Goodbye!

We have moved away from Steyning so we will no longer be regulars on our old walks. Petra would like to say a fond farewell to all her friends - especially Skip, Rumble, Skye, Lily and Wilma. Doug says bye to all the owners and to the "happy wanderer". Keep a look-out for us though. We intend to visit our old haunts sometimes.

This blog stops here but we will continue to record our walks at petraswalks.blogspot.co.uk

Petra sends her regards from her new home.

New demoiselles

At the footbridge I have been used to seeing the beautiful demoiselles quite regularly. But this week I have noticed that they have been joined by a group of banded demoiselles.


The photo quality isn't great but at least I have recorded that they are there!

The male (above) is a much brighter blue than the beautiful demoiselles. And the female is quite striking when in flight - a bright yellowish green.

I saw several males but just one female (left).

Butterflies

There was very little wind on Thursday and the butterflies were flying easily around the open field. There were many marbled whites. The females were resting on grass stems and approaching males were usually getting the wing-fluttering refusal signal.

The picture right shows the pretty "stained glass" look of the underside of a marbled white.


Among the grasses were a large number of small skippers too.
(Shown left)








The greater part of the field was alive with meadow browns, dancing around each other in flight, sometimes in groups of four or five. (Female shown left, male on right)

Over the footbridge by the stream were red admirals, each patrolling its own territory. They frequently return to the same resting place making it easier for me to prepare for a picture.(left)

Catching some sun  amongst the brambles in this area were a few large skippers too.
(right)

A beautiful girl

Thursday's walk provided good views of many interesting insects. This female beautiiful demoiselle posed nicely for a picture near the stream. The males were flying strongly and interacting with the butterflies. (More of the butterflies to follow.)

A hive of industry

The wild bees nest that I found last year has survived the winter and is clearly well into production on this year's combs.

White and red

The flowers of a Swedish whitebeam tree are out in St Cuthman's Field. Red berries should set after the flowers have faded. The berries need to "blet" before they become edible. (That's halfway to rotten) I tried some last year when they were at that stage on the tree. They made a palatable titbit but not one that I would walk far for!

These are flowers of red valerian, growing from the bank in Jarvis Lane. They are related to, but not the same as, the plant valerian which is used as a help to sleeping at night.

Red valerian is a foodplant for the angle shades moth which I see around here occasionally. It is classed as an introduced species in Britain though it is fairly common in the wild now.

Spider and the fly

 A crab spider sits waiting on a leaf.....

...unaware that his aphid prey is sitting three leaves higher up the stem!

The spider is a Green Crab Spider (Diaea dorsata)
I like its eight eyes! It looks like a cartoon character.