New Shieldbug Species in Garden

It has been confirmed that what I thought was a Green Shieldbug coming out of its brown winter state, is the Gorse Shieldbug, Piezodorus lituratus. A couple of Box Bugs were active, along with lots of Bee Flies and a Carder bee, photographed with its proboscis deep in an Alkanet flower - the latter is an excellent insect plant, flowering early and attracting lots of bee species.

 

Garden Insects etc

Pleased to see a  Scarlet Tiger caterpillar in the garden today feeding on the comfrey - there were certainly a lot of adults on the wing in the garden last year. Otherwise my first Bee Flies and several species of 'bees', one or two identifiable including Nomada parasitic species.

Partial Eclipse

There was quite a lot of high cloud around for today's partial eclipse but this added to the atmosphere in many ways. It did make consistent exposure quite a challenge. Not a perfect sequence of stages as sometimes the cloud was too dense but enjoyed the challenge. I used a 10-stop ND filter 1/8000th at F22.

Work in Progress!!

We still have large numbers of Greenfinches and Goldfinches together with paired Blue and Great Tits visiting our garden feeders so I thought I would have a go at capturing them in flight. Not enough depth of field and/or shutterspeed and definitely need to get a better background!

More Garden Arrivals

The midday sunshine brought out a few more flies, bees etc in the garden.

Spiders and Bugs

The invertebrates are gradually appearing in the garden with the Spring sunshine. I was surprised by the presence of a False Widow Spider - on the NBN Atlas it is not recorded in our area though there are scattered records around Cambridge area. Lots of Nursery Web spiders and small green bugs. Not sure what is going on in the last image - an adult Dicyphus epilobii appears to be grooming/attacking a nymphal stage bug (?same species). I will post on a bug site and see what ideas come up

Cucumber Spider

This little spider was hiding in one of the seed heads that I cut down in the garden and made a perfect model to try out the 90mm Macro lens. Image 2 is a photostacked image, others are single shots. The only other 'model' I found was a Blowfly and demonstrates the incredible sharpness of the lens.

Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes)

I have seen both female (all black) and male (ginger with 'hairy' feet) Hairy-footed Flower Bees (Anthophora plumipes) busy in the garden on the Dead-nettles, Pulmonaria and Primroses today. I haven't been quick enough to photograph a female but here the male, with the feather-like hairs on their middle legs (“plumipes” means “feathered foot”). The females construct and provision  nest burrows in old walls etc. This bee has a characteristic darting and hovering flight plus a high-pitched 'buzz' which contrasts with the ‘booming’ buzz of a bumblebee. Males patrol areas in search for mates and hover behind females to then ‘pounce’ and attempt to mate. The male’s feathery leg hairs are displayed during mating.

Garden Waterlife

I have various containers of water in the garden - usually temporary for washing off any weed I am cleaning out from the pond so I don't destroy any water creatures sheltering in the excess weed. I thought I would see what had washed off from a previous pond session and delighted to discover this larval Cloeon dipterum larva (the Pond Olive) which correlates well with the adult photographed near the pond last year. 

Spring Markers 2025

 As today is officially (according to some!) the first day of Spring, I did my usual recording of what is in flower. There seem less species around - perhaps as a result of the very dry summer. Violets and celandine are two species that have declined and are certainly woodland 'cool/wet' species. The Kingcups, Comfrey and Ground Ivy are not yet showing buds. (2024 comparison Ann Miles Blog: Spring Markers 2024)

 Many thanks to Ann, Mike, Carina and Stephen for coming over from Paxton to clear some of last year's dead stalks and leaves from the garden  and give the pond its annual rake out. Frustrating to have to watch but I certainly don't want to end up delaying my recovery from surgery.