www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

A new garden tick for me today, was working in the garden for a change but it was short lived. hissing sid .. an evil snake thankfully it was very very docile, well practically not moving in the shade. so it was put into bucket and walked to the herpetological trust reserve 3 minutes away from the back gate. a friend ( his first "wild " adder) and i who both share an appreciation for nature sat and watched it warm up and slither away. not everybodies cup of tea i know but it certainly felt an honour to meet this creature. one of those "wow" moments. the rest of the day was an anti climax after that. Even the first holly blue.

Awesome!

Did you say 'have no fear, for I alone shall volunteer!'

more like follow me and ran head first into tree. glad to know i'm not the only beaky fan

Lucky you, I have been all over Norfolk in past 3 weeks during suitable weather looking in well known spots for them & not seen any. Plenty of people tell me they have seen them but unfortunately not me! Eric

Hi Eric, i do think myself lucky. it's only my 2nd in 42 years. ( first at Goonhilly in the middle of the road, was most impressed the bus driver stopped and moved it)
here's just a short bit of film upon it's release.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbCcexyFGfo[/video]

ChrisC wrote:more like follow me and ran head first into tree. glad to know i'm not the only beaky fan

There is a difference between being aware and being a fan.

The chiffchaff was back last weekend quite a tame little thing until i get the camera out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JwBs2R_RJ4[/video] blink and you'll miss it.
It was when i made this that i saw the giant silver reflective LUMIX on the front of the camera shine back at me from the window, no wonder things aren't keeping still, it'll be interesting to see if black tape or marker pen will make a difference.

Found an expired dotted bee-fly in the garden which is nice to know they are around. And a new plant in the front lawn. it has the smallest flowers i have seen 2-3 mm. Changing forget me knot. turns yellow to blue.

well i pretty much spent the afternoon taking pics in the garden today ended up being about 430 photos (got to love digital) most of which were trying to get a hover fly in flight even after all that though this was the best i got so for now i think i'll call it a day trying that one. 3 first for the year for the garden
14 spot ladybird (or i call them the smiler), Bush cricket nymph, ( i never knew they had Anntennae that long) and saw this Large red take it's maiden flight from the pond And last but by no means least I even managed just the one butterfly Various other weevils and spiders but really just having a good time being out watching it all go on.

well i do like to set myself a challenge, and tonights while i was out in the garden with the moth light, was to get a pic of a bat, i know i had no hope getting it focused or anything but just to get one in frame would be an acheivement for me. in amoung the 80 odd pics ( many just of a black sky) i managed a few very very blurry ones. there were a couple of near misses. but was really chuffed with this blurry one. which is a crop from this one. it looks like a lot of sky to try and catch them in but i know i didn't find it easy nigh on impossible with any zoom. no doubt my camera settings were all wrong but I had fun I even caught 13 species of moth which considering the conditions wasn't too bad. this one while the moths are few and far between i may try again.

The one with the bat in the middle of the picture looks quite eerie. You can clearly see the bones through the wings.

Indeed, it looks like half photo, half x-ray!

Martin Down at midday today and Grizzled skipper, small copper, various whites, orange tip, Brimstone, peacock, red admiral, speckled wood all too flighty for any decent photos. so came back to the garden. sitting minding my own business when a beautiful damsel. . . ok ok demoiselle paid the garden a visit. allowed me some lovely close up views, shame i'm a naff photographer and couldn't make the most of it. here's how intimate we got Then a game of hide and seek out the back gate with a common heath moth, led me to bump into these 2 playful beetles giving each other piggy back even the legs and antennae are colourful.

really just a day of brief encounters, but each one as enchanting as the next.

Oh My God. in 42 years i have never ever seen such an abundance of insects as i did this morning. i went to a local wood to see the bluebells at some points there was a constant buzz in the air, Phenomenal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFYL-grnao[/video]

after reading sussex kippers 100's of longhorns there were groups like this must be in the 1000's around some of the trees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQgDrIq4QX8[/video]

even down at eye level
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g9Cnf0xciE[/video]

Bearing in mind that this was all going on at just gone 9am this morning (only 1 speckled wood and one Brimstone seen on the way back to the car). the weekend just gets better and better

after another good day out at the workshop, i came home and checked my email to find that my record of the spider Philodromus margaritatus was agreed. only the 42nd british record since 1890. found in the garden too. so i was very pleased with that to say the least. all in all a very good day.
and here it is.

You haven't gone over it with the roller while decorating, have you?

Congratulations, that's a great find!

ChrisC wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g9Cnf0xciE[/video]

Seems like some moth of Adelidae for me (Adela reaumurella?)

ChrisC wrote:after another good day out at the workshop, i came home and checked my email to find that my record of the spider Philodromus margaritatus was agreed. only the 42nd british record since 1890. found in the garden too. so i was very pleased with that to say the least. all in all a very good day.

Nice one Chris!

Are they here but rare, in small numbers and remain undetected, or do they somehow travel here?

Cheers

Lee

thanks for looking guys. to answer your question Lee, i have no clue i have had others in the garden just as "rare" now that the distribution maps are online. as with everything it can depend on how many recorders are there are out there. many other groups are unrecorded, sawflies, tachinids, ichneumons etc. but as digital cameras and internet access have become household items the more records are coming in. it wasn't until i found my first white crab spider (misumena vatia) in the garden that i really got interested. and then when i did start looking they are more common than i ever knew.

so with my new lens for butterflies on order i carried on having fun with the macro lenses.
and the first time i have seen mites on a damsel unfortunately i only noticed as i was putting the pic in the recycle bin,

I think that's the scariest set of images I've ever seen! (shudder)

scary? i thought theay were quite cute i do have some that i wouldn't like to meet in a dark alley.
nursery web (pisaura mirabilis)