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Sunday 15 September 2013

Mostly Insects

Just catching up with some of the photos I took over the past couple of weeks mostly insects and heading for a Seawatch recently my first Wheatear of the Autumn on the headland of Seaton Sluice . Insects do catch my eye more so as I look for Dragonflies that are perhaps resting on trees or bushes ,this was the case of the black and yellow one which I noticed flitting around low through the vegetation I immediately thought it was some form of Wasp and spend about 20 minutes trying to get a shot to no avail, but I then picked one out elsewhere doing the same motion and finally one resting in the open , it was quickly I.D.but not as wasp but a true fly ,most of the insects I seem to find remain un identified but I still enjoy the challenge of trying to photograph them   

 Picromerus Bidens one of the Shield Bugs apparently easily identified by those so 80's shoulder Pads , there where actually two as you can just see the other at the top but it was very difficult just focusing on one
 Chrysotoxum  Bicinctum . This is what I thought was a very small wasp but it turned out to be one of the true flies
 A pair of Common Blue mating they where coupled like this for sometime and still coupled after I photographed them
 First Wheatear of the Autumn heading south at Seaton Sluice which seems to get few of them
 It was the colour of this that caught my eye plus the fact it just sat there as I stuck the camera closer and closer, not till I got the shots on the screen could I see it seems to be  sucking the life out of a small Caterpillar , as yet unnamed ?
Edit Thanks to NZ1982 for the I.D. of this smart little beast as a Shield Bug  Troilus luridus  which seems to be in the final Instar stage of three before reaching adult . Check out the blog NZ1982 he seems to constantly find something of interest, and probably a lot of birds you have seen over the years at East Chevington etc are down to him .
 Wall Brown on Knapweed and an interesting fly comes into the shot
Migrant Hawker oddly not seen as many as I would have thought given the good weather this one allowed very close inspection

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Kind regards,
Chris Millward
movingmountains4nature.blogspot.co.uk
smestowvalley.blogspot.co.uk
smestowsightings@gmail.com

baybirding said...

Bronze Shield Bug, I think? Sent you a couple of tweets. Dave E

Northumbrian Birding said...

Cheers Chris ,back at you !!

Thanks Dave , didnt realise they had Instar stages.

Brian

baybirding said...

Thanks for the comments dave e