Aston Locks - Silver Y moth

It's been an excellent year for Silver Y moths. Whilst there is a resident population, numbers are boosted by migrants and all the reserves I've visited recently has shown good numbers. Given cloudy conditions, they dive for cover and they don't exactly look drop bead gorgeous when resting!

Given sunshine, they start to wake up, Dave Chapman and I witnessed a veritable frenzy of feeding on the Knapweed which was plentiful here!

They were constantly on the move, from flower to flower, never really landing but sort of a mini hover!

And eventually I woke up to the opportunity of catching them nectaring! Here's three angles covered!

I'm sure Dave sussed some better backgrounds as there was always background flowers or grasses to contend with but I'm happy with these!

In fact as we were walking away, I vowed never to refer to them as 'just a Silver Y'! They really are very smart moths...

Venus Pool - Migrant Hawker

The first Migrant Hawkers are in town! The entrance to the arable field at Venus Pool held a male hawking for prey across the field late afternoon.

Then shortly after, I jammed onto a female sat up quite high up in the hedgerow...

Quite an unusual Migrant female as the abdominal markings which are usually all yellow have a large proportion of blue!

Smart and fresh, many more are likely in the coming days!

Llanymynech Rocks - Hornet

An insect survey had just one star turn which I was hoping would be something much more special? With Hornet mimics eluding me thus far, a very large Hornet sized insect busy inspecting and poking around the flowers had me praying for it to land and pose for me? It never did!!

It clearly wasn't a moth or hoverfly mimic so what else could a Hornet sized wasp be? Yes, that's right , simply a Hornet (Vespa crabro) and apparently this is what they do whilst searching for invertebrate prey!!

I need to get out more!

Shropshire - Longhorn Beetles

 A few Longhorn Beetles came my way during the past few weeks so here's a compilation of pics, starting with today's find, a Four-banded Longhorn Beetle (Leptura quadrifasciata) on the river bank near Cressage...

By far the star beetle was this Tawny Longhorn Beetle at Venus Pool on 13th July. This is a real Shropshire rarity with only one other sighting reported in 2017 (also at Venus Pool!) Maybe breeding on site??

A 'David and Goliath' situation for this Golden-bloomed Longhorn Beetle also at VP, on 17th July and picked out by eagle-eyes Dave Chapman...

Just look at those striking antennae!!

Finally, I wondered what was clinging to my car door in the drive on 14th July. More common than the above, a Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietus). 

I transferred it to the relative safely of the back garden!!

More insect updates to follow...

Venus Pool - Common Darter close up!

 You always need a back-up plan when looking for Clouded Yellows! Mine came in the form of a female Common Darter which wouldn't normally command much attention. But she seemed confiding...  

I could immediately see the abdomen was rather distorted, probably from the emergence process and didn't look pleasing at all!

Sooo, inching closer, I manged to remove the offending bits... and with the the wind blowing, amazing how 1/500sec could capture these images...

Looking good at any angle!

Maybe I should carry my macro lens more often?

Wenlock Edge - on the Wall

I had previously seen Wall butterfly before in the County but only record shots had come my way. That was all about to change on finding a particularly 'sort of friendly' male on Wenlock Edge!

Here goes with some resting shots of the closed wings, a lovely mix of patterns and colour...

Resting shots of the upperwing were eventually achieved with a bit of scrambling!

I was hoping for some feeding activity and these took the longest to achieve! I'm not sure that thye bright yellow of Ragwort works with the brown of Wall!

But Scabious works!

And Knapweed too! Just managed to catch a touch of iridescence in the upper forewing  - quite a bonus!

Another job in the Butterfly world done!

Venus Pool - Speckled Bush Cricket

Another new Bush Cricket!! This time a male Speckled Bush Cricket with, as the name implies a scattering of black spots all over. 

Long antennae as per usual...

The 'wing's as seen here are pretty pointless as they can't fly but boy can they jump!

Turned my head for a moment and he was gone!!