Peacock Butterfly in the garden today. It was still managing to fly!

Forgot the Hairy-footed yesterday in the garden.

I've looked for them near home but none around yet but today in the garden Early Bumblebee, Andrena bicolor and Osmia bicornis.

1st of this year's frogspawn in our Send, Surrey garden.

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

A Buff-tailed Bumblebee worker gathering pollen from the flowers of an winter flowering Cherry.

7C, feels like 3, and Buff-tailed Bumblebee busy on the Prunus x subhirtella 'Autumnalis' in our Send, Surrey garden.

Autumn colours in the garden this week.

And now a 5th oty Brown Hairstreak, Thecla betulae, has graced the garden with its presence.

Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa cardui, nectaring on the flowers of Abelia x grandiflora

Painted Lady. 6th Surrey garden record this year. Wow! #butterflies

A daily garden sighting since August 21st has been Locust Blowfly, Stomorhina lunata. Today, two males on their lookout on the back of a metal chair and this one on a Hydrangea flowerhead. Females are here but not seen so often.
@surreybic.bsky.social

Painted Lady in our garden today, 4th for year.

A new Tachinid for the Send, Surrey garden and me yesterday, a female Phasia hemiptera.
@surreybic.bsky.social

A brown butterfly with orange patches on its forewings, resting on a leaf.

A Brown Hairstreak butterfly resting amongst leaves. wings are folded up, showing the orange underside with white lines bordering a deeper orange band.

Female Brown Hairstreak, Thecla betulae, seen in our Send, Surrey garden today. The third this year.

@surreybic.bsky.social

New for our Send, Surrey garden and me today is this Six-belted Clearwing. Gorgeous!

A black and white bee resting on a Lavender flower head.

Female Coelioxys conoidea in our Send, Surrey garden this morning.

Ectophasia crassipennis in our Send garden this morning. 2nd year running. The plant is Aster × frikartii 'Mönch', very good for attracting all sorts of insects.
@surreybic.bsky.social

A black Dragonfly with gold markings on its thorax and abdomen. Green eyes.

A new species for me and our Send, Surrey garden today. Cordulegaster boltonii, the Golden-ringed Dragonfly.
On iRecord.
@surreybic.bsky.social

Late visit to Whitmoor Common for #bbs-birds.bluesky.social
on a grey and breezy morning. A trio of heathland species were Dartford Warbler, pair of Stonechats feeding four fledged young and Tree Pipit, only the second recorded since 2016.

#surreybic.bsky.social

Very happy to find the snipefly Chrysopilus laetus in our Send, Surrey garden this afternoon.

Near Threatened/ Nationally Scarce in Drake (2017, Natural England status review). Info from Steven Falk's Flickr site.

Common Twayblades (Neottia ovata) around in good numbers in Justin's Meadow at Ashton Court, Bristol - but it takes a while to get your eye in and spot them!
A less conspicuous orchid for the #OrchidChallenge #wildflowerhour
The flowers are like little green men!

A male Long-horned Bee on top of a bramble flower facing the camera. To one side, the head of a beetle peeks out from behind the flower.

A lifer for me today at Oaken Woods in Surrey. Eucera longicornis, the Long-horned Bee. Very happy to make their acquaintance. Photo-bombed by a Swollen-thigh Beetle, Oedemera nobilis.

#SolitaryBeeWeek

Another bee active now is Andrena florea. The females only collect pollen from White Bryony and males can be found patrolling over the plants. Sometimes the males will settle in the flowers for the night and the petals close over them.
#SolitaryBeeWeek

A Black bee with smoky wings on a white Nemesia 'Wisley Vanilla' flower

This is the bee that started my interest in bees and then wasps. She is a rare Andrena nigrospina that visited our Surrey garden briefly in May 2017.
#solitaryBeeWeek

A view of the face of a male Andrena labiata showing the white clypeus.

To celebrate #WorldBeeDay and #SolitaryBeeWeek this is one of my favourites, Andrena labiata. This pic of a male is from 2019 but the first for this year showed up last week.

Must have been a good hatch of Mayflies on the River Wey. Now a lot of females are egg laying on ours and our neighbours cars (the white smudges on the windscreen).

Another this afternoon (11/05/2025).

@migrantmothuk.bsky.social Painted Lady in our Send, Surrey garden just now.

On Puttenham Common this morning looking for bees but also found this very nice Dendroxena quadripunctata.