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






