Friday 27 June 2014

Injured Dragonfly.

I have quite a number of dragonflies emerging from my pond this year and will post more about them in another post.  I found this one dragonfly quite a way from the pond, about 3 metres. Not sure whether at had emerged and flown there (unlikely) or it had crawled there as a nymph and emerged there. I couldn't see any signs of its exuvia (outer case of nymph.).  It was attached to a plant with his wings closed as though it hadn't yet managed to fly.  Its wings were bent at the end as though it hadn't been able to fully expand them. 



This was 2 days ago and I have been watching but it still has not opened its wings.  I have just tried to open them and found that it only has three wings instead of the usual four.  It did start to move when I separated them so will keep an eye it to see if it manages to fly off.  It must be in need of food by now after all the effort it has been through to emerge. 


Sunday 22 June 2014

Seen today at Newport Wetlands

Really enjoy walking round Newport Wetlands and today it was lovely with the temperature reaching 23C.
I took many photos but not many good ones.  Here are the best.

Tall Melilot

Six spot Burnet moth on bird's-foot trefoil



Caterpillar of peacock butterfly on stinging nettles


Red Dead Nettle


View of the Severn Estuary

Large Skipper Butterfly, looks like a moth to me but apparently not!




                                                                 Cinnabar moth on Ragwort 



Ragwort


Orchid


Burnet moths mating. To the left of them is an empty cocoon. and below is another cocoon, a bit out of focus though.
The larvae construct paper-like cocoons high up on slender grass stems to make it tricky for birds to attack. When the moths emerge the empty black pupa cases are left sticking out of the cocoons.



 This is a ringlet butterfly. They are generally brown but there are variations. This one is very dark without the usual spots.  Below is the underwing view which does have the typical spots. 


The following pictures are all of Marsh Helleborine which belong to the orchid family.  Couldn't decide which I liked best so posted them all. 






Caterpillar of the Oak Eggar moth

Friday 20 June 2014

Herb Garden pictures

A while since I posted again so here are the latest photos of my herb garden and Spiky the hedgehog.