Menoturals; Of Gardens and Bugs

I could moan yet again about the 'bug' in the intermutts just now that is preventing some posts from reaching my reader in a timely fashion and then bringing them in batches, two, three, and sometimes more together. But no... this is about bugs of the insect type. True bugs, important ecological residents. 

Sharing with the LLB gang on Nature Friday, I bring you, first, the Common Blue Damselfly, aka as a Bluet...

This was as close as I could get with my phone camera zoom. The minute I moved a step closer it was off. There were lots of them around at Northumberlandia... but nowhere near the numbers of other insects. We were surrounded by the sound of grasshoppers, but I only laid eyes on one... and it was off before I could get focused on it. If you are interested, you can see a good photo and read about the Meadow Grasshopper at this link. It mentions the colour, and I can report that the one I did see had the purplish variance in colour, which is rather fun.

One insect of which there was an incredible number was the Six-spot Burnet Moth. We had fun trying to get any kind of decent shot of these flutteries! Constantly on the move and often shifting away from full-frontal, it was quite the challenge. First I had a go at a group of them on the Ragwort, but they all shifted into shade.... can you see the four of them?

That single one on the clover was the most successful of the 87 (well... maybe fifteen) photos I snapped. This is one of those occasions when I think back to my glory days of a camera bag with a full SLR and interchangeable lenses to fit the needs of the shoot! Still, I think I do okay with my phone camera these days.

The next shot is another subject in shade... can you see the male sparrow under the cabbages? The Cabbage White Butterflies were very busy laying their eggs, and this wee fellow appeared to be having a banquet!

To finish, a Cardoon flower... these are a vegetable plant and a great attractor for pollinators... if you enjoy vegetables such as celery and globe artichoke, you will most probably appreciate cardoons, too. Even if you don't, I think it would be a hard eye that didn't love seeing these structural, statuesque beauties in a garden border!