With a mind to a move.

With my mind on moving back up north I have stopped feeding the birds in my garden and my don't I notice the difference. I only get the odd visitor at the moment but I feel it is better to stop now than suddenly stop at the end of October when there may be less natural food around and they may be more dependent on it.

Photography wise I have continued with the bugs, with a little bit of swan and duck thrown in. I have found a couple of new bugs to show you, and one from an amazing set of photographs that I was fortunate to grab before getting soaked.

Lets start with the swan and duck.

Despite the sun, it was quite cold and windy a real taster for winter. Not fully in true colours yet but getting there. The swans have become incredibly used to humans now, with many people being able to feed the cygnets by hand.

The bugs have been great fun again, I really love doing them and I feel a lot fitter having walked around and around the park and fields nearby. I have shown you a couple of Troilus Luridus larva but finally this week I got an adult, it is identifiable by the yellow on the last but one segment of its antennas.

I also got my first picture of a Vine Weevil, It was on the path on the new part of the estate up from me, I was dressed in Camo trousers, Camo baseball hat and green Tee shirt, laying flat on my belly, ok maybe not dead flat, totally involved with what I was doing when an M.O.D police car came up and stopped alongside me. He was obviously suspicious of a man in full camo on the estate and I showed him some of the shots I had taken to put his mind at rest.

A washed out Small Copper came my way, nice but terribly washed out.

and a new hoverfly.

You may remember that Harvestman that I got the other week, well I got one again with a little bit more focus.

Finally the shot I have been most wanting to show you, you will have seen pictures of Dragonflies doing this, even Butterflies, but have you ever seen this? I think its a Dockleaf Shield bug as it was on the edge of a huge patch of the things and it has the right shape to it. I would happily accept if you know different.

I found it when looking for insects on an old rotted tree trunk, caught it out of the corner of my eye. Had to get on my belly again, its getting to be too much of a habit. amazing to watch it gently pushing its way out, unfortunately although I would have loved to have watched it complete the change it started to pour down so I had to make a break for the shelter of the trees and then home. Truly, truly wonderful to see.

Hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I have obtaining the shots.