Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Conkers

Conkers is a visitors center and play area right over the north-west of Leicestershire (so far over that the postal address is for Derbyshire, but it is on our side of the border). We had a great day out, and there is plenty of good habitat around such that it's easy to combine a family day out with some opportunistic camera pointing. Today I was very lucky indeed, as the abundant ragwort, water mint, field scabious and various umbelifers hosted masses of hoverflies, and in amongst the plethora of Eristalis spp. and Helophilus spp., I found some dipteran goodies .....

Phasia hemiptera - smart!

Conops flavipes - another smart one.

Syritta pipiens - wacky rear femur

Eristalis intricarius - not as common as the others today

Surprisingly very few damsels and dragons about, and also very few grasshoppers and crickets, though Josh found this one easily enough ....

female Long-winged Cone-head

Amongst the plants, I found a load of this growing in part of a very damp and shaded wooded area ...

Water Figwort

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