Sunday 15 May 2011

Foxgloves are flowering

A little earlier than expected, the foxgloves that started growing last year after we'd coppiced have now started flowering:

DSC_7842

There's only a few our so far, and the size varies a lot at the moment, from the tall to the short:
DSC_7836

DSC_7858

The flowers are stunning though, this is the first time I've tried getting some close-up photos of them.
DSC_7843

When this whole bank of them is flowering, it's going to look amazing:
DSC_7857

The buttercups are out in force now as well, and this time I managed to get a picture of one without too much of the petals being overexposed:
DSC_7853

In an earlier post I had pictures of a plant some readers thought was pignut. Well, I can confirm it is, after taking a better pic of the flowers, and also some of the leaves:
DSC_7860

DSC_7862

We had some visitors come to walk round and see the effects of the coppicing this weekend, and there was plenty of insect life for them to see. The Peacock butterflies are looking a bit sorry for themselves, as these are ones that have hibernated through the winter:
DSC_7864

DSC_7891

But there were some healthier looking Green Veined Whites around:
DSC_7877

and a Long Horned Moth was ID'd for us:
DSC_7872

I'm sure someone said this dragonfly was a Chaser, but I forget the exact name...
DSC_7869

and I've no idea what this little guy is:
DSC_7885

I'm not great on caterpillar ID either, but here's some pics anyway. I'm going on a course to learn more about caterpillars in a couple of weeks, so maybe I'll improve...
DSC_7881

DSC_7905

That's all for now. We'll be up in the woods again soon to see how the foxgloves are getting on...

Mike

2 comments:

Much said...

Excellent Bug pictures Mike.

The "Chaser" is a female Broad Bodied Chaser - Libellula depressa. Females and immature males have this yellow/brown abdomen but they are on the wing from April so it would be mature and bright blue by now, if it was male. The yellow spots along the side of the abdomen are indicative of species, both sexes have them.

Your Longhorn is a Wasp Beetle - Clytus arietis. It is called that because it looks just exactly like a wasp. I am talking about the black beetle with yellow stripes. Squint!

The next caterpillar is the Vapourer Moth - Orgyia antiqua. A couple of interesting things, the adult female is flightless and they feed on Birch. That picture is particularly good.

I don't recognise the last one.

Mike Pepler said...

Thanks Much! I should take more time to ID all these things, but there are just so many and so much to do...