Anyone spotted a praying mantis this year… not seen our usual visitors so far…
Here’s a previous guest…
Not my favourite insect. I watched as tiny little furry ground-nesting bees were collecting nectar from lavender under one of my windows, and there was a praying mantis waiting on the wall – catching them and eating them alive. Wish they wouldn’t…… 
Give me a stick insect any day…
Huh… my sister undertook to “guard” the stick insects from school over the summer hols… and the house became over run… aaaargh… so I’ve not got happy memories of them… 
However, we’ve watched praying mantis babies descending from the egg-case (whatever it’s called)… teeny-tiny little things, white/see-through, clambering down, one over the other… magical.
Baby mantises are ok – but wonder what such tiny little baby predators eat…must be even smaller than themselves…! Greenfly?
According to the RSPCA the favourite food of stick insects are BRAMBLE LEAVES!
Shall see about flooding my garden with stick insects…! If that’s possible - probably not!
haha… I wouldn’t have thought Mum and Dad had bramble leaves in the house… so perhaps that’s why the sticks trundled all over the place looking… hopefully.
All I know is that they kept turning up in the most unexpected places… not my idea of fun at all… I was more interested in the newts etc which my brother had at the bottom of the garden…
We always put water out for the birds in the shade of a tree and they all come to drink or bathe, except the swallows who are dive-bombing the pool this morning ! We had a new visitor yesterday - what a bird ! I’ve never seen one so close up before.
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we have one which comes for the acorns… some of which it hides around the base of the oak tree… “for later”…
However, many acorns remain hidden/undisturbed and the tiny saplings have to be removed (sadly).
Folk do try and rehome the tiny trees, but few are successful.
EDIT: Here’s a photo from a few years ago…
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That’s amazing. I’ve seen the hummingbird hawk moths here on our buddleia every year and they were plentiful when we were in Deux Sévres. Saw the other one for the first time this year and noticed how different it looked. Nice to know what it’s called.
Exit: Just looked it up and it feeds largely on honeysuckle, which we have next to the buddleia.
Does the grive have a hairy white leg? Can’t make it out…
Hi Bonzocat. I’ve been puzzling over that… I think the answer is yes. Here’s a shot from a different angle (taken on a different day) that also shows the right leg white and feathery.
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Looks like a bit of trash has gotten caught up on it’s leg…hopefully it’ll come adrift sometime…
The answer… it’s a ‘grive draine’, a mistle thrush in english, bigger than the song thrush and solitary, which explains why he’s always on his own when I see him.
I found this photo (not one of mine) showing the white breeches.
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Well done…!
europen hornet… the good guy… well, he didn’t chase me… or the bees…
EDIT: yes, it might well be the asian one, the bad guy… having a day off 
Not really, NO…
but we have so many hornets… so many variations of colour, size etc etc. that I’m never really sure… except that the european glide majestically around our rooms , totally ignoring us … then leave via the window I’ve just flung open…
Smaller asian ones definitely come after us… and we’ve had a nest in the oaktree outside our house… (so I do have first hand experience of the little blighters)
On this occasion, there were bees around and I was almost with my nose in the flower… and the “insect” was quite happy with it all…
However, I wasn’t prepared to dust off the pollen and ask to measure/count/whatever his bits and bobs…
If I’d tied a thread to one of his legs I could have followed him back to his nest… that would have been the clincher… but, alas… I was on a frog-hunt and merely got side-tracked by the magnificent blooms and all the buzzing whatzits/whatevers which were thoroughly enjoying themselves. 
Perhaps it is an Asian Frelon… albeit a well-behaved one… I can live with that.
Yes, I instantly thought Asian hornet.
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