More From The Campsite

A few more photos from our recent camping trip.  We pitched our tent on a clifftop, on the south of the Island, where we had spectacular views of the English Channel at the expense of feeling the full force of the high winds I mentioned in my previous post.  This Kestrel was a frequent visitor to the skies above our tent, its source of food being a ravine 20 feet in front of our pitch.  Despite seeing it often, this was my best shot.

 When we collapsed the tent at the end of the week, we found this Dark Arches moth in the folds.  It's quite a large moth, with a wing span of 46-54mm.

I found it quite handsome, and photographing it made a good excuse for me to hide in the tent while Rob wrestled the sleeping bags back into their cases.

This Lesser Stag Beetle walked across our path later in the day, fortunately nowhere near our tent, which was now packed away and in the back of the car.  I'm not sure how well I would have handled finding this in my sleeping bag!  In fact, I have a fair idea and it wouldn't have been pretty!  At up to 32mm in length, it's a whopper of a beetle, and those mandibles are very intimidating!

Dragging out the last moments of our little holiday, we stopped in a lay-by for a picnic lunch.  After chucking half the packing out of the boot of our car to find the not-so-cool-anymore cool bag and slapping some, by now, misshaped bread round some warm cheese, I took my camera for one last walk along the hedgerow and snapped this Wasp Beetle.

As the name suggests it is a (long-horned) beetle that looks like a wasp.  These beetles also move and make buzz-like noises similar to wasps, but they are harmless.

Video Of A Click Beetle

We've just got back from a few days camping on the south of the Island.  The wind didn't let up at all and so most nature photography was impossible.  However, a few bugs took refuge from the weather in our tent and shortly after we set up, our daughter, Annie, alerted us to this acrobatic beetle.  

(Turn up your volume to hear the click)

When these little beetles are scared or upside down they snap a spine on their prosternum into a corresponding notch on their mesosternum which produces a loud click and launches them into the air.  A useful trick, and one that kept us amused for some time.

Sunday in the Meadows

The metallic blue/green of this Common Malachite - Malachius bipustulatus - caught my eye yesterday, as we walked through the local meadows.  I read here at 'Bugs and Weeds', that the small buff projections at the base of it's antennae indicate a male.

We crossed the river over a little wooden bridge, and stumbled into a damselfly wonderland.  This female Azure looked like it was about to tuck into dinner.

While a male Azure warmed in the sun.  Apparently there are 5 common types of blue damselfly and it's hard to tell them apart.  A lot depends on the marking on segment 2 (in the male Azure it is a U shape) and how much blue is on segment 8 and 9.

Many thanks, again, to the folks at WAB.

Small and Spotty

I photographed this tiny ladybird in a field of buttercups, last week.  It's a 16 Spot; only 3mm long, and distinguishable from the similar 14 Spot not only by the 2 extra spots, but also by the fact that it's spots are rounder and some of them are merged.

 The following morning, as I sipped my coffee in the back garden, this little fella crawled out of a brick beside my chair.  Again, only about 3mm long, and to my unpracticed eye it looked a very interesting ladybird.

 However, Klaas, from WAB, kindly informed me that it is not a ladybird, but a Dermestidae - Attagenus pellio, more commonly known as a Two-spotted Carpet Beetle.

These seem rather scarce on the NBN Gateway map; whether that's because they are considered pests, are so small, or because they really are uncommon, I don't know.  I do know, however, that it's wings looked amazing in the morning sunshine.