Today was spent in the back garden, this time building a run for our three week old Khaki Campbell ducks. So not a lot of time spent checking out the wildlife. But then there wasn't a lot to see, as there hasn't been any let up in the strong westerly's, which have been blowing across the island for the third day running.
The male Common Whitethroat was heard singing in the Lower Horse paddock, whilst in the garden, 3 Wood Pigeons were stripping the cherries off the tree. Any cherries that fell were quickly picked off by the Blackbirds.
Not too many flying insects seen and with it being so cloudy, there were no damselflies about. There weren't too many bees either with just a Common Carder on the Purple Loosestrife, few Yellow-legged Mining Bees (Andrena flavipe) on the lawn and if I've got it right a single Grey-patched Mining Bee (Andrena nitida).
A Common Drone Hoverfly settled briefly on the paving slabs, but with no sun out, it soon disappeared down the garden.
Around the pond were a few Semaphore Flies, but with the cool conditions, there was no interaction between the males and females. And on one of my Dahlias I just managed to photograph a wasp-like insect, before it flew off.
And here are our Khaki Campbell's. Growing very quickly and becoming tamer everyday, as we hand feed them "greens". Its amazing what a bit of tempting of treats can do to win them over.
Yellow-legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipe)
And another.
I'm pretty sure this is a Grey-patched Mining Bee (Andrena nitida).
A Common Carder Bee on the Purple Loosestrife. A plant, incidentally, which I have had since 1986, when I had one around my garden pond in Norfolk. Every time I moved I used to take a small piece and grow it in my next garden. Thirty-four years on and it still doing well.
This is a Common Drone Hoverfly and I'm pretty sure it was hoping for a warm stone to rest on. No such luck today.
And all the Semaphore Flies weren't feeling it either...........
..........with several just resting up.
And a record shot of what I can only presume is some sort of parasitic wasp or something similar.
Just the one juvenile Herring Gull on the nest between the neighbours chimney pots.
There were three originally, but sadly just the one now and a noisy one at that.
Always nice to see Benji running around the garden.
And as for Ted, well this is what he does best being inquisitive.