Chrysops relictus

Another cloudy, windy day. Didn't have anything to Blip by 2:30pm so announced I was going for "one of my walks". Went down to the brook where I momentarily saw the Kingfisher (unfortunately it also saw me and didn't hang about). Saw some female common darter dragonflies, swirling in the breeze but there were not many insects on the wing.

I decided to take a walk up to a swampy area where I captured this dragonfly as I had also seen several common blue butterflies there. Even in this little haven, out of the worst of the breeze insects were thin on the ground. I spotted this rather attractive fly but had no idea what it was, it seemed quite docile so I got close enough to capture, I also found one lesser blue which you can see here.

Turns out that attractive fly is a type of horse fly (also known as the twin-lobed deerfly) it is apparently "....known to many who walk the countryside, especially by it's known tendency to bite". Obviously and luckily enough, it seems I did not present an appetising subject for the fly but I will be looking out for it in the future, if only to avoid it's bite! Rather attractive though.

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