Migration of the Painted Lady

Short Tailed Vole

Its been a lovely 24 hours in the garden, I've taken so many photographs its hard to pick just a few to post. It started last night with a visit from a short tailed vole who kindly let me take a very quick photo before he scurried off back into the deep grass. Then all last night the owls were calling, one Barn and two Tawny's, not managed any photo's of them yet though.

Then this morning the cuckoo was about and I managed to get this shot of him chasing his lunch. He's stayed around all day again too.

Then this afternoon I went out with the macro lens to see what was about in the garden. Again I found so many little bugs and can still only name a few. The one that did fool me was this fellow. I was convinced it was a Buff Tailed Bumble Bee, totally convinced. But then Malcolm from the bug club told me it was actually a bee mimic. Officially called a Merodon equestris (Greater Bulb-fly), its really a Hoverfly. It only has one set of wings, which I really should have noticed and Bee's always have two. So I've learnt something new again today.

Then I spotted these two very colourful and 'friendly' beetles. They look like some sort of Soldier Beetle but I've still to look them up in my books. Being that colour they should be easy to spot.

A few days ago my friend in Ipswich texted to say they were inundated with Painted Lady butterflies over there. Thousands of them but up here we'd not seen one. That was until this afternoon and I witnessed such a wonderful spectacle as they started to arrive literally on the wind. Very few landed but hundreds flew over the hillside and down the valley. I wonder where they are heading? They weren't stopping to feed so taking a photo was really difficult. I did manage to catch this guy though as he took a 2 second breather.

Oh I have to include this photo as it is the only new insect I've managed to correctly identify in last few days, its a Elachista Argentella. Another tiny little moth that likes being out in the daytime.

Must be dinner time, my belly's rumbling :-)