Hover Fly at Rest

I was up and out fairly quickly this morning as the forecast was showers coming in mid morning. Trentham as usual, and off to my favourite part of the gardens where all the insects are gathering. No butterflies, but the cooler temperature might be the reason. But that also helped my photography.

There were plenty of bees and hoverflies but they were all a bit drowsy - not yet warmed up to fly too much. Some of the bees were a little soggy too. Within about half an hour there was such a difference, most were back to normal speed, so I gave up taking blurry shots, but not before catching this hover fly.

Another lovely wildlife encounter today was the young swallows. There is a marquee around the other side of the lake wich is used for summer concerts and plays. The young swallows were sitting on the ropes which hold the marquis up and using them as a taking off point. But they weren't really flying just using the wind to sort of hover and then land back on the ropes. There were about 20 of them - it was very sweet moment to see.

And to finish, I spied a kingfisher at the other end of the lake where there's a new hide. I did take a shot but unfortunately my zoom was just not enough for the distance. It was still very good to see it sitting on the branch rather than just catching a flash of blue flying by.

A lovely couple of hours distraction.