It feels as though I’ve hardly left the house this year. Back in late May, I found a huge pile of dead male banded demoiselles at my local country park. Apparently, there was a mass emergence due to the hot weather. Then, it turned cold and they were unable to hunt. Flocking to their warmer roosting spot, they eventually starved to death and that is where I found them. It was my last visit to one of my favourite locations, as there were no other bugs either.
Since then, I’ve had one visit to Ashdown Forest, one to East Blean and the final one to Hollingbourne at the end of June. And that’s it! Recently, I’ve been too worried about wildfires, as we are surrounded by thousands of acres of tinder dry fields, so I’ve just sat around wondering if I will ever get out with my camera gear again.
The images here were all taken during a couple of hours at Hollingbourne. A massive circular walk revealed nothing of interest until I found a small patch of knapweed. I’m not ashamed to admit, that as the only likely candidate for photographs, I cleared out the weeds and waited for any bug that passed by.
The marbled white featured at the top was not far away, sleeping on an orchid in the shade.
Marbled white on knapweed.
Painted lady.
Six-spot burnet moth.
Finally, a tiny little marmalade hoverfly.
