SPOT THE BEE FLY ETC. ETC. UPDATE 27H JUNE 2023
Hello again, - we have to open this update of the Bee Fly with the sad news of the passing of Lorraine Martin, as advised by Sue Proudly and Chris Rose here:
“Hi Had a phone call from Sue Proudly today, who had been contacted by a relative of Lorraine Martin giving her details of her funeral. Unfortunately, she had no other information as to when or how/why she died. Thought perhaps it would be an idea to put it onto Bee Fly that yet another of our friends and fellow CNHS members had ‘bitten the dust’.
The funeral details are - Southampton Crematorium at 2.30pm on 10th July. I’m not sure who would go that far. I’ve been chatting to Joan and they will not be able to make it.
‘See you at Irene’s hopefully. Chris”
We extend our condolences to Lorraine’s family.
In response to the appearance of Stag Beetles in our last couple of updates, Pat Morris has commented thus:
“We had stag beetles in our garden quite regularly, but one year there were about 8 of them on the lawn dismantled by magpies. I don’t think we have seen any at all for about 10 years. Pat”
This reminded Jenny and I of similar findings in our garden. Thanks Pat.
Ken Crick next, the only other contributor to this update with some nice Fungi photos and one particularly unusual photo of a series of graduated wicker rings he found whilst walking on Heath Warren, quite a pleasant surprise!:
“Hi Mike, a mystery in the woods, plus 2 fungi we found one week ago, the Lycogala terreste was fungus of the month in May 2022. Regards Ken”
Jenny and I joined a small group from our camera club, led by Roger and Jean Hoyle for an evening stroll over the Windlesham SANGS site searching for flowers or insects to photograph. Jenny found the Common Red Soldier Beetle, whilst I found another Grass Moth. I also found amongst the grass a small flower I initially thought was an orchid, however, on closer inspection it seems to be no more than a grass seed/flower head…
The female Broad Bodied Chaser was photographed in our garden
Honeysuckle in our garden by Jenny and a few flowers from a local hedgerow plus a ‘Fairy Cap’ fungus taken in Wales. Looking for Ken to respond!
A pair of Greenfinches on one of our gsarden feeders:
Finally, a couple of juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers in the garden:
…and a pair of Azure Damselflies in the garden pond by Jenny.
That’s it for this time, please let us have your contributions!
We look forward to meeting many of you at Irene’s Garden Party on Saturday from 2pm until 4pm.
Have you informed Irene that you are planning to attend?
We’ll see you there!
Regards to all,
Mike and Jenny