Monday, August 27, 2012

Wildlife in the garden (and house)

Hi – these pictures were taken sometime in the last week or so and not all on the same day. Apparently Britain’s insect population is struggling with the recent wet weather. (Bees, wasps, moths and butterflies.) Although I think there have been fewer wasps, butterflies and wasps in the garden we have had two swarms of bees “park up” in the garden. The other day we saw loads – well 50 plus – dragon flies flying around the garden. Which is a little surprising since our “pond” is only around 2m2 . A couple had the misfortune to fly into our living room – which has windows at each end – with only the windows at one end being open-able.

The good news is that my wife was a dab hand at dragon catching dragonfly catching. She used a large vase and managed to get them pretty quickly and then out before they flapped against the glass for too long.

I only have pictures of one of the dragonflies as I was elsewhere the second time around.

A dragonfly being rescued from the living room

The colours are really striking and the wings so fine.  apparently they are highly corrugated.

A dragonfly being rescued from the living room

I was surprised that the pictures came out OK since the dragonfly was moving and the vase glass was not exactly expensive optical glass.

A dragonfly being rescued from the living room

And finally we had a baby hedgehog do a runner across the lawn – it was sufficiently fast that by the time I had gotten my camera it was into the flower bed.

And finally – the rain has been good for something – Sunflowers.

2 comments:

  1. Dragonfly

    Looks like a Southern Hawker to me (Aeshna Cyanea).
    "Suffolk Dragonflies" says "It is surprising just how many reports there are of Southern Hawkers entering houses."

    Sorry, reference is a book not a web-site.

    Mike

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    Replies
    1. Hi Mike,

      Thanks, now I know what it is I can find out some more. I found this old BBC link - Southern Hawker which mentions that Aeshna means ugly or misshapen and Cyanea means dark blue. I will have to look out for the larvae in the pond.

      ---Jamie

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