Beamish Hall & Black Plantation

 Coffee and scone in the Coach House at Beamish with some friends then a walk around the grounds. The pond held a nice surprise in the form of a distant male Broad-bodied Chaser. A few other water bourn insects were also on the pond. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get any images of the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary butterflies at Black Plantation as not one of them would settle. I did however get a Golden-ringed Dragonfly (thanks Brian for the info).

Broad-bodied Chaser.

Common Pond Skater.

Whirligig Beetle.

Backswimmer.

Golden-ringed Dragonfly.

Large Skipper Butterfly.

Plant Bug.

Hoverfly hovering.

Bloch-winged Hoverfly hovering?

Common Yellow Sally.

Sawfly.

Isle of Mull part six

 One thing I was surprised at while we travelled around Mull was the lack of insects including butterflies and dragonflies. When we have been there in other years there seemed to be loads flying around this year was totally different. I always mention my attempts to identify insects etc. please correct me if I have anything wrong.

Male Golden-ringed Dragonfly.

I think it was having a Common Darter for lunch.

Common Darter.

I’m still none the wiser about Bumblebees despite looking in several books.

A Bee Mimic Volucella bombylans.

Nicrophorus Sp. of Burying/Carrion beetle.

Clouded-bordered Brindle moth.

Dark Giant Horsefly (Tabanus sudeticus) this thing was about an inch long.

Gorse Shieldbug.

Geometridae Sp. of moth.

I think this is another (more worn) Clouded-bordered Brindle moth.

Dark Green Fritillary butterfly.

Transparent Burnet moth.

This is the longest Grasshopper I have ever seen it was over an inch long.

Another Geometridae Sp. of moth.

Another Dark Giant Horsefly I think they just liked the colour of my car as this one and the one above were on the car while we were parked in different places. 

Sericomyia silentis Hoverfly.

Red-legged/Forest Shieldbug.

Eristalis Sp. Hoverfly

Another Sericomyia silentis Hoverfly.

Female Golden-ringed Dragonfly posing for me.

Female Common Darter.

A Diving Beetle (could be Agabus striolatus).

Durham Moors part two

 Here is some of the other wildlife we saw on the moors last weekend. And just as a matter of interest, this is the last Blog done on this computer as I have a nice shiny new one in a box that I am just about to open. I only hope when I plug my external hard drives in I don’t loose all of my images, wish me luck.

After seeing the adult Wheatear in the spring, it was nice to see the young ones doing well.

My immediate thought for this bird was a young Willow Warbler but now?

As it was for this one.

I was struck by the size of this Pipits feet.

This Common Sandpiper sat on this post long enough for me to rattle off a few shots.

I think the heat was getting to this Pied Wagtail

I wasn’t expecting to see Golden-ringed Dragonfly but both male and female were patrolling along the stream. 

Another bonus was seeing a good number of Dark Green Fritillary butterflies

An Antler Moth was also feeding on the thistles.