Volucella Zonaria.

My place is enclosed by Ivy clad walls and many Insects are taking advantage now the Ivy is flowering a particular interesting one is the Hover Fly volucella zonaria a huge beast doing quite a good job of pretending to be a Hornet. The Victoria Plum tree is shedding plums and many many Red Admiral are able to utilise the sugars on offer.

Two Little Egrets and a Sparrowhawk were sharing the air and water space with a lot of Hirundines today and taking a detour round the Cote back road I noted some twenty Lesser Black-Backed Gulls.
camboy.

A new Angle

Had a shower this morning (that should do it for the Autumn) and noticed on the out side of the window what I think is an Angle Shades Moth. Don't spare me if it's wrong please let me know.

camboy

Having it off in the Quarry

A very nice Sunday dinner cooked by my Daughter in Law Ellen and enjoyed in the company of my son Gavin and Mother in Law Ivy (of course I always refer to her as poison ivy) and Brother in Law Randall was finished by about 3.00 pm giving me time to look in at Shellingford Quarry on my way home to check on the alternate wildlife, as the Quarry is very quiet at the present time regarding birdlife.
I noticed a chap lurking in the herbage with camera in hand obviously with the same intention as myself, it turned out his name was Ian Waller a previous county recorder of Dragon Flys etc for the Northern county of Durham. This chap knew his stuff and I spent the next couple of hours in his company listening to a real insect enthsiast and we were both fortunate to observe Migrant Hawkers mating, most exciting as they flew rapidly round and round and up and down, "get ready with your camera" Ian whispered for they will get tired and will settle to have a rest which they eventually did apparently still coupled giving us a photo opportunity and themselves a breather.
Ian has spent the last couple of days in the county visiting some of the Oxon hot spots for insects many of them on the advice of our own Oxon Dragon Flyer Stephen Burch and he refered to our county as a mega county for Dragons. Eventually his Wife/Partner phoned to let him know where she was as she had gone for a drive round while he played in the quarry, so saying our goodbyes we parted, although there was still one more little treat in the form of a Speckled Wood Butterfly that presented itself to me just before I got back to my car.

camboy

Hey! Fellow Nerds.

Took advantage of the dry conditions to mow the lawn last night and disturbed a Moth but I know not its name, just had time to dash in and get the cam. and get a couple of not great stills before it flitted off never to be seen again. Anyone out there have a clue as to its identity ?
Gosh! these other flighted beings are becoming almost unhealthily interesting to me, if I don't watch it I will be building "heath robinson" type Moth Traps and joining the small people of Port Meadow - Heaven Forbid.

camboy

Beautiful Farmoor Moth.

Motored down to Farmoor to place a few "Dawn to Dusk- It's a Must" posters designed by Lewbelu,  of course he has made a wonderful job of them and after pinning them up I took the opportunity to have a look round, I guess the highlight was a Red Underwing Moth a striking individual and the rest I will probably get wrong but I hope if I do you will kindly correct me.

Yellow - Legged Gull

Red Underwing

Red Underwing

                           Kronk - Grey Heron.

Red Common Darter.

Kingfisher.

Your turn, now don't be shy go to the comments box and show me how knowledgeable you are.

camboy

H owler

The Wychwood Forest Fair saw the OOS display located next to the Barn Owl project, held Sunday 2nd Sept. we as usual had a busy time so it was a good job that Roy Overall had offered his help as Alan Larkman and I were at times struggling to cope. The day had started badly because I had stupidly left my entry slip at home but at least I could clearly remember our site number 64 so you can imagine our surprise when a young lady selling fluffy things you stroke, indignantly told us to fluff off. In fact our number was 93 and I still have no idea why the number 64 had ingrained itself in my fragile mind.
Pat Wixey, Albert Allen and Ian Anderson were also kept busy with their Owls and Louise Spicer who was displaying a Bird Aid poster on our stand floated around covering several interests she has with the Wychwood. It was wonderful to meet old friends again and a particular pleasure was meeting not just John Prowse but his fairly recent baby and his charming Wife who ,when I suggested fitting out the baby with a pair of bins from a nearby optics stand displayed typical "birder wife" reaction with "I don't think so".
Today 4th. I enthusiastially took up an invitation from Clive and his Lady MT to lunch with them, Oh! glory be it was so delicious the duck breasts simply melted in the mouth I really am so lucky with the friends I have. A nice Butterfly a Small Tortoiseshell put in an appearance before I left to visit a mate in The Great Western Hospital at Swindon.
Arriving home and checking on my huge flock of chickens (five) I noticed on an Apple Tree a Lacewing I think chrysoperla carnea and managed to get a photo of sorts, what do you reckon am I right?

Albert and Pat - What a hoot.

Roy Overall looking for his Mum

No silly the girl is young enough to be your granddaughter

Alan engages with Chris.

Ian Anderson to the left and  Pat.

Small Tortoiseshell

Chrysoperla Carnea.

Part of the OOS display.

camboy.

It Was Bugging Me.

The Micro Moth previously posted, that apparently none of you were able to identify and as I became more and more determined to name, eventually resorting to emailing the "great bugger" himself Richard Lewington.
So hurrah ! At last I now know the little devil flitting about in the early evening at Hardwick is----- wait for it durrumm da da da durrumm  Common Tortricid Moth - Celypha Lacunana so there you have it and of course my thanks go to Richard, although he did mention that "it was a crap photo" (not in those words) he obviously doesn't read my blog or he would have known the photo was par for my course.
Haven't had time to insult or upset anyone lately or get out into the marvellous, even if this year it has been mainly wet and grey Oxon countryside, due to a combination of visiting friends in hospital, family commitments, and OOS responsibilities. The Oxford Ornithology Society is exhibiting at the Wychwood Forest Fair this sunday 2nd September please make a point of making yourself known to me. Our stand will be alongside the Pat Wixey OOS Barn Owl Project and also sharing our space will be Louise Spicer who does so much for the farmland birds in the Charlbury/Chippy area. Another date for your diary is the upcoming Thames Water Bioblitz/OOS Farmoor Open Day when along with a huge list of activities we will be holding an evening Gull Roost Watch led by Ian Lewington and holding a feather identification competition with a first prize of an Ian Lewington framed bird print, a second prize of the paper back edition of the Collins Bird Guide and the third prize is a three dimensional framed picture of a Golden Eagle, this free event is to be held on Sunday 16th September and I will give out more details shortly.

Common Tortricid Moth - Celypha Lacunana Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the better shots. There is a marginally better picture on "Out in the Cold" a previous recent blog entry.

camboy