Tuesday, July 14, 2026
There were a good number of water lobelia in the roadside pool, but a cool wind raking the high moors set them all dancing, making a sharp picture difficult.
It has to be said though that we are at last having a bit of a heatwave - though nothing like the temperatures seen recently in England. More in the 22-25ºC range for us. We know our place.
A blue-tailed damselfly was again present - presumably a male.
The edges of the pool are rough, with a high tangle of grass and heather to fight through; and everything I wanted to photograph seemed to be in the middle! One thing that was at the edge was something that was new to me - a backswimmer. My ancient Observer's Book of Pond Life calls it simply a water boatman, while the lesser water boatman is the one that swims the right way up.
At the far end of the pool was a second blue-tailed damselfly.
But now confusion creeps in - because from all I've read on this species, the above individual should be an immature male. However, this one flew a short way and then proceeded to lay eggs. More research needed.
There were lots of whirligig beetles on the surface of the water; and after quite a search I identified the creature below as a species of the Gerridae family (pond skaters, water striders, etc.) in its larval form.
Meanwhile, a couple of days ago, yet another wasp - head encrusted with pollen- was nectaring on the popular nettle-leaved bellflowers. This seems to be a potter or mason wasp, but they are a headache to identify so again, I'll read up on it later.
A dark giant horsefly landed on my car for a wash and brush-up, the touching eyes showing it was a male.
A few seconds later a female landed on the ground.
I read somewhere that this particular horsefly is no threat to humans, but further reading informed me that the female will bite people if she feels like it - and she seems to have pretty forbidding mouthparts, so I'll keep my distance in future.
At last - during another mini-safari in the garden - a bird! Okay, "only" a re-introduced white-tailed eagle, but I'd defy anyone to look up at the fuss the gulls were making, spot this in the sky, and not be impressed.
The eagle headed north, flying right over the bungalow as it went - the bungalow to which poor Greger has been confined for a week, suffering from a really horrible cold. So far, I haven't caught it. Fingers crossed.
