ShareMondays2019 – Jewel In The Grasses

ShareMondays2019 – Jewel In The Grasses

I’m taking part in the Wildlife Trust’s challenge 30DaysWild this June. The challenge is to do something wild every day! There are lots of ideas for exploring wildlife and nature on the website and app. I like to get outdoors as much as possible but, sometimes my fatigue stops me from doing much.

Having a lot of local nature reserves is a big help! If I can manage to spend just an hour or so at Wisley or Heather Farm on Horsell Common, I feel so much better, physically and mentally. It gives me the opportunity to survey the areas for the wildlife that I love and just to breathe fresh air and relax to the peacefulness and sound of birdsong.

This male banded demoiselle was my first challenge image that I shared straight to Twitter. Everyone has really loved it so I’m sharing it again today, with a wider audience and for the ShareMondays, Wex Mondays and Fotospeed challenges.

The females are quite stunning little jewels too!

ShareMondays2019 – Beauty And The Beast

ShareMondays2019 – Beauty And The Beast

The beauty is a common blue butterfly, a real favourite of mine! The beast in question is an Ichneumonid wasp. They are parasitoids, meaning that their larvae infect and feed on other invertebrates, eventually killing the host. I think this particular wasp is Apechthis compunctor, which lays its’ eggs in the pupae of butterflies. The adult often emerges from the butterfly itself. No small wonder that I would see them at NT Denbies Hillside, amidst the wonderful array of blue and copper butterflies that were on the wing. I can’t be 100% on my ID as these insects aren’t a specialist knowledge of mine, also there are well over 2000 species of ichneumonids in the UK! Watching this wasp actually fly right up to the common blue that I was photographing was fascinating, even though it gave me the creeps. I just kept photographing, hoping that I could capture a shot that told a story of the interrelationship between invertebrate species. This has to be my story and photograph of the week, even if there is an undercurrent of horror about it! Ecology is all about the interrelationships within specific ecosystems. Every time I get to watch something like this I learn more.

ShareMondays2019 – Ringing In The Rain

ShareMondays2019 – Ringing In The Rain

I thought I’d join the bluebell party this week! I found these little bells at the Valley Gardens, which are linked to Virginia Water and Savill Garden, part of Windsor Great Park. The azaleas and rhododendron are absolutely glorious but the bluebells were totally enchanting!

Brimstone On Bluebells

Brimstone On Bluebells

I think the sight of British bluebells in Spring is only completed when adorned with a brimstone butterfly! This sight is definitely one of my favourite things 🙂

Blue Monday : Banquet For Blue Tits

Blue Monday : Banquet For Blue Tits

The bountiful berries of the Cornus kousa, a flowering dogwood, make a fine banquet for the diminutive blue tits in the Autumn. It’s a feast for the eyes to watch them! There are a number of kousa trees around the grounds at RHS Wisley Gardens, but the best fruiting and most visited ones are just at the bottom of the rose garden. While other birds have to forage below the trees for fallen fruit, the blue tit appears to be the only visitor light enough to feed directly from the fruit ripening on the tree. Occasionally even these lightweights accidentally pick a berry that can’t quite support them and they tumble down through the leaves. I’m yet to catch that amusing sight on camera! My lead image really captures how adept they are at feeding from the berries, so I’m entering it into today’s ShareMondays2018 and Fotospeed challenges. I’ll keep on trying to photograph one their epic fails!

Blue Monday: Of Dust Motes And Dreams

Blue Monday: Of Dust Motes And Dreams

The late holly blue butterflies are still flitting about our waterways, gathering near the budding ivy where this generation lay their eggs. There are still wildflowers blooming along the Wey Navigation canal path where I spotted this, and other males, seeking nectar. The beautiful light, streaming through the trees to shine on this tattered little beauty, inspired the poet in me again.

Of Dust Motes And Dreams

Tattered
Torn
A little worn
And weathered

Jaded
Faded hues

Summer blues
And greens
Flickering
In light streams

Flimsy
Frayed
At the rim

Paper-thin wings
Still holding on

Fragile
Yet strong
Agile in flight

Daintily alight
Upon wild
Bowing blooms
As dusk looms

Steadfast sprite
Drink deep
This sweet
Ambrosia

Stave off
The long sleep

Withering
Diminishing
Last notes
Of a hushed song

Impression retained
In glittering
Sunbeams

Flittering away
To dust motes
And dreams

This is my entry for this week’s WexMondays challenge. Good luck to all taking part!

ShareMondays2018 – Summer Has Flown By

ShareMondays2018 – Summer Has Flown By

A beautiful, male southern hawker dragonfly, fiercely protecting his territory, at RHS Wisley Gardens, in the warm sunshine yesterday. These hawkers are dragonflies of Autumn, seen into October and occasionally even November. I’m sharing this beauty for this week’s ShareMondays2018 and Fotospeed challenges.

Cusp

Summer has flown by
In the mere blink of an eye
Autumn colours reign

Say It With Flowers

Say It With Flowers

The recent rains have brought green back to the slopes of Box Hill, along with a wealth of wildflowers! It was rather lovely to watch these male (left) and female (right) common blue butterflies courting each other upon the wild marjoram flower buds. Sadly their dance of love never reached it’s conclusion as the courting couple were rudely interrupted by a busy bee!

Blue Monday: Holly Blue

Blue Monday: Holly Blue

This is my entry for the Fotospeed challenge this week. I was really thrilled to count eleven holly blue butterflies along a short stretch of the Thames, near Sunbury Lock, for this year’s Big Butterfly Count. It’s a perfect habitat for them with plenty of their larval food plants; holly, ivy and hawthorn. This is the second generation of hollies in flight this year, females will be looking to lay their eggs next to the emerging flower buds on ivy. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a third generation in flight this year!

Lost Souls Swimming In A Fish Bowl

Lost Souls Swimming In A Fish Bowl

The lyrics from one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs, Wish You Were Here. I wish I could be back down there now, under the sea, weightless, floating into the blue, escorted by a flotilla of fish.

The diver you see here, surrounded by all those fish, is Darios from the Arian Diving Centre in Kardamena. We’ve been fortunate enough to do four dives with Arian this year while in Kos. The dives were split over two days, the first a new site for us off the little island of Strongili. Fantastic spot with stunning underwater landscapes, shimmering thermoclines and vast shoals of damselfish.

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On our second day out we headed west along the coast of Kos to Santa Irini, where Mount Dikeos drops down in almost vertical cliffs and gullies to create an underwater landscape full of chasms, reefs and caves. Around the reef Darios feeds the fish and they flock to him! Moving through the waters with fish darting all around you, swimming side by side with them is the most wonderful experience. I can’t thank Arian and Darios, particularly, enough for these experiences! Simon and I learn more with each dive and Arian have helped us immensely on our journey as Open Water Scuba Divers.

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We’re coming to the end of our holiday sadly but it’s been absolutely wonderful again! Kos is a beautiful island above and below the waters. I thoroughly recommend that you put it on your travel list! I hope you all enjoy these images and I bet you do now wish you were here.

For WexMondays photo challenge.