painted lady, silver y wing and juvenile spiders

I counted three Painted lady butterflies in the garden today.

You can see the proboscis of this one as it feeds. The butterflies were first seen in the front garden on the dog rose and then moved to the back garden feeding on the red Valerian and a white Hebe.
This one has piece missing from its wing.

Another spider ball, probably garden spiders, this time on the hydrangea

The wolf spider doesn't leave the survival of its brood to chance, the female carries the egg sac underneath her abdomen.

A perfectly camouflaged silver y wing moth.

This moth is another migrant from Europe although some may overwinter. This butterfly is very active at dusk and may be seen flying during the day.

Painted lady and mystery bird

The damselfly are emerging from the pond every day now. They climb up the stems of pond plant and then split out of their larval skin and climb up the stem to dry out before they are able to fly.
A painted lady butterfly visited the garden today.

When the wings are closed the painted ladies colouration was a perfect match of camouflage against stone slabs.


I looked into the distance and saw a sea gull mobbing another bird. This a behaviour that I observe from time to time when they dive bomb the sparrowhawks.

However, when I enlarged the picture I was unsure of the bird in question. It appears to be a bird of prey, any ideas? It looks a little bit like a red kite because of tail shape, redy/brown body and white underwing markings, but I may well be mistaken

swifts, house martin

The swifts are a delight to watch. They are nesting again under the eaves of our neighbours house. There appear to be 6 swifts visiting our neighbours house (there were three nests last year).

The swift is a superb flier and it even sleeps on the wing, high up in the sky! It is sooty brown colour, but in flight it appears black. The last couple of days they have been joined by a few house martins in the late evening. Swifts can be identified by their long, scythe-like wings and a short, forked tail.

Swifts are a summer visitor to the UK where it breeds It is most numerously in the south and east of the UK. Like the swallow and house martin, swifts spend the winter in Africa.

Early in the morning and towards dusk, the swifts scream low over our garden as they fly past our neighbours house. These screaming parties of swift career madly at high speed around rooftops and houses and streets. Our garden is higher than our neighbors and so they are very low when they fly across our garden. Their aerobatic skills are certainly a match for the red arrows!

Every now and then a swift will break away from the group and drop down, without making a sound and flying low it approaches our neighbours house and then flies up into the eaves.

Magpie eating a slowworm

I was attracted to movement on the roof of our neighbours garage. I was a magpie, soon joined by a second. It turned out that the magpie was eating a slowworm. I don't know if it was dead when the magpie found it or if it caught it alive.
The magpies do forage in the back alley, where I suspect the slowworm the cats catch also come from. Has anyone heard of magpie eating live slowworms. Magpies are of course part scavenger, but they are also opportunists.

Busy bees and baby spiders

With all the worry about declining bees I was pleased to see so much bee activity in my garden. Decline of bees is a real concern, particularly because of the important role as insect pollinators of both flowers and commercial crops.

Honey bee

Buff-tailed bumble bee, with visible pollen baskets on its legs

Red tailed bumble bee (these flowers seem to be most popular at the moment. Its interesting to see how the bee activity and species changes as different flowers come into season).

Buff-tailed bumble bee in the yellow flags on the edge of the pond. The anthers are in the top flap of the flower which rubs along the bees back as it enters the flower.

This is the first time I have noticed so many bees visit the yellow flags, hopefully not a sign that there are fewer flowers to visit locally. This picture gives the impression that the bees were so busy they were queuing up for the flowers (of course this was not really the case).

A large colony of tiny spiders on our front gate, that had recently hatched nearby. It these first few days, when disturbed they form a tight ball. They are probably juvenile garden spiders.

Emerging damselflies

I noticed 4 damselflies emerged from their larval stage today, three quite close together (see below)

The newly emerged damselflies rest and dry their wings. They really are quite striking.

At the bottom of the plant stem is the newly moulted skin from the damselfly larvae.

Several blackbirds were calling this afternoon from different directions. I know there are at least two nesting pairs nearby. The swifts are now evident most days screaming over head as they come to and from the nests in next doors eaves.

Great tit and juvenile slowworm

The great tit is still visiting the garden foraging for food.

A small flock of starlings landed for a frantic feed, on the small piece of lawn in the back garden. They probed the grass with their long beaks, pulling out grubs many of which feed on the roots of the grass beneath the soil.

One starling kept a close eye on its neighbour and every time it found a tasty morsel, this startling would dart in and try to steal it, albeit unsuccessfully. (Photos taken through kitchen window)

Later in the day I noticed a juvenile slowworm on the path just outside our front gate. I picked it up and moved it to the long grass just inside out garden.

I'm not sure where it came from as it a fair distance (for a slowworm) across path and road to get to any other cover.