A short walk a few days ago in the recently established Stratford on Avon local nature reserve. This bittersweet (sometimes called woody nightshade) still had a few flowers, but the berries were quickly ripening from green to red.
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Common drone fly on buddleia flower
A common drone fly [Eristalis tenax] feeding on buddleia flowers. The insect is indeed one of the commoner hoverflies.
The buddleia flowering season is now coming to an end. While it lasted, rgw plant attracted what’s probably been the best showing of a range of butterfly species this year.
Red admirals have been among the more co-operative, spending some time feeding on the lower branches, nearer to my eye level. There’s two individuals in this set.
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Long-bodied cellar spider repairing web
A long-bodied cellar spider [Pholcus phalangioides] scurrying about repairing its web. It was so busy, it showed no signs of being disturbed that I came close enough with a mobile to get these pictures.
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Tiny bee on St Johns wort flower
A bee so tiny it kept almost disappearing behind the stamens of the St John’s wort flower it was collecting pollen from. Possibly a bronze furrow bee [Halictus tumulorum].
Another butterfly taking advantage of the flowers of a buddleia bush. This time it was a red admiral, undisturbed even though I was only a few feet away with a camera.