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David

Soldier beetle pair on yarrow

Soldier beetle pair on yarrow

Flowers on another of the stems as the same yarrow plant featured in a post yesterday. More common red soldier beetles, not feeding, but locked in a mating embrace. They, or rather the female, walking as they did so, making surprisingly good progress.

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David

Filberts, just starting to ripen

Filberts, just starting to ripen

Filberts, cobnuts or hazelnuts, whatever you call them, starting the process which should end in them ripening. In fact, it will end with the nuts being grabbed by grey squirrels before they are quite ripe.

Filberts, just starting to ripen
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David

Lone soldier beetle on yarrow

Lone soldier beetle on yarrow

Common red soldier beetle feeding on a yarrow flower. They are indeed quite common at the height of summer, and mainly coloured red. They are vegetarian in diet, and don’t go around in armies. Their red colouration isn’t even very much like the scarlet of one-time uniforms.

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David

Staghorn sumac, still green

Staghorn sumac, still green

A staghorn sunac growing in a front garden. The freshly opened flowers beginning to change from their initial green to the deep, dark red which they will become.

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David

Diet of … beetles

Diet of ... beetles

A patch of bird dropping on a buddleia leaf. A closer look reveals that the bird which left it, perhaps a blackbird, had eaten a hearty meal of beetles. Pieces of exoskeleton had just passed straight through.

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David

Red runners

Red runner

Bright red flowers on runner beans, holding the prospect of some nice fresh veg later in the summer.