Harefield critters

I've spent a couple of hours the last two afternoons mooching around a set route in Harefield near my Mums house. 

I start at London Gate and walk up through the prettiest footpath surrounded on both sides by umbellifers, dock leaves, nettles, garlic mustard, dog rose, brambles and other beautiful native plants. When I reach St Marys Church, I stop for a while at a favourite bench where I can see my grandparents grave, where my dads ashes are, where my cousins ashes are and where two of my great uncles ashes are and where I can also see my daughters final resting place. From there I walk across the church grounds past where my great-grandparents are buried, and through the gap in the stone wall to the little path that runs alongside the graveyard. From there I cut through a gap in the fence and into the brilliant long grass meadow with bramble and nettle patches on the edges which is just on the outskirt of the woods. It is my favourite nature route here in Harefield. 

In June there are so many critters to see that it often takes me an hour just to reach the church. And at the bench in the graveyard I feel so at peace that I can often lose an hour there too. And dont even get me started on the meadow ....... 

Anyway, I took all the below photos yesterday afternoon and this afternoon (when the sun actually came out for a while). All identifications are under each photo. 

One really good thing I have noticed over the last two afternoons is the number of 7-Spot Ladybird larvae and adults are far greater than the number of Harlequin larvae and adults. Harlequins are an introduced species to the UK, and their little spiny larvae will happily gobble up any other ladybird larvae species. 

As my regular blog followers know by now, I do a regular UKBMS butterfly transect at Cranford Park, where we rarely get Marbled Whites and only seem to get Ringlets every other year. This week I've been seeing on facebook that both species of butterfly have started to be seen around the UK. Last June I saw good numbers of both in the long grass meadows by the church, so I was very keen to find them yesterday and today. Yesterday the only butterflies I saw was one solo Meadow Brown, but today the sun bought out several Meadow Browns, and a couple of Speckled Woods and at last a good handful of both Ringlet and Marbled Whites. 

So, are you sitting comfortably ? Here come the onslaught of photos ..... 

7-spot Ladybird adult

7-spot Ladybird adult

7-spot Ladybird larvae

7-spot Ladybird larvae

7-spot Ladybird larvae

the spiny Harlequin Ladybird larvae

 

Pied Shieldbug instar 

Red-headed Cardinal beetle

Welsh Chafer

Fairy-ring Longhorn beetle aka Pseudovadonia livida

Fairy-rings getting jiggy with it

Thick-thighed Flower beetle aka Oedemera nobilis (male)

A trio of Thick-thighs

Dock Bug aka Coreus marginatus

Dock bugs getting jiggy with it

Cinnamon bug aka Corizus hyoscyami

Speckled bush-cricket nymph

Speckled bush-cricket nymph

ant farm -  incredibly ants like to 'milk' aphids for their own sustenance and will protect them from ladybirds and other predators. If you google 'ant farming aphids' you'll see pages and pages of information about these

Common blue damselfly - eagerly awaiting my mate Neil to correct me on this - damsels are not my forte :) 

Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood from a different angle

Marbled White

Marbled White head first in buttercup

Marbled White - I can see you

Ringlet

Ringlet

I am lucky that Harefield has so many green natural places to explore, but this set route from London Gate to the long grass meadow just draws me in each time.