19 Jul 23

Wakeham

Here a few photos and a video from the back garden this afternoon:

Having cleared a fair bit of duck-weed from the "Tractor Tyre" pond it was good to see at least 4 Palmate Newts are still resident.

The Honey Bees are still busy collecting pollen from the Lavender

This Brown-footed Leafcutter Bee (Megachile versicolor) was........

................very busy on the Purple Loosestrife

A bee to ID later

A fairly easy wasp to identify. This is is a Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and can be told apart from the very similar German Wasp  (Vespula germanica) by the yellow parallel line on the thorax.

The shape of this yellow line is triangular on a German Wasp as shown on the photo above (courtesy of Naturespot Here). More on the Common Wasp here.

The Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) were out in force this afternoon, especially around the Cherry Tree. Here's...........

..........another attempt to capture one in flight.

A Common Green Shieldbug 4th instar nymph. More on Common Green Shieldbugs and their instars here.

This Red Bug (Deraeocoris ruber) was on the shed wall................

..............at the back of the garden. More on this black variant Here.

A Great Pond Snail (Lymnaea stagnalis) in the "Tractor Tyre" pond.

Is it really that time of year. A few of these Blackberries are certainly edible.