Painted lady in the garden

I haven't seen a painted lady in my garden for many years but this one stayed all afternoon on Sunday. She(?) loved the marjoram flowers. Brimstones and gatekeepers along with some whites were all out for the sunny afternoon.

An annual treat

I love to see that we still have them. This year's stag beetle is a bit later than usual in the garden.

 

Having found two larvae in my leaf mould piles this year it looks like we will still have them for some years yet.

A young visitor

I found a tiny toadlet in my garden today. I had a little talk to it and tried to persuade it to stay. I have a plentiful supply of slugs for it to feed on.

And another!

I recorded my first picture of a green woodpecker this week. One has visited my garden before but this one stayed a good time. I think it had found some ants in the bed nearby.

A new pecker

This time it's a female. She shows a lot of interest in one of the holes in the birch tree and I thought she might be nesting. It will be some time before I'm sure.

She sits preening a lot on the adjacent branch.

Another white

It was three years ago that I saw my first green veined white in my garden. And this year one has arrived again. The date is only 8 days earlier this time.

It settled on a particularly pretty coloured columbine flower so I couldn't resist another shot!

It's been a good year for butterflies so far in this little patch.

Another chaser

I watched another broad bodied chaser which had just emerged from its nymph yesterday.

The wings were not yet pumped up and it was clinging to the empty shell of its previous body. (left)












Two hours later, it was just about ready to fly but the body colours still had to develop fully. That would happen over the following few days.

Chasing the damsels?

There are about 25 damselfly exuviae on the iris stem in the pond. But, more interesting, are my first two broad bodied chaser exuviae. (One shown right). They are twice the size of the common darter ones I found there last year.







The second picture is a freshly emerged large red damselfly with some small exuviae in the background.


It looks like there are plenty of damsels for the chaser to chase!

Back to the woods

I made another visit to the wood today. The bluebells still looked gorgeous but now the light was dappled shade. The leaves are opening on the trees. It will soon get quite dark.




There were a few more orchids by the stream and now some wild garlic flowers have put in an appearance. (right)

A bluebell wood

 Either it's a really good year for bluebells this year or I caught the wood on just the right day, but the show seems better than usual this time.

The banks of blue gave off their beautiful scent and the constant calls of the birds made the visit a feast for the senses.

The lack of leaves on the trees meant that it was quite bright and showed off all the flowers from those nearby right to those in the far distance.

It was more impressive this way than in the dappled shade that is usually the scene when I visit a bit later in the season.

There was also a greater abundance of flowers other than bluebells.


Wood anemones and primroses were common and I found a couple of early purple orchids on the bank of a stream.

Another unexpected find was this queen hornet. She had obviously had some sort of problem with the mud around. I hope she was able to clean herself up.

And, remembering the title of my blog, I thought I'd show that I really was "walking the dog". Petra enjoyed a sniff around the woods but was quite tired by the end.