Local round-up...

Apologies for not having posted much recently. Work has overtaken me somewhat and I've been a tad busier than usual. Thanks then to Dave Helliar for keeping the news coming in including the following photos taken around the local area during the last couple of weeks:

Migrant Hawker, Chard: D. Helliar

Worn Chalkhill Blue, Portland: D. Helliar

Misumena vatia with prey, Chard, D. Helliar

Great White Egret having a stand-off with a
Little Egret, Seaton: D. Helliar

Looks like the GWE has the upper hand

GWE, Grey Heron and Little Egret, Seaton: D. Helliar

Osprey, Seaton: D. Helliar

Wheatear, Seaton: D. Helliar

Young wren soaking up the sun, Chard: D. Helliar

Hope to be posting more in the coming weeks.

Butterflies galore!

In the last week or so there has been an amazing eruption of butterflies. Small tortoiseshells in particular are out in their thousands! Thanks to Dave Helliar for sending through a selection seen this week on his travels around Dorset...

Grayling: D. Helliar

Clouded Yellow: D. Helliar

Brimstone: D. Helliar

Brown Hairstreak: D. Helliar

Brown Hairstreak, male: D. Helliar

Brown Hairstreak, starting to look a bit worn: D. Helliar

Check out the small tortoiseshells! 

Hundreds of them!

And to round it off Dave found small red-eyed damselfly at a new site near Chard too:

Small red-eyed damselfly: D. Helliar

Southern Hawker: D. Helliar

Pacific Golden Plover...

Andy Grinter managed to get up country at the weekend to see this lovely adult Pacific Golden Plover at Draycott Bassett Pits in Staffordshire. Although it was clearly distant, you can certainly see what it is:

Pacific Golden Plover: Andy Grinter

Pacific Golden Plover: Andy Grinter

Signs of Autumn...

Many thanks to Dave Helliar for supplying images he's taken over the last couple of weeks around the local area. The first wood sandpiper of the year (and stunning pics they are too), a sure sign that things are on the move and autumn passage has begun...but summer hasn't finished yet,  here are a few insects from Dave's garden in Chard - all taken on a bridge camera:

Myathropa florea: D. Heliar

Megachile centuncularis: D. Helliar

Syrphus ribesii: D. Helliar

Syrphus ribesii: D. Helliar

Eristalis arbustorum: D. Helliar

Sphaerophoria sp: D. Helliar

Melanostoma scalare: D. Helliar

Red-tailed bumblebee: D. Helliar

Common Blue: D. Helliar

Clouded Yellow, Lower Bruckland Ponds : D. Helliar

Small red-eyed damselfly, Lower Bruckland Ponds: D. Helliar

Hobby: D. Helliar

Juvenile Little Ringed Plover: D. Helliar

Adult LRP: D. Helliar

and saving the best 'til last:

Great White Egret: D. Helliar

Wood Sandpiper: D. Helliar

Wood Sandpiper: D. Helliar

Wood Sandpiper: D. Helliar

Wood Sandpiper: D. Helliar

Wood Sandpiper: D. Helliar

Wood Sandpiper: D. Helliar

Kingfisher: D. Helliar

Kingfisher: D. Helliar

Kingfisher: D. Helliar

Kingfisher: D. Helliar

I'm sure you'll agree, a fantastic set of images!

New for the patch...

It's not often I see anything new on my patch. After all, it's just a small patchwork of intensively farmed agricultural fields that are sprayed to death and devoid of many common plants and insects. So when I had three new insects on the patch in the last 10 days, it was something of a miracle!

Aeshna mixta: R. Harris

Aeshna mixta: R. Harris

Wall butterfly: R. Harris

Sympetrum striolatum: R. Harris

Sympetrum striolatum: R. Harris

Not new to patch but a few very large Araneus diadematus now around:

Araneus diadematus: R. Harris

Araneus diadematus: R. Harris
A face only a mother could love!