Please refer to the Introduction Page to understand the context behind the monthly photographs.
Birds
Little Egret
Little Egret with lunch
Butterflies
Orange Tip Butterfly
Painted Lady Butterfly
Green-veined White Butterfly
Small Copper
Holly Blue Butterfly (Tattered Female)
Crickets
Cricket nymph most likely an Oak Bush Cricket
Cricket nymph most likely an Oak Bush Cricket
Damselflies
Banded Demoiselle Female
Banded Demoiselle Male
Beautiful Demoiselle Male Immature
Beautiful Demoiselle Female
Blue-Tailed Damselfly Female variant
Fungi
Chicken of the Wood fungus (Laetiporus sulphureus)
Chicken of the Wood fungus (Laetiporus sulphureus)
Chicken of the Wood fungus (Laetiporus sulphureus)
Dryad's Saddle (Polyporus squamosus)
Galls
The mite (Aceria macrorhyncha) initiates these small red pustule galls up to 6mm high on the upper surface of Sycamore tree leaves..
Sycamore Leaf with Aceria macrorhyncha Mite Galls
Sycamore Leaf with Aceria macrorhyncha Mite Galls
Galls - Close Up 1
Galls - Close Up 2
Sycamore Felt Galls - the mite Aceria pseudoplatani infect the underside of Sycamore leaves causing these galls (white felty patches) which will darken with time and at the end of summer will be dark brown.
Sycamore leaf with Aceria pseudoplatani mite Felt Galls on underside
Sycamore leaf with Aceria pseudoplatani mite Felt Galls on underside
Sycamore leaf with Aceria pseudoplatani mite Felt Galls on underside
Gall - Close Up
Blackthorn leaf infested with gall mite Eriophyes homophyllus or similis.
Blackthorn leaf upper surface
Blackthorn leaf lower surface
Gall - Close Up
Microfungi
Microfungus affecting Dock plant leaves.
Red dock spot (Ramularia rubella)
Leaf top surface
Leaf bottom surface
Insects
Dock Plant with Green Dock Beetle and Eggs.
Dock Plant
Green Dock Beetle
Green Dock Beetle Eggs on Dock Leaf underside
Green Dock Beetle Eggs on Dock Leaf underside
This Mite Fly only 2-3mm in size is a leaf mining mite fly whose larvae mine the leaves of various members of the Buttercup family.
Adult Phytomyza ranunculi Fly
Adult Phytomyza ranunculi Fly
Other Insects.
Red-and-black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)
Wayward Sawfly (Tenthredo temula)
Variable Longhorn Beetle (Stenocorus meridianus)
Leafhopper nymph
Moths
This small Spindle tree sapling is almost completely stripped of leaves by the ravenous Ermine moth caterpillars who will now have to drop to the ground and find a new food source. Hopefully the Spindle sapling will recover some foliage once free of these caterpillars.
Spindle Ermine Moth Caterpillars (Yponomeuta-cagnagella)
Spindle Ermine Moth Caterpillars (Yponomeuta-cagnagella)
Spindle Ermine Moth Caterpillars (Yponomeuta-cagnagella)
Rusts
Willow Leaf top surface Rust (possibly Melampsora epitea)
Willow Leaf underside Rust (possibly Melampsora epitea)
Willow Leaf underside - Close Up
Pale Bramble Rust (Kuehneola uredinis) on a bramble stem
Pale Bramble Rust (Kuehneola uredinis) on a bramble stem
Woodland Flowers
Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis)
Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon)
Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon)
VC40- Shropshire
Grey-Lag Goose
Ones that escaped the camera lens this month
a) Heron and Red Kite