Another beautiful sunny day spent in the back garden and the first BBQ of the year to end the day.
The cherry tree is going down well with the local Blackbirds and it was interesting to note that the resident male was very tolerant of a juvenile feeding on the other side of the tree.
The real highlight though was my first Greenfinch on the sunflower feeder, hopefully there will be many more to come.
The pond was still attracting the Semaphore Flies and today there seemed to be a lot more about. A Common Carder Bee was on the Purple Loosestrife and there were a few hoverflies on the wing with both Marmalade and Long hoverflies about.
Still a few Swollen-thighed Beetles in the flower beds and I came across 3 moths, a Silver Y, a Common Nettle-tap moth and one to ID.
High up in the neighbours tree there were a few insects which were proving difficult to ID let alone see and they were an Ichneumon wasp, a vespula wasp sp. and an odd looking insect which was totally green bar the wings.
Here are a few images from this afternoon:
The cherries are just starting to turn red.......
.......which hasn't gone unnoticed by this male Blackbird and............
.......presumably one of its offspring.
Amazing that the male Blackbird was so tolerant of this juvenile on "his" Cherry Tree.
A first for the garden a Greenfinch.........
........which suddenly realised I was just a few feet away. It did come back later.
A Buzzard passes by, upsetting......
.........the local Herring Gulls. A quick drop in altitude and it carried on its way unchallenged.
A bit of aerobics going on here. A fan tail.
Balancing on one leg.
Wing stretches
And finally a left wing and tail manoeuvre. I think the other Collared Dove has lost interest.
The garden pond with its main inhabitants......
......Semaphore Flies. The fly on the left is a female and the male is bottom right with the white wing markings.
The female flew off as he landed.
A Swollen-thighed Beetle.
And another.
A Long Hoverfly, Sphaerophoria scripta
A Common Nettle-tap moth, Anthophila fabriciana
An intriguing looking insect which is all green, other than the wings!!
A small wasp. Vespula sp.
A Silver Y I came across in the back garden along with.......
........and one to ID.