Wildlife Wanderings 14th July 2014

With a number of errands to run and some time to spend with my fiancée toady’s walk was limited to a couple of hours between her heading to work and me having to pick up the small one from school, and so my walk was limited to the lake itself. With that in mind I headed off with just my camera (100mm macro and Flash attached) to see what I could find in the small world of Lodge Lake.

Wildlife Wanderings 14th July 2014

There were plenty of butterfly on the wing today, the vast majority of which had to be Gatekeepers, this stunning little brown and orange butterfly was everywhere, it is one that can be tricky to photograph as it is very jumpy with any little sounds so for much of the time I had the silent shutter working for much of my butterfly work today. Like the gatekeeper there were quite a few Speckled Wood flying today and again to even have a chance with these I needed the quiet shutter, I only managed one image still. Other butterflies were Large White, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma and Small Skipper.

Gatekeeper – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

 

Gatekeeper – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

 

Large White – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Odonata

As full summer approaches so do the Odes take to the wing, and today really saw numbers up for me, there were plenty of Brown Hawker about (non sat still for even a second though as is their want), and numbers of Common Darter were well up. There are still Plenty of Blue-Tailed Damselfly, as well as Azure and Common Blue and even the odd Banded Demoiselle about, and I managed my first Emerald of the year, although it was brief and didn’t stop for long, darting back off into the bushes.

Blue-tailed Damselfly – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Other Creatures

The whole area seemed to be littered with small red beetles – Common Red Soldier Beetle – they were on every plant and flower you could see, in all manner of compromising positions as well!! I managed to photograph a Deraeocoris Ruber in my back garden as well (another red bug). There were also lots of hoverflies (Episyrphus-Balteatus – Marmalade Hoverfly and Syrphus Ribesii) and bees on the wing, too many to list (or ID really), but have a look at the photos below for what was captured.

Deraeocoris Ruber – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Episyrphus Balteatus – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Shaded Broad-bar – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Syrphus Ribesii – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Unknown Wasp – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Hoppers

Whenever I was near any long grass you could hear the sound or buzzing grasshoppers and crickets, and I was fortunate enough to spot (and photograph) a few, from the shy Slender Ground Hopper photographed right near the reed beds while I attempted to photograph Common Darter to the much more garish Rosel’s Bush-Cricket shrilly chirruping away in the long grass on the wasteland above the lake (and others I have yet to put an ID to) it is so wonderful to hear these sounds. Also in hoppers (a totally separate family but hey it fits a bit) was a Common Froghopper I found in amongst the grasses, he really didn’t want his photo taken.

Common Froghopper – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Slender Ground-hopper – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Rosel’s Bush-cricket – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Cricket Sp. – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Cricket Sp. – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

I wish I could say the birding was as good. But apart from the odd swift or young Mallard there really wasn’t much to talk about. As seems to so often be the case in summer. I am lucky to have other distractions at this time of year.

Young Mallards – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

Purple Flower – Lodge Lake, Milton Keynes

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