-Letter Hairstreak along with lots of other species. This Copper photo was my favourite along with the Small Blue. A small fly took my eye - Eliozeta pellucens - which looks to be quite rare in the area. Species iID list at the end.

Hollyhock Community

 It is strange how my favourite plants in the garden always seem to selfseed in the most inconvenient places - the only place that consistently has Hollyhocks is under the whirligig washing line and so is very inconvenient when hanging out clothes. However, having spent a short while studying the insects on the plants, I can't bring myself to pull them up so part of the drier will remain unused for a couple of months! Here some portraits and the ID sheet.

Close Encounters at Paxton Pits

Another 30 degree-plus day yesterday so an earlyish walk at Paxton. Common Darters certainly dominated the insect life and were very confiding allowing  close approach. Pleased to see a female Beewolf wasp in the area where they bred last year - probably too early in the day for them to have captured bees. Other models included a Bee-grabber Fly (Sicus ferruginous), Nettle Bug( Liocoris tripustulatus) and Kite-tailed Robberfly (Tolmerus atricapilus)

An Umbel Life

For the last three days, a large Hogweed flower in the garden has been providing food for a very large population of hoverflies, wasps and beetles, some very small like this Eumerus hoverfly treading on an even smaller Carpet beetle. (IDs on final image).