Looking down not up!

I have a tendency, as a bird watcher, to look up and not down, so sometimes I have to remind myself that there are lots of things going on below eye level that are worth watching out for.

Recently, especially on the sunny days, there have been numerous butterflies on the wing and the Meadow Brown in particular have been emerging in good numbers.Walking across any longer grassy areas will disturb them and they will fly away from you in an erratic way before landing again and invariably closing their wings.

If you are lucky they may start to feed holding their wings at least partially open, but they rarely stay in one place for long!

Other more obliging butterflies that will settle and that I have seen recently have been Red Admirals

and Small tortoiseshells.

The warm weather has also seen the beautiful day flying Hummingbird Hawk-moth making an appearance, especially in gardens like mine with valerian growing in them. These large moths have migrated from the Mediterranean during the spring and there are even records of them returning south in the autumn!

This year I have noticed more dog roses in the hedges than usual and the blooms seem to attract insects, often in good numbers, like these colourful hoverflies that seem to be having a non socially distance gathering!

This week on my daily walks I have been keeping a close eye on nettles by the roadside and been rewarded by the sighting of lots of seven spot ladybirds. Of the 46 ladybird species now found in Britain only 26 are readily recognisable as ladybirds and the seven spot is the most common.

Unfortunately another non native lady bird, the Harlequin, invaded the UK back in 2004 and are now thought to be causing problems to our native breeds. Along with sightings of our seven spot I have also seen larva (below) of the Harlequin ladybird. These ladybirds are variable in colour and are often more noticeable in the autumn when they gather in large numbers, often on windowsills indoors, looking for somewhere to spend the cold. Last year I believe they congregated in the local church tower! 

The humming, or buzzing if you prefer, of bees on sunny days as they busily gather pollen and nectar is a joy and they seem to like the perennial geraniums in my garden so I can spend time trying to identify them. Not always that easy as they are, as the nickname says, "busy bees"!

So, I hope I have demonstrated that looking down, or at least sideways, and not always up in the air, is really worthwhile!