violet oil beetle

 

Bug Watch  have asked for sightings of oil beetles (link), and today on a walk along the Inny valley and up through Carthamatha we found this one (male, probably violet species) wandering across the footpath. As the link explains these beetles have the most amazing life cycles. Unfortunately when we tried to submit our sighting the site link broke down.

  

the lower picture is a better picture of the same species outside our house a few years ago (and qv ). I think they must be quite common around here

home guard

Spot on duty

not as pretty as it seems

this is the variegated form of yellow archangel. Although pretty, it is almost certainly a garden escapee, and in that there are no gardens nearby it is probably the result of people dumping their garden waste at the entrance to Rowden lane (a bridle path in the parish) rather than taking it to a tip. This is also why there are some spanish bluebells on the other side of the lane. They are slowly working their way along the lane and will inevitably displace or hybridise with the extensive beds of native bluebells further down the bridle path. It may seem harmless but this casual thoughtless behaviour is destroying our native flora.

mayflowers

this is the flore  pleno variety of cuckoo flower (aka mayflower, lady's smock etc) which is common in local meadows by the Inny. The dew drops looked very pretty in the bright sun this morning.

orange tips

The air in the meadows by the Inny was full of orange tip butterflies today. They are jittery butterflies at the best of times but do settle to feed on mayflower and dandelion. The male's orange wings makes it very conspicuous although it ought to be called a brown tip. The female is much more demure and the underwing is cleverly camouflaged to fit in with meadow grasses.

blackest blackthorn

ethereal beauty of blackthorn bush at night