A glorious midsummer afternoon

It was a glorious midsummer afternoon at Hickling yesterday.  Almost devoid of birds but totally gorgeous anyway. Everywhere I went there was the sound of seed pods popping.  There were butterflies and dragonflies in abundance and it was a good chance for me to test my photographic skills.  I came home realising I need a lot more practice both at the photography and the Butterfly ID!  Even with my photos in front of me I am still struggling to ID them.  Were they Gatekeeper or Small Heath?  Was that a Small Skipper?  Sadly there were no Swallowtail about, I can do those!

It really was very hot and I had to rest by the tower hide.  I spotted this poor crow suffering from the heat.  He really does look comical trying to cool off with his wings spread and beak gaping.

Hot Crow

              View from the Observation hide

There has not been much about in the garden recently.  Butterfly is still about although not as much since I stopped him abusing my bird feeders.  The main birds I see now are juvenile Great Tit and Blue Tit.  I have seen the Jay on occasion but he does not come down as much as he did.  I just hope the lack of birds is not due to my moving the feeding station.  That Butterfly has a lot to answer to.

We discovered a wasp nest under the roof yesterday.  This time we are sure they are wasps, they are nowhere near as large as the hornets.  Hairy hubby put his extermination skills to the test again by standing on the wheelie bin and attacking them with fly killer.  I don't know how successful he was but you could hear they did not like it one bit!  When it's a bit cooler he will have to get into the loft and see if there is a nest in there.  At the moment I think anyone who ventured up there would die of heat exposure within minutes.

We did have one new visitor yesterday.  At least I have never seen one in the garden before.  A lovely Comma butterfly down by the Silver Birch where the Hornets nested.  He was having a lovely time winding me up when I was trying to take his portrait.  I wish I had taken more notice of the butterflies in the garden earlier in the year.  I know we had Orange tip and there were some lovely small blue ones which I meant to get around to identifying.  I suppose now I have lost my wood I am focusing more on the garden again.   

Comma