Yesterday I spotted a new hoverfly species for the garden (I've only been trying to identify them more seriously since last summer). I thought it was one of the Scaeva species probably the Lunar Hoverfly but several people on Twitter have identified it as a Pied Hoverfly - Scaeva pyrastri. This species is found in gardens, wastelands and meadows and it is thought that few survive the winter so breeding populations rely on migrants from mainland Europe.
Pied Hoverfly
and a different uncropped photo. The flowers on my Rat-tailed radishes are attracting a lot of hoverfly species.
There are dozens of Marmalade Hoverflies round the garden - Episyrphus balteatus. Not the best of photos - these insects zoom around so much it is really hard to get a decent picture.
This is a common species of hoverfly - the larvae are predators of aphids. I do hope they lay plenty of eggs on my Echinops plants as there are very few flowers forming thanks to a massive aphid attack :(
The week after the holiday we had a Banded Demoiselle in the garden - I didn't get a photo but its a new garden tick :)
Last year I fell in love with Astrantia and bought a plant from Coughton Court. Its doing really well this year and is proving a magnet for pollinators - here one of the white-tailed bumble bees enjoying the nectar. It almost seemed drunk and didn't move in the half an hour I was in the garden.
Today I was planning to visit a wood about an hour's journey away in search of Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreak, White Admiral and Silver Washed Fritillary but, for various reasons, the trip has been postponed so I decided to do my first Big Butterfly Count, organised by Butterfly Conservation.
I was really chuffed to see a Large Skipper - I've only seen Skippers in the garden on 3 occasions in all the years we've lived here.
Other butterflies seen were Gatekeeper x 2 (the first this year)
Speckled Wood x 2
and Large White x 1
The main lawn is covered in clover at the moment attracting Common Carder Bees and this the first Red-tailed Bumble Bee of the year.
