Bugs and birds

 I've seen a couple of beautiful bugs in the last week, as the Spring weather (wet, but warmer) has come in. As always, my bug identification is rubbish, so I guess that these are both beetles, Coleoptera, but can only guess at the family. This one might be a Tiger Beetle (Cicindellidae family), but equally it might not:

Beetle, feeling waspish

And this one could be a Leaf Beetle (Chrysomelidae family) but equally could be one of the other zillion species of bug. Either way, she or he is a beautiful metallic gold colour.

Auric, the bug

Some of the bugs are being consumed by the birds, and a pair of Blue tits, Parus caeruleus, have made a nest in the dead tree that supports our washing line. Here is one, bringing a bug back for the babes:

 

Caught in a trophic web

 

Double Bug

Two scenes of, er, bug intimacy this week.

The first is a pair of clegs (horse flies), Tabanidae. I have an admiration-hate relationship with clegs. Admiration for their extraordinary efficiency and accuracy - they can attack a horse's legs - or mine - fast and from a distance, but land with such precision that you feel nothing until the wee bu&&er has bitten a chunk out of you, at which they fly off, again at high speed but this time in a dodging, zigzag flight path that makes them impossible to swat. Hate, because they are a constant summer nuisance for the donkeys.

But the admiration part of the equation increased with this pair who managed to couple on an orange-tree leaf, and then fly off, still coupled in perfect coordination, when my camera got too close.

This is giving me a buzz

Clegs fight the stereotype; it is she that bites the donkeys, while he floats around our garden flowers eating only nectar.


And then there were these two. They were locked in a love scene at the entrance to a mouse burrow, like two sumo wrestlers. These two barely moved when I approached, and were clearly not going anywhere for anyone. 

It's boring but it works