#sun fly

heres a funky lil pal i found at the pond while i was searching for dragonfly nymphs (no luck with that yet)

southern germany if youd like to id :)

A large Heleomyzid fly, perched on a large Jack o’ Lantern mushroom. You might note that this one, a male, has overly muscular forelegs for a fly. The two things are connected.

Male Tapeigaster flies stake out their claim on a mushroom and defend it against rival males by lining up face to face and kicking each other in the head. A successful male then waits for the females to arrive, who will lay their eggs on the fungus if they think he and his territory are impressive enough.

One of my great pleasures this summer has been sorting through the various insects in the estate gardens around where I live. I was really pleased with this one I found a couple of weeks ago. Sun Fly (Helophilus pendulus) is an attractive fly which is common and widespread but very attractive to look at. Its range exists from Iceland to the Mediterranean and from Britain to Asia. Its common…

26/07/2021-Lakeside and home 

It was fascinating to notice the moth of the moment a Silver Y with so many about lately in the house downstairs before bed last night, a notable first. I took the first three pictures in this photoset of a tree on the street out the back and buddleia and lavender with others in the front garden before going for my lunch time walk with them all delightfully drenched in sunlight once more. I very much much enjoyed taking in the glorious lavender in the garden as well as the buddleia with a bee buzzing around I saw well and photographed on the buddleia which I tweeted on Dans_Pictures tonight having one in my room at one point too. The cameillia bush, one last rose in the big bush out the front which caught my eye yesterday I have loved the dog roses and others on the bush again this year and scarlet pimpernel looked nice in the front garden too and I loved seeing a Small White butterfly here again. 

I reached Lakeside at lunch time, taking in the area around with a brilliant patch of white clovers and looking nice generally especially the flower patch on the way, and walked along the central path between the fenced off nature reserve areas which I took the fourth, fifth and ninth pictures in this photoset of views around. At Lakeside and home today at the height of summer I made the most of how gloriously emerald and full of leaf and flair everything looked. It was an insect fest along these paths too with 9 Gatekeepers, 7 Small White and 6 Meadow Brown in a Big Butterfly Count along here it was wonderful to see the Gatekeeper win its first count of mine in 2021 I’ve had a nice few different winners so far. There were Small Skippers about too and I got stunning views of Black-tailed Skimmer, Emperor again and a male Common Darter dragonfly this scarlet beauty I’d not seen around here so far this year. Great willowherb, ragowort, big bindweed as shown in the seventh picture in this photoset and thistle including spear thistle added some floral flair to the lunch time walk that was mostly very sunny some very colourful flowers. I then delved into hoverflies with a the long hoverfly in the sixth picture in this photoset and a sun fly which I tweeted a picture of both looking divine. With the bee at home I was pleased with the macro pictures I got of these insects today. I’ve been able to take more photos and become more interested in hoverflies and bees since working from home began and the focus of some wildlife watching every day but all of a sudden I found ID a bit easier with the iNaturalist Seek app which has helped me massively with moths the past week since I downloaded it. They are harder to photograph but if this is the next big thing I really start to learn I am as they say, here for it. 

And I was happy to get some great bird moments at the shore of beach lake when I walked down there seeing Black-headed Gulls and Mallards as I had before almost lounging out on a fishing jetty. It was a delightful image and did present a good photo opportunity not only for the birds together but I zoomed into the Black-headed Gulls too the eighth picture in this photoset one I took the Black-headed Gulls have made good subjects with other birds this summer here with the one of one bird at the top of a buoy with Greylag Geese gathering below as if it was making a speech so this was nice to add to it. I made the most of Greylag and Canada Geese again with them probably not at Lakeside often for much longer. I forgot to say that yesterday we got a nice view of the Greylags on my old school and college playing field so they possibly fly between here and Lakeside with the house in between I have seen more and more at home last week of course. Female Blackbird was a great one to see as I left Lakeside. 

I got home and like a great willowherb from behind which I tweeted a picture of a view of the lavender, little bush, camellia and more through the railings in the front garden made a nice subject for a different perspective theme on a photography group we are in on Facebook that does themes. I got some cracking Lesser Black-backed Gull views as I worked today making out their fine markings particularly the slate grey back well. I took the tenth picture in this photoset of a view out the back with distant trees looking nice in the sun this afternoon. This evening between thunderstorms I liked seeing a faint rainbow which I took and tweeted on Dans_Pictures tonight a photo of. I hope you all had a good Monday I did enjoy mine.