Viper's Bugloss with Large Skipper

A new Adder

If you compare the back of this Adder's head with the one on the posts below, you will see it has a different pattern, especially obvious around the 'V' on the back of the neck. It was a darker individual than the previous male, looking particularly black on the zig-zags near the tail end.

Drones await the virgin queen Honeybee

Solstice snakes etc

We took advantage of a bit of sun to go out on 21 June in search of reptiles near Peterborough. We recorded: 2 Adders, 6 Grass Snakes, 7 Slowworms, 12 Common Lizards and some nice plants and insects. Here are some piccies.

Male Adder

Bee Orchid

Burnet Companion

Grass Snake which judging from its slightly misty eye is starting to think about sloughing

Grizzled Skipper

Slowworm

Bumblebee mimicking hoverfly, which I think is Volucella bombylans

Little Egret, Frampton Marsh RSPB

Frampton Marsh RSPB is a little like walking around a North American reserve in Florida or Texas or whatnot, with Little instead of Snowy Egrets virtually ignoring you, while everywhere else they are absurdly nervous and skittish! Ripe for photography, but these were just some quick off the cuff snaps...

Ketton Quarry stuff

Jasmine and I went to Ketton Quarry Wildlife Trust reserve in Rutland the other day looking for Adders. We found some nice stuff including a male Adder, Grass Snake, several Common Lizards, a Common Shrew, Dark Green Fritillary and loads of other nice insects and plants. A Good place. I had no idea Dark Green Fritillaries were this close to home, although I have hoped for them at Barnack Hills and Holes etc in the past. Perhaps this year, that site will turn them up, it is only a few miles away to the east. I may try at the weekend.

Male Adder

Oedemera nobilis, aka False Oil Beetle, Thick-Legged Flower Beetle, or Swollen-thighed Beetle (probably)

Buzzard

Common Lizard

Common Lizard with a small beetle taking a ride

Common Lizard

Dark Green Fritillary

A green metallic leaf beetle, perhaps a Cryptocephalus sp?

Scarce Chaser again?

This male Scarce Chaser was at our office pond this lunchtime. Judging by the dark marks on the pruinescence, this male has mated. Could it be the same individual I photographed as a youth a couple of weeks ago?

Marsh Warbler, Narborough, Norfolk

This is the first Marsh Warbler I have heard in the UK since the 1990s when I heard one in Kent in very similar habitat. I heard one or two in Austria last year, but didn't spend the time listening I should have. Marsh Warblers are brilliant birds to listen to and this one was mimicking Blackbird, Marsh, Blue and Great Tits, Chiffchaff, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Nuthatch, Blackcap and all sorts of other birds which I couldn't identify. Hard to see, though, while we were there... Had a Water Vole nibbling vegetation under some nettles in front of us, too, plus another on the bank side.

Red-necked Phalarope at Frampton Marsh RSPB

This little beauty was at Frampton the other day, when I met up with Toby Collett for a bit of birding. We failed to find the Broad-billed Sadnpiper and White-rumped Sandpiper which turned up after I left. Grrr. Never mind, the phalarope was lovely!

Oh Lordy, even more Osprey 3J...

Bit of Ruffe

This Great Crested Grebe is eating a fish called a Ruffe (or Pope, apparently), Gymnocephalus cernua.

Several Osprey 3J portraits