Latest Critters from our Campus

 Welcome back!

What have I been up to? Well, struggling with food is where I have been. I'm now wheat intolerant as well as lactose intolerant, and have to avoid foods high in FODMAPs like the plague. 

No more normal bread - I'm on gluten free stuff that is only free if toasted. No more cheese or milk. No more fried food. A lot of fruit and veg is now out. No more caffeine. 

Worst of all, no more rum. Jack Sparrow would be weeping. 

No more joy lol. 

So, rice and chicken anyone? 

There have been some improvements, but working out what is best for me as an IBS-M sufferer is proving to be really really tricky. This is a long term slog. 

I'm still keeping my eyes out on nature. Today's big prize was the sinister bee-wolf, a solitary parasitic wasp that likes to paralyse honey bees before feeding them alive to its offspring. 

A charming creature, to be sure. 

Hope you are all well. 

Si 

All text and images CreamCrackeredNature 08.08.25 

A First Common Blue of the Year

 You know me when I'm at work, when the Tourettes tics become too much, when the ADHD demands movement, that I take 5 minutes to have a quick bimble outside, to see what's afoot on campus, to spy what's on the wing. 

On a patch of grass,where a few birds foot trefoil where to be found - a species that seems to have suffered horribly locally with the dry spring and summer - a low flying glimmer of blue caught my eye.

Creeping a little closer, and taking great care not to lose it as it flew, I saw the tan coloured spots on the wing that indicated the presence of a male common blue butterfly. 

It settled on one of the yellow blooms, and edging closer still, I was able to get a few shots - sadly not great ones - as it happily nectared away in the warm sunshine. 

Small, and rather lovely. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 25.07.25

See if I can find you Some Butterflies

 Let's dig into my recent photographs and see what butterflies and moths I can find for you! 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 21.07.25

Making the Most of the Colour while I can

 Well, that was an intergalactically hot weekend. I'd been looking forward to a warm weekend, but cricket on Saturday was brutal, Sunday was grey and tropically sultry, and then Monday was so blisteringly hot that even going for a sit down by a river resulted in my phone shutting down, my kindle being too hot to touch, and my feet getting burned through my shoes. 

So long distance runs and cycle rides were out of the question. 

Instead, short walks to the library gardens or through my work campus, and see who was enjoying the sun. 

Lots of bees on the wildflowers, and also loads of tiny moths - the colourful mint moths, and another small species with the rather baffling name of the apple leaf skeletoniser moth sat on yarrow. 

The colours there are stunning, with the yellow of ladies bedstraw being the dominant hue, and I'm making the most of it while it is there. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.07.25

Another Photographic Miscellania

 Well, what do I have from random small wanderings over the last few days, sometimes accompanied by tourettes tics and other weirdnesses, sometimes not.

On the wing and the fluttery department, we now have gatekeeper butterflies on the move, while in the more buzzy department, spined mason bees and masked bees. 

I hope you are all enjoying what you can see around you. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.06.25

Small Skippers are Fluttering

 Last week on our campus, the hot weather brought the emergence of the well named small skipper butterflies. 

These dinky orange butterflies with the wing arrangement that always makes them look like the flights of a dart were far too busy flying about to settle anywhere. 

Today, however, they were happy to feed off ragwort and pose for photographs. However, this was complicated by the fact there was a very strong wind blowing across the badlands, and so you had to find one sitting on a shorter plant that wasn't being blown almost flat to the ground. 

So I present to you this fine specimen. 

Also captured today was a new insect for me, albeit a common one. A red spotted parasite fly, so named for its sinister habit of paratising moth larvae. Of course, this was sitting on the stinky curry plant that seems to attract the underclass of the insect world!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.06.25

Life on the Curry Plant

 Many many years ago we tried to dig out and plant a wildflower herb garden for pollinators at the entrance to our work campus. 

It failed. The soil is terrible, we weren't given time to maintain it, and anything we have tried to plant in it recently has died, with two main exceptions. 

One is a rather nice smelling sage plant. The other is a rampant curry plant, that is currently in full flower with its little bright yellow flowers, and also smells - to my poor nose - awful, especially in hot weather. 

Plants are not supposed to smell like curry! It's just plain wrong. 

It does attract pollinators, but more flies, than bees and butterflies. However, today, it did have some very fast moving tiny bees that never settled, and I captured entirely by accident on the wing. A possible clover blunthorn bee, a species utterly unknown to me until today. I'm going on the pale patch on the face, and, er, what iNaturalist says. 

Most of the other denizens are beetles, hoverflies. flies and various less glamorous, but still important, little pollinators. 

They all have their uses. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.06.25

The Wildflower Meadows of the Library Nature Reserve

 The library meadows are near their peak, filling this small area with colour and the buzz of various bee and bumblebee species working their favoured blooms. 

Common blue damselflies are mating and laying eggs in the pond, while four spotted chaser dragonflies hawk for smaller prey along the hedgerows. 

It cost a lot of money for them to make it this way, probably way too much. It might be over landscaped. But it is still a beautiful place on a bright day. 

These pictures are from a few days ago, I've got a stinking cold - or something - and haven't been out around the town much. Grrrrr. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.06.25

Some Recent Photo Miscellania

 Let's see what nature has given me over the last few days! 

My cricket matches are normally an excellent place to find things, as we often play at some very beautiful grounds, and even the less glamorous public park grounds often have wildflower areas rich with treasures. The trouble is, I've been so busy at the games I'm not getting any time to do any of my wanderings and pokings around. 

So, work campus, and the local nature gardens have been where I've been spotting things, such as the scabious loving vestal cuckoo bumblebees, the glittering emerald swollen thighed flower beetles, and the various other buzzing things that our out and about. 

Also, not really photographed as my mobile phone isn't up to it, are the swifts that scythe around my home screaming, the whitethroats, blackcaps and chiff chaffs at work whose calls are now more recognisable to me, and the wren that sings so loudly at the library gardens. 

I hope too are finding lovely things to see. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.06.25