My good deed for the day

Rescuing a green-veined white from the pond. Found some thyme flowers for it to fuel up with and put it in the sun to warm.

Insects are out and about!

Small Copper

Brown Argus

Brown Argus

Common Blue

Orange-tip

Green-veined White

Four-spotted Chaser

Azure Damselfly

Large Red Damselfly

Large Red Damselfly

not sure about this one...

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Creepy-crawlies

A pretty lady Meadow Brown

A dull male Meadow Brown

Green-veined White

Something clever seems to have constructed a tent from leaves and silk. Spider expert Ian Dawson tells me it's 'a web of the Nursery Web Spider Pisaura mirabilis.

'She carries her eggsac around in her jaws until ready to hatch when she attaches the eggsac to some vegetation and spins a protective silken tent over it. She normally stands guard until the young spiderlings hatch. These stay within the protection of the tent for a few days until their first moult when they disperse.

'A widespread and common spider. You often see them basking in the sun on leaves low down in early summer.including in the Lodge main border.'

The aptly-named Large Black Slug

Fly inside Bindweed

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, or Canon Powershot A640

The Lodge

I went to The Lodge this morning to do some recceing for the Beds bird race team. I failed on that front, but had some photographic successes.

Birds. Yes, I photographed some birds!

Here's one that fledged earlier: baby Blackbird

Another delivery of still-wriggling caterpillars on its way to a Robin nest near you

A tiny Grass Snake swimming in one of the ponds. Whether it was after insects or newts (both plentiful, I'm not sure)

Odonata. Yes, it's dragon- and damselfly time again.

Female (I think) Hairy Dragonfly

Zoomed-in, you can see the hairs

Large Red Damselflies: mating

and teneral (just-emerged)

Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)

Speckled Wood

Small Copper

Holly Blue (nectaring on holly, appropriately enough)

Green-veined White

Adela reamurella - weird, long-antennaed moths

And now for some leaves..

Rowan (I think)

Oak

Maple

Lime

Horse-chestnut

Bracken

Beech

Miscellaneous bugs:

Green Shield-bug

Bee-fly on bluebell

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Summer Leys LNR

Six-spot Burnet moth




Gatekeeper


Common Blue Damselfly


Blue-tailed Damselfly


Can't identify this skipper (butterfly) - need to look on the undersides of its antennae to decide whether it's a Small or an Essex!


Green-veined White


Tree Sparrow, part of the long-standing colony at this site

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995