That Virus and Other Bugs

Yesterday I had to nip to my local medical practice to collect my monthly medication. They were taking precautions against spreading the dreaded lurgy. We had to queue outside. They had even put out cones every 2m to keep people an appropriate distance apart. I had arrived early so was first in the queue. A young man, complete with gloves and face mask, asked me my name and address, went inside, collected the tablets and brought them out to me.

More interesting bugs were these woodlice (pill bugs) I found (no sound)



Do you see what I spotted on our daily walkabout?



A shield bug



Most probably a Hawthorn Shield Bug.

The Hitch-hiker

We had just returned from our early morning walk.
As I was about to undo Penny's harness I spotted the hitch-hiker.



A Hawthorn Shieldbug



It stayed long enough for me to take the Nikon out of my shirt pocket and take a few shots



A bit of a morning for close encounters.
I had spent a while watching Swifts hurtling overhead, sometimes diving down to just a couple of feet above my head as they careered past on their endless hunt for flying insects. They were still feeding their young but didn't land on the nest. Just hovered next to it for a brief moment to hand over the food before setting off again.

Little Lost Bug

 
 
Nothing much of note going on round here recently. All the bird feeders are down for a week. Unfortunately the seed scattered by the Starlings has been attracting at least one unwelcome furry visitor. It's the time of year when they come in the village from the local fields and ditches. I tried putting some special food under the shed for it / them but this time it didn't seem to have any effect so I called in a local pest controller. He will be back after seven days to see how things are going but the feeders stay down so the choice of food is limited to what he provided.

I had set up the Fujifilm IS1 without any filters so it would capture colour video along with any IR to film any local fireworks but so far that idea has bee a washout. Only a few in the distance but enough to upset Penny. The problem with the 5th November falling near the middle of the week is the use of fireworks is spread over several nights. Hopefully the best / worst will be over tonight.

A few days ago I just noticed a green shield bug on the footpath before I stepped on it:





That's about it from a wet and windy Lincolnshire this morning.

Two Very Different Youngsters

Unfortunately I didn't manage to grab any new video this week.
Here are a couple of youngsters I saw yesterday.

First a Common Green Shieldbug.
Looks to me to be a 5th instar, one stage away from being an adult:


There is a good set of illustrations showing the different growth stages of British shieldbugs on the BritishBugs site.

This is what it will look like when fully grown:
 

The other was a juvenile Goldfinch which is just beginning to get its colours:





Here is an adult in its full colour:
 

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Green Bug

A few days ago I spotted this common green shield bug (Palomena prasina) resting on the dead flower head of a buddleia bush:







I tried to get a front on view but as I moved the camera round the bug moved to keep the same side facing me.

Invasion

Many will have noticed the emergence of Crane Flies (Daddy Long-legs). This year they are particularly numerous. There are scores of them hunting round the nettles on the edge of the cricket field. They are harmless to humans and pets though they can be a nuisance when they come indoors. Fortunately for us they only live about two weeks, just long enough to mate and lay eggs but are a good supply of food for many birds.

This one was resting on my kitchen window:



They have one pair of wings. Instead of the second pair they have a pair of halteres or rocker arms just behind the wings which vibrate and help to maintain balance when flying. They are the two club shaped bits with round 'weights' on the end:



As I opened the back door yesterday this green Shield Bug fell on the floor:



Photos taken with the Nikon Coolpix S9050

Indoor Bugs and Conkers to Come

Caught sight of this little bug climbing up my curtains one night:



and this green Shield Bug spotted inside the conservatory door at bedtime:




A sign of conkers to come in the Autumn. These Horse Chestnut Tree flowers are almost at eye level which makes it easier to get the odd snapshot:


Being able to get that close, and still have my feet on the ground, the subtle colouring can be seen.

Shield Bug

A Shield Bug landed on the kitchen window and hung around long enough to get a couple of photos.





I usually see just one a year and so far each one has been different. This at 10 to 12mm body length was the largest that has visited. It appears to be a Hawthorn Shieldbug, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale


Hint: 
For yesterday's puzzle picture - think 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'.

Minibeasts

When I was primary school teaching one of the things my class and I looked forward to was a day out of the classroom exploring the local countryside to see what insects and other small creatures were about. Then would come the task of identification and finding out about their life cycle and habitat.That was in the days before the National Curriculum when the teacher was able to decide what the children would learn, chose the best times to go about it and allotted the time needed accordingly.

Not too many minibeasts spotted here at the moment. At last I did find one Speckled Wood Butterfly taking a rest from flitting all over the place though it steadfastly refused to open its wings fully.



I am not sure whether this was a small beetle or a small fly which spent a couple of hours on the outside of the kitchen window. It made a change to get a blue sky as a background!



A Hoverfly taking a rare rest.



Here a Common Green Shield Bug which spent about six hours in the same position on the outside of the kitchen window. The only time it moved was to angle itself to catch the Sun when it eventually lit up that part of the window,



It wasn't until I enlarged the photos that I noticed that this little bug was missing two of its six legs.



All the above were taken with the Lumix TZ7. There are still scores of seven spot ladybirds about. The tadpoles in the nursery pond are coming along nicely.