Quite a large, fat, hoverfly with lots of short bright yellow hair.
Author: Dave
Female migrant hawker
Female migrant hawker
This lovely dragonfly was sunning itself in the hedge between Big Meadow and Grammar School Field mid afternoon today.
Highlights of the week
Lots of butterflies out in the sun. On Tuesday we saw a gatekeeper at ‘Thistle Corner’ on the Pony Wood path, commas, a peacock, and lots of whites as we progressed round the wood; speckled woods in the Orchard; small skippers in West Field and the Hay Meadow, plus meadow browns of course. We also saw a smallish dragonfly in the woodland extension, too distant to identify, and the marmalade hoverfly photographed below. A jay was squeaking like a monkey in the wood.
Today more gatekeepers at Thistle Corner, plus the one photographed below in the hedge between Big Meadow and School Pond. A greenfinch was calling noisily near the gates between Big Meadow and Grammar School Field.
Elephant hawk moth and another giant horsefly?
This magnificent but slightly damaged moth was hiding in the thistles alongside the path to the east of Pony Wood.
The fat wasp looking thing was on the fence near the Cromwell Rd entrance to Fauna. Is it a lighter giant horsefly?
Stoat and comma
Yesterday afternoon from the triple gates we saw a stoat jumping around in the edge of the stubble in Flora Field, before running off along the edge of the wildflower margin on the Pony Wood side. A little further on on the Pads a Comma was enjoying the sunshine.
More butterflies
Lots of whites flying in the wetter areas of the meadows today, and this Green Veined White was enjoying bramble flowers next to the Fauna path. Also spotted were Meadow Browns, a Gatekeeper preferring bindweed at the south end of the orchard, and Speckled Woods.
Dragonflies
Dragonfly paradise in the reserve today with at least three species around Alder Pond, where we watched one pair dipping tails into the water laying eggs continually for ten minutes or so. In the orchard a Common Darter took a rest on a bench long enough to be photographed.
Common Darter
Small skipper
In the Flora Field margin, today.
Meadow brown
One of many in the hay meadow today.
