Wildlife June 2011

[Paddy Tobin]

Great shot, Cliff. Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

I bet you came to a full stop when you saw that Tony?

[tonyg]

I bet you came to a full stop when you saw that Tony?

:-))) (would use emoticons but they're not working for me today:-(

[angie]

In the garden today this creepy crawlie landed on me  , pushed him off quickly, what is it and is it a goodie. poor chap has creepies on him.

Angie 

[Maggi Young]

EEEEEEK!     A bug with bugs.....

[tonyg]

Here are some more lineside butterflies.

Ringlets and Meadow browns aplenty in the sunny margins.  Not so many Small Skippers ... and they really are small!  Lots of perfect Red Admirals and we also saw one Tortoiseshell. 

[mark smyth]

That's carrion beetle - find dead things bury them and lay eggs

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on,
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on

[mark smyth]

Did anyone see a skipper on Countryfile tonight? The voice referred to moths and they cut to a skipper

[tonyg]

Next day we went to Catfield Fen to get our first look at Norfolks most famous butterfly.

Confined to a few Broads where the Milk Parsley, foodplant for the caterpillars, grows we saw several Swallowtails fly over before one obliged by feeding at the edge of our path.

[Anthony Darby]

I've been there Tony, and remember in 1976 the caterpillars were everywhere. I saw some opposite the Horning Ferry Inn. Came back a couple of days later to find the whole lot had been flayed flat. I asked why: "to enclose the fen they were digging a dike parallel with the river to protect the swallowtails".

Like the burying beetle Angie. They excavate under small dead mammals or birds to bury them and lay their eggs on the corpse.

Did anyone see a skipper on Countryfile tonight? The voice referred to moths and they cut to a skipper

Bet you said "I eye, that's not a moth!".

[ranunculus]

Like the burying beetle Angie. They excavate under small dead birds to bury them and lay their eggs on the corpse!

Good job you legged it Angie ...   

[Anthony Darby]

Is that not a large skipper Tony?

[ranunculus]

Is that not a large skipper Tony?

Like Edward Heath?   

Sorry ... I promise to behave ... for a while anyway! 

[Anthony Darby]

Like Edward Heath, you'll have to conduct yourself in moderato.

[ranunculus]

Like Edward Heath, you'll have to conduct yourself in moderato.