Causey Woods.

 I have just got back home from a week’s holiday in Scotland (I still haven’t gone through the thousands of pictures I took but when I have, I will post them on the Blog) so I’m even further behind than I was.

I had a walk through the Causey Woods at the beginning of this month looking for Dipper and I was in luck I found a pair of adults with two young chicks and when they weren’t being disturbed by dogs and small children in the water, they posed well for me.

One of the adult Dipper.

The adult bird watched this Mayfly as it flew past but didn’t try to catch it.

One of the young Dipper.

Grey Wagtail.

I also managed a couple of images of a female Broad-bodied Chaser.

Male Banded Demoiselle. 

Comma Butterfly.

Black Plantation

 My first visit of the year to Black Plantation primarily for the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary butterfly but in addition to that, it is always a pleasure seeing and photographing all the other insects that are there. 

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary photobombed by a Hoverfly.

When the sun came out the butterflies became more active.

However when it wasn’t sunny they liked to rest on the moss.

Male Large Skipper.

I might not have found many Shieldbugs lately but I am finding loads of Micro Moths. These are just a few of them. However, I have given up trying to identifying most of them individually as its just too much like hard work lol.

 I think this is Eulia ministrant.

Tortricidae Sp.

I think this could be Notocelia roborana

Tortricidae Sp.

Not sure what they are (could be Sawfly caterpillars) but I saw quite a few like these.

Volucella bombylans which is a Bumblebee Mimic Hoverfly

Helophilus Sp. of Hoverfly

Orange-horned Scabious Sawfly

Black-backed Sawfly

Green Sawfly

Froghopper

Longhorn Beetle

Great Pied Hoverfly

Rhingia Sp. of Hoverfly

Mayfly

Ichneumonidae Sp.

Yellow Dungfly

A few days ago…

 …I was at Twizell Woods and I was lucky enough to see an emerging Broad-bodied Chaser something I have not seen before.

Just emerging

The Broad-bodied Chaser took a while to fully emerge and unfortunately I missed it flying off 

Another just emerged Broad-bodied Chaser

This one landed right next to me.

Broad-bodied Chaser and Large Red Damselfly on the same leaf

Male Broad-bodied Chaser

Mating Large Red Damselflies

Mating Azure Damselflies

A Beetle in one of the ponds. It’s not a Great Diving Beetle so not sure what this species is or what it’s doing in the water.

This Diving Beetle larva was coming to the surface attached to what looks like a stick. It looked to be taking air from the surface through its rear end.

This Mayfly has Pondskaters all over it, as you can see nothing goes to waste.