Passing Through

When we first moved to N. Oxfordshire border, if we saw a soaring raptor, it would always be a buzzard. We only saw a red kite if we took the M40 to London, when they would often be circling above the cutting through the Chilterns, waiting for roadkill (or for the nearby feeding station). Now, the kite is the more common bird, and my heart beats a little faster when the shape in the sky turns out to be a buzzard after all. I hope they are not competing for the same niche, because kites are extraordinarily successful

I did not recognise this green knight in shining armour. I don't remember ever seeing one before. He (and I know it's male) wasn't exactly hiding his irridescence under a bushel, sitting in high contrast on the rendered surface of the shed wall. It turns out it has followed a similar trajectory to the kite: once confined to a few southern enclaves, it has spread in recent decades to become common across all of S England and Wales, but remains (so far) rare in the north and Scotland (and unobserved in Ireland) 

What would you call it if you had the privilege of naming it? The Popeye beetle? The Beamon beetle? The Atlas beetle? The Adonis beetle? Whoever assigned it a Latin name was thinking along similar heroic lines: Oedemera nobilis. The prosaic scientist who picked an English name, however, could do no better than the 'Thick-legged Flower Beetle' or the hardly more racy 'Swollen-thighed Beetle'. I have tried to find out why the males, like this one, have such an impressive profile, but drawn a blank. Is it muscle, or is it an empty shell, all for show? I can't tell you. It must serve some purpose, even if it is only a beetle version of a peacock's tail

MrsM is a little coy about the number of ox-eye daisies in our garden. A lot of people would regard them as a weed and a nuisance, but we like them and enjoy their cheerful energy. They will be pulled out after flowering and replaced by something else. I have read that they are the favourite flower of this beetle. His diet is mainly pollen and nectar so, in fact, he is a pollenator - not the image that is usually associated with that word

The daisies have made it on to the shed roof (where the deliberately poor soil means they are more petite than the ones in the fertile flower bed), so the beetle may be on his way up there. I should have watched long enough to see if the swollen legs are good at climbing