Just hang on a sec ..............

If you're in a hurry, stop here! Sorry this is a long post, but it's mostly pictures, so not that bad really. The pictures below are all incidentals - not the target of the time out, but seen and snapped along the way.
To start a fledgling blackbird, trying to find it's way back into the hedge while I was hunting whitethroats.


Most, however have been a consequence of a new addition to the family - a 2 year old rescue border collie.
One thing we do now is walk! I have taken to bringing my pocket digital camera (in a pocket), and have been pleasantly surprised by the results, even if my requests to 'hang on a sec' aren't always welcomed! Compared to my usual macro lens the difference is that this takes wide-angle close-ups, showing more of the background. Not the shot for the classic detail, but I quite like them.

Slow worm


Rhingia campestris
Empis spp. Predatory species found in a hedgerow, most often prey in hand. The last shot shows what I take to be 2 mating empids and a prey fly.



I think a digger wasp. I'm no entomologist, so please correct any mistakes!
Ichneumon spp.
Green shield bug

Soldier beetle
Cricket nymph - pretty sure dark bush cricket, no idea which instar.

Ermine moth caterpillar webs

Unidentified caterpillar - please let me know if you recognise this one.

Holly blue

Speckled wood
Common wave (?)
Next some micromoths. some of these are surprisingly pretty up close.

Adela reaumurella clustering on a tree. I especially like the 'through the leaf'' shot.


Unknown spp
Unknown spp
Unknown spp
Alabonia geoffrella
Phyllobius pomaceus - showing blue green and gold green variants

and to conclude the now hatched larva of the green dock beetles I posted about a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks for sticking with it - just be grateful I didn't include the flowers shots!!

2009 - "Cranreuch cauld"

From time to time I come across a word that grabs me. I don't always know why, but some are just pleasing. I came across 'cranreuch' years ago reading an old book of poems at my parents house (not a sentence I could often say!). It's from the Burns poem 'To A Mouse' about the farmer who's trashed the mouse nest, and is apologising.
Cranreuch means hoar frost, and I found some today. We'd gone for a New Year's Day walk in Wentwood - not that high, but above the very visible 'frost-line' The light was so bad I hadn't bothered to take a camera - I didn't expect the frost to be so good - but Kay's dad had a compact which I pinched. The shots won't win any prizes, but they do illustrate a lovely cold cranreuch.

Autumn II

A more mixed weekend, but still some sunshine.

[Click on the pics for slightly bigger versions]

Woodland

A trip back to Wentwood, this time with some seed to try and tempt down the chaffinch flock, reputed to include a few bramblings. Couldn't tempt them down to the ground, and saw only chaffinches in the trees. The robin was happy enough though, finding some seed on the old picnic table.

Wild crab apple

Hedgerow

Clematis vitalba (Old Man's Beard, Traveller's Joy)

White Bryony

Blackthorn sloes

Greenfinch with bramble stained beak

Farmland

For some reason one of the commonest 'farmland' birds we see down on the fields locally is the buzzard. On Sunday there were 5 in one freshly tilled field, no doubt after worms, but this is well short of the winter record of 12 in a single field!

Buzzard digging for worms

Herons (another common bird on our fields)

[Dear Santa I need a book on names of fungi!]

Not sure what this is, but the head and wings had a fabulous gold sheen.

[Dear Santa I need a bug and fly book.]

And to finish another Red Admiral (again there were several around)