Another Surprise Finch

Been a busy couple of days, up and down ladders and stairs painting the hallway and landing. Today I did manage to spend some time in the garden though. Late this morning as I sat out on a quick coffee break I nearly spluttered it all over the place as a Greenfinch briefly landed on the fence and then flew off. Yes, a Greenfinch! No camera to hand, and seemed highly unlikely I'd see it again. C'est la vie. Back inside for another few hours of soul-drenching hard graft delightful DIY and I was done for the day. Cameras ready and I grabbed a net. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was beating down by that point. I was being given the complete run around by at least three individual Merodon equestris that refused to settle for a shot and all evaded the net. And then I heard not one, but it sounded like a family party of Greenfinches. I couldn't see them as I got ready with the camera, and then two shot out of the embankment scrub and disappeared. But I could still hear one wheezing and trilling a bit. You may need to turn the volume up and ignore the wind/motoway noise .....

Eventually I could see a fat motionless silhouetted blob in the twiggery, and managed to get a poor shot that I've had to lighten to reveal the glorious green and yellow blob.

Otherwise it seemed that there was more activity than in recent days, though not much was settling. Perhaps the biggest insect surprise came when I nipped back into the kitchen to make another coffee and noticed that a fly buzzing around the window was not your average housefly ...

Tachina fera - a first for the house/garden

Another first for the garden was this, although it is only a sp. for now ...

Altica sp. - almost certainly lythri, but ....

And a couple of firsts for the year ...

Episyrphus balteatus

Green-veined White

Also some good larval news, or at least I am pretty sure that this is what it is.

Early instar Orange-tip on Cuckooflower seed pod

Less good news for one larva. I idly pointed the camera at a Blackbird and when looking at the image noted something hanging off the edge of its beak ..