Monday 23 June 2014

Early Summer Insects

Of the damselflies, this one, the beautiful demoiselle, seems the most common here.  We've seen groups of them but all have been males.  The females have a bronze-coloured abdomen.  We've yet to see a female.

Large red damselflies are much less common.  This, again, is a male as the female has black and yellow bands along the abdomen.

In contrast, we've seen lots of small heath butterflies this year, particularly at Sanna and, seeing this pair at Sanna, it looks like there'll be more later in the summer.

Almost every morning if the night has been dry we find a moth or two sitting on the glass of our house windows.  Since the rooms have been dark all night, it can't be light that's attracting them.  This position is also very visible to any passing moth-eating bird.

This very smart caterpillar was making his way in avery determined fashion across the track that leads to Achosnich schoolhouse.  Despite every effort to identify him from the caterpillar websites, we've not been able to find him.

We have the usual collection of bumblebees coming to the garden plants.  Our escallonia bushes have more flowers than ever this year and the bees seem to appreciate their efforts.

We found this little pile of what appears to be largely beetle remains sitting on top of a stone wall the other day.  We're puzzled as to what animal has a diet so high in beetles.  Can anyone help?

6 comments:

  1. Looks like it could be a hedgehog.

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  2. Many thanks. It's an acrobatic hedgehog - the pile of beetles was on top of a stone wall. Jon

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  3. Well i suppose it wil be a pine marten poop then.

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  4. Many thanks, Rob - that looks perfect. Jon

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  5. A job to judge the size of the pile but it looks to be a cast pellet rather than poop, a crow or possibly gull ?

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  6. What about a pellet from an owl they eat lots of insects and produce incest filled pellets!!

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