Patch week 30

 Les and I found these small tortoiseshell catepillars on a walk around the greenway, I have not seen any of these since I was a boy.......................many years ago. Later in the day I came across a 'scold' of eight jays, seven more than I had seen on the patch all year and the largest group I had seen anywhere.

I sat in the garden watching the industry of these leaf cutter bees, they carried pieces of leaf and with surprising dexterity took them into their individual chambers ( there were at least five working) they then put a supply of pollen and an egg into the chamber and seal of the ends with multiple layers of leaf sections. The speed with which they returned each time with a new section of leaf was also impressive. Occasionally there would be a brief squabble amongst them and then they went straight back to their work.
I visited the Blue lagoon at about 0645  and for the second week running saw a juvenile common tern, but it did not stay long and flew away pausing only to take a pass at a hunting kestrel, I then watched the kestrel for a while and saw it try to catch a reed bunting but it gave up easily when then bunting fled for cover. A few moments later I was scanning the area with the scope and heard a rush of wings and looked up to see the kestrel 20 feet away on the cliff face, I'm not sure which of us was he more surprised.
all the pictures were taken with my iphone.
                                           Patch list 90 with common tern

Pictures from my week

                                         These little caterpillars were eating our rose leaves

                                             Purple hairstreak, taken at the lodge, Sandy

                                                                         froglet

                                                                         toadlet

        this is the same as the bottom picture, like a damselfly but appears to have four wings

                                                                  Spindle ermine

Blog news mid July

                                                                      Comma

                                                             Green veined white

                                                    Helicopter effect bumblebee

                                                                  Marbled white

                                                               Spotted longhorn

Just some of the insects seen recently on the patch, we counted thirteen different species of butterfly yesterday in a small area.

The following are some of the musings from my blog diary last Monday. The skyways were busy with a myriad of swallows witheir youngsters, a buzzard flew up from its post in the flooded meadow looking accusingly over its shoulder as if to say "no peace for the wicked".
A family group of long tailed tits foraged busily in a nearby hedgerow, one popped out three feet from my face, observed me casually and went on his way, typically I was cameraless. A blackcap caaled in a low tree above the tits and a youngster immediately went after it. A green woodpecker 'yaffled' from a nearby tree and soon after a great spotted wooodpecker drummed to declare his territory. A female kestrel watched below patiently for movement in the meadow. Pied wagtails chased insects frantically and comically, two wrens were singing close by to each other, a dunnock popped out of the hedge with a beak full of prey, normally what they pick up is very hard to see, a whitethroat called from behind the hedge and a yellowhammer was singing from the top of a tree -                                                                   magic moments.

Cavenham heath

I had a day out at Cavenham this week whilst Lesley was engrossed in Wimbledon and attached are the pictures I got there:-

                                        A comma butterfly posing on the slightly worn sign

                                                    An amazing headset on this moth

                                                Three poses by skipper butterflies

                                                                       The ringlet

                                              A really colourful caterpillar but as yet no I.D.

                                                            Roesel's bush cricket

                                                                Damselfly's mating

                                                               Common darter

 These pictures of a fifteen to eighteen inch adder that crawled up to my boot and then rapidly moved away into the grass when he realised what he had encountered

                                                       A really colourful tortoiseshell

Patch news

Strange noises from the garden last night revealed two hedgehogs getting to know each other in the biblical sense, a very noisy courtship. No new birds for the patch but some more insect pictures

                                           Sicus ferruginous, I have dubbed it the Pinnochio fly

                                                             Rosemary beetle

                                                            Meadow plant bug

                                                    What a pollenator this little fellow is

                                                                            Comma

                                                            Peacock caterpillars

                              The moth id's I am still working on...............................................

Week 24

An abbreviated patch report now it is Summer, two yellow wagtails around the flooded fields at Nortonbury were a nice surprise and a red kite was making lazy circles in the sky over the meadows. Star bird of the week was a purring turtle dove at the lagoon   Patch list 89

The following pictures were taken around the patch this week:-

A rich variety can be found around humble Letchworth Garden City