Frensham Little Pond

We visited Fensham Little Pond on a warm morning hoping to see lots of Dragonflies - there were certainly many more around than we had seen previously - Black-tailed Skimmers (male and female), Beautiful Demoiselles (female with 'bombing' male, male),and Broad-bodied Chaser (female). The supporting cast included Reed Bunting, various flies, beetle and bugs.

Orchids and Their Pollination

The meadows here in Hampshire are full of Common Spotted Orchids often with some Pyramidal Orchids. As with many other flowers, they rely on insects for pollination but they have a trick to try and ensure that this is more successful. They hold their pollen in aggregates called pollinia connected to elongate stipes. These are attached to the flower by a sticky viscidium. When certaininsects such as Bees visit the flower they stick to the head or tongue and are then trnasported to the next flower it visits. The club-shaped pollinia are clearly visible in the photos or the Red-Tailed Bumble Bee.

Wildlife at Uppark Meadows

 On Sunday we visited Uppark, a National Trust Site near Petersfield. The house has very restricted visiting but the grounds are wonderful with formal gardens and meadows. The weather improved during our visit and we found lots of macro subjects to exercise our cameras. The first image is of a Robber fly attacking and eating an ichneumon wasp.

Visit to Petworth House, National Trust

 As yesterday was rain fron dawn to dusk, we decided a visit to Petworth House was the best option. A remarkable collection of artwork and treasures including the world's oldest globe from 1598 when Sir Walter Raleigh collaborated in its design. The carved room with the portrait of Henry VIIIth by Holbein studio and wood carvings by Gibbons is remarkable in its state of preservation.

Petworth House was owned during the Middle Ages by the Percy family, Earls of Northumberland. In 1682 the 10th Earl’s only child, Elizabeth, married Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset; her inherited wealth allowed the couple to set about remodelling the house in a French baroque style.  Some of the foremost craftsmen of the day decorated the house, including the wood-carver Grinling Gibbons and the plasterer Edward Goudge.  The park, with its serpentine lake, is the work of ‘Capability’ Brown and is arguably his finest remaining landscape. It houses one of the greatest picture collections in the Trust - includes works by Titian, Bosch, Claude, Ruisdael, Teniers, Van Dyck, Lely, Kneller, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Blake - and a magnificent collection of landscapes by Turner (a friend of the 3rd Earl of Egremont, whose collection of early 19th century British paintings is displayed in the North Gallery). 

After the Rain

I explored the local meadow again early yesterday morning after the rain had stopped. Many of the insects were covered in water or their fur waterlogged like the bees. Only the slugs and spiders appeared oblivious of the conditions and continued to feed.