Friday 2 July 2021

Yellow, Black and Long of Horn

 I've found some goodies on my lunchtime walks at work, in what has been generally a warm, grey and very humid week, with the odd bit of yellow sun poking through the haze, especially in the evenings.

Gentle breezes have brought the smell of the chicken hatching factory over campus, a sickly sweet and slightly rubbery miasma.

Campus is a mass of ragwort and st johns wort, our wildflower meadow now has musk mallow, ladies bedstraw and hedge bedstraw in flower but has lost most of its colour. Ringlets and meadow brown butterflies skulk deep in the long grass, while small skippers fleetingly feed of the ragwort, waiting until just before your camera comes into focus before skittishly flying off. 

At home my flat is being strafed by swifts every evening, blasting me with their screeches as they scythe around the buildings. 

Best find of the week has to be the pair of longhorn beetles I found mating on an ox eye daisy. Their yellow and black stripey antennae are so long and irresistible!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.07.21








6 comments:

  1. We've never seen that kind of beetle before. Cool picture.

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  3. I can assure you Si that I find those beetles totally and utterly resistible.

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  4. great photos, specially the beetles! And great that you have so many swifts in your area. Fewer than usual round here.

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