My wife and I had a great day out at Gibside the other day with a walk along the avenue to the Octagonal Pond then down to the Dragonfly Pond. However, the day started with a walk around the Walled Garden. The gardeners have planted flower beds with wild flowers, some were just past their peak, but they were buzzing with bees and other insects it was fantastic to see so much wildlife, I could have stayed all day just in this garden. At the Octagonal and Dragonfly Ponds there were still good numbers of Dragonfly and a few Damselflies but not as many as I had hoped but, as I said, it was still a great day out. Any help with identification would be much appreciated.
I have never seen a Bee with a blue pollen sack.
White-tailed Bumblebee.
A Mining Bee?
Another Mining Bee?
Buff-tailed Bumblebee.
Hoverfly.
Tachinid Fly.
Red-legged Shieldbug.
Common Green Shieldbug.
Small Copper Butterfly.
A hitchhiker on the Small Copper.
Speckled Wood Butterfly. Still plenty of these around
I saw more of these than any other butterfly.
A Flesh Fly blowing bubbles.
Southern Hawker.
In flight.
Unfortunately, this female Southern Hawker has come to
her end after laying her eggs.
Trapped in a web an Emerald Damselfly has probably
come to its end too.
Migrant Hawker.
In flight.
Ruddy Darter?
Common Darter.
We went there late August on a gloriously sunny day (until we got to the dragonfly pond) and saw hardly a butterfly in the walled garden but it usually is a 'buzzing' place when in flower like you say. Am not much help with bees Ron, and can't be sure about the Ruddy Darter though it does look like one in the main, just the shape of the abdomen doesn't look quite right. And are you sure that's not a Migrant Hawker, can see yellowish on the costa as in Common which is strange, but other features point to migrant.
ReplyDeleteThe sun was behind the trees while we were at the Dragonfly Pond so it wasn’t great for photographing Dragonflies. I wasn’t sure about the Hawker because I could see Yellow on the costa as you pointed out so I ruled out Migrant but now I have had another look I can see it is possibly Migrant. I’m still not convinced the Darter is a Ruddy I’m now thinking Common. Thanks again.
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