It's A Bug's Life

 Today dawned sunny, calm and cool which soon turned into sunny, calm and warm - perfect for insects.

 

There were plenty of Common Blue butterflies and Common Blue damselflies along the south side of the Mere, and Brown Argus too. 

 

A good patch of brambles was where the action was though, starting with a hornet and what I thought was a hornet mimic (Hornet hoverfly) but turned out to be a wasp mimic instead.

Volucella inanis, Wasp Hoverfly (smaller than Hornet Hoverfly)

Volucella inanis x 2

My favourite hoverfly turned up too, showing its Batman insignia particularly well.

Batman hoverfly

Batman insignia detail

Batman was joined for a photo by a smaller hoverfly, a Common Flower Fly.

 

Common Flower Fly (Syrphus ribesii) and Batman hoverfly (Myathropa florea)

There weren't that many butterflies during my walk (a bit early in the day for some of them) so only nine species seen, but it was good to see two Holly Blues on the same bramble flower).

Holly Blues - a male and female

As above

Only three species of dragonfly today but plenty of them - Ruddy Darter, Common Darter and Migrant Hawker.

 

Ruddy Darter

Another Ruddy Darter

Common Darter

Migrant Hawker

As above

Further along, during my walk home, I was watching a Red Admiral basking in the sun and turned to leave when I saw a Common Darter on the next fence post. Just along from that was another Holly Blue, resting on the wire of the same fence. I tried several times to get a decent photo of them all together but I wasn't totally successful as you can see...

Holly Blue, Common Darter and Red Admiral

Here are photos taken of each one individually.

Holly Blue

Red Admiral

Common Darter

Also on the way home going past Weatherhill a beetle ran across the path:

Harpalus rufipes - Strawberry Seed beetle 

Apparently these beetles are used as a biological agent to control seed-eating pests such as aphids, although they feed on strawberry seeds themselves.

It's been a rather quiet week on the birding front but the sight of three Hobbies at the Mere yesterday was nice, as was the sight of a Kestrel sorting out a few Magpies that were harassing it. 

Kestrel v Magpie

I don't know why the Kestrel chose to stay on the ground when it could have easily flown off, as it eventually did. 

 

I'll finish with a few bird photos, none of which are particularly noteworthy, but what else am I going to do with them 😂😂😂😂

Jackdaw

Little Grebe by the north reed bed

Hobby over the north reed bed