Polydrusus formosus

 

This is a green immigrant leaf weevil.  It was very difficult to photograph because it was so small and moving very quickly along the garden wall.

It is a pest really and has potential to cause damage to emerging leaves and  blossoms so not really a welcome visitor to the garden but it is quite interesting with really vibrant colouring. As you can see from the second image which is a close crop of the carapace the colouring is actually a series of very fine dotted lines (you probably have to zoom in a bit) each dot like a little green jewel.

It is hard to get a true sense of scale when these are enlarged but if you use the grains of sand in the mortar as a guide you will get some idea of how tiny this thing is.

Not So Pretty!

One of my favourite songbirds is the Dipper, it is an amazing bird and I have often enjoyed watching them from a river bank as they dart past or sit on a rock bobbing up and down searching for insect larvae on the river bed before swooping down to catch a tasty meal.

At the start of the year I set myself a goal of photographing one but here we are just over 6 months into the year and I haven't had an opportunity to get out and as time is slipping by I worry that I won't meet my goal.

Yesterday was the first opportunity I have had in such a long time to go out beyond my local area and I headed down to Miller's dale in the Peak District in search of a dipper. It was a nice day and great to be out and about and I did spot what I had gone to see, one dipper flying past at high speed close to the waters surface and off into the distance. While I was thrilled to see it I was frustrated that it was my only sighting of the day.

However never one to waste an opportunity I put my various lenses to use and got a nice selection of landscape shots, some macro shots of flowers and a few close ups of a fly. Now I know its not the most beautiful thing you will see today but it is amazing what you can see when you get this close.