22nd July

Green Woodpecker: The male comes down for a drink and a bathe at the pool in area 29.
I was then delighted to see the male join a female who was keeping a watch on a juvenile. Mind you she kept on dominating the youngster if he found an Ants nest.



Small Tortoiseshell(below): This was my first sighting of this species in the park this year.There had been two earlier sightings by other observers. Last year they were not recorded at all, probably the wet springs are not helping.


Two types of swarm one slightly more hazardess than the other. Bee(above) and Ant(below).

Comments

Neil said…
Some good sightings recently. Shame Im stuck in uni for the next 3 weeks! I may try and sneak out for a bit at some point though!

The lack of small tortoiseshells (Ive not seen one this year) might be due to a parasitic fly which has spread northwards into the UK. Theres more about it here

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/03/29/eabfly129.xml