Ampthill Park

This is a poor photo, but I thought it was worth a shot, because it was my 50th hoverfly species in Ampthill Park - Scaeva pyrastri...and it was feeding on my 293rd plant species - Musk Mallow!

Scaeva pyrastri is one of my favourite hoverflies - big & bold. It's believed that most of them are migrants from the Continent.



And this is one of my favourite butterflies: the Small Copper. It's quite common in the Park. This is the form caeruleo-punctata, marked out by the tiny iridescent-blue spots at the bottom edge of each hind-wing.



This fungus was out of reach, some 15m or so above the ground, in an old pine tree. It's hard to work out what it is from that distance!