little owl

A great treat was in store for us last night when we returned home. There on the gate post was a small owl. Dazzled by the headlights it sat quite still with a large worm in its mouth for at least a minute, no more than 3 feet away from us, before loping off into the dark of the giant sycamore trees above the duckpond. I always say always carry a camera precisely for these moments, but do I? Of course not. It appears very probable that it was a little owl (link), it certainly was very small, about 9 inches high. I am not sure which type of owl starred in Winnie the Pooh but it reminded me very much of the line drawings in the books. Perhaps all owls look wise when perched on a gatepost. Poor weather and immobility have meant few opportunities for photographs, so we are reduced to an exciting picture of slug dating.
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cooking apples

we are not the only ones who like the taste of these cooking apples. The tree is a graft from a much older tree that was the victim of honey fungus about ten years ago, and is now cropping extremely well. I know it is difficult to like wasps but they are very useful.

only 184 species to go

oh the joys of hoverflies and having the definitive guide to them (Stubbs and Falk), no longer do we need to misidentify everything as "bee". This is eristalis interruptus (or something quite close), taking a shower on some angelica. Only another 184 species or so to go.

wall brown

He is still confined to the house, so we are unable to go on our usual long and exciting walks, and are reduced to photos of things in the garden. This restless butterfly is usually difficult to photograph because it rarely stays still for very long, but here it is warming up in the morning sun getting ready for a good day's fluttering.

tortoiseshells

the common but very pretty tortoiseshell butterfly, distinguished from the rarer large tortoiseshell by the heavy black scaling around the body. There have been an amazing number of butterflies around in the last few days. Something must be going right.

eyes in the back of your head

another close up of the hover fly. What interested me was the little shield between the two compound eyes with three little raised spots. These are called ocelli (from the latin ocelus or eye). Their function is a bit of a mystery, but they may be associated with the fly's ability to orientate itself in 3 dimensions when flying (see link). Isn't life interesting.