From a trip to Allhallows and Grain on Friday (Orthoptera-hunting) - one of many Wall butterflies seen during the day; a Reed Dagger moth caterpillar; one of a couple of Shrill Carder Bees at Grain Coastal Park; and Strawberry Clover in flower. #KentNature#butterflies#moths#bees#bumblebees
Vernal Shieldbug at Doddington allotments today. Once super-rare, now increasingly widespread (though still only the second one I've seen). #KentNature#Hemiptera#Bugs#Shieldbugs#allotments
Good to see Rufous Grasshoppers (nationally scarce) in really big numbers on downland by White Horse Wood Country Park - and also in the park itself - on yesterday's @kentfieldclub.bsky.social#KentNature#Orthoptera#Grasshoppers
Now this is what I've been watching the ivy for - a Callicera hoverfly, and I think/hope it's C. spinolae. Which would be nice. Only took 4 visits across a week and a half since I first spotted those white-tipped antennae peeking at me. (PS I let it go). #flies#hoverflies#diptera#syrphidae
Still not what I was watching the ivy for, but this Conopid fly, Leopoldius signatus (the so-called Ivy Waspgrabber) was new to me. Falk calls it 'widespread but elusive'. It hangs around ivy blossom, waiting to jump on a wasp and insert an egg. #KentNature#Flies#Diptera
I think we printed out our ticket.
... by contrast, that is a terrible photo of some brown blobs.
Went over to Southend with Jetstream a couple of weeks back. I was amazed by the hundreds of Turnstones roosting on the end of Southend Pier. They are top birds.
Not what I was watching the ivy for, but it was nice to see this Median Wasp among the other wasps, bees and hoverflies. #KentNature#wasps
