Bright with an occasional attempt at a shower.
I like the occasional chance to visit Lough Erne. It's on lime, which makes for a rather different flora and fauna to my local acidic soil. Even the plants which are common to both appear to present themselves differently. This Germander Speedwell is clearly a deeper blue than my local ones.
This little Coot was diving for (and catching) small fish.
Two fungi which surprised me a little, but we have had a lot of rain recently. Weeping Widow - Lacrymaria velutina (left) and Coprinus plicatilis (right). I'm leading a fungal foray here in September.
Guelder Rose and Meadowsweet have flowered. This Guelder Rose has the more normal white flowers, rather than the green ones I showed previously.
A fascinating picture of a small (1 cm.) hoverfly laying eggs on the Meadowsweet. Her abdomen was carried normally in flight, but bent through 90 degrees when laying.
Looks like Sphegina clunipes, but this is subject to confirmation. New to me, anyway.
The first Meadow Brown butterfly of the year and one of my favourite moths - Lomospilas marginata - Clouded Border - on the right.
This Ichneumonid wasp puzzles me a little. She has a long ovipositor, which indicates some requirement for hole-drilling to deposit her eggs. But she was actively searching (look at those busy antennae) on the surface of Cocksfoot grass. She won't find any nectar in there, so what's she doing?
This is a Bumblebee that I haven't recorded locally. You can just make out the orange tail. I think Bombus pratorum.
Sericomyia silentis is one of our larger hoverflies and belies its latin name by being quite loud.
Nostoc commune is an alga that often appears on compressed ground, such as a car park, which is precisely where I found this large group. Said to be edible, and particularly favoured in Japan.
Valerian - Valeriana officinalis - and Yellow Flag Iris - Iris pseudacorus - grow side by side at the edge of the lough.
Roses are quite variable and hybridise. This has large (4cm.) flowers, Rosa is as far as I'll go.
Square-stalked St. John's Wort is in bud and will open shortly.
Can it be that time of year already? Seed 'clocks' on Spiny Sow Thistle.
