Wild beasties #30DaysWild Day 5

I grew up in Africa where, when you mention 'the wild life', images of lions and leopards sprang to mind. When you went for a walk on a hot and dusty plane - it was with a certain amount of trepidation as most of the wild life there (although not excessive due to man's encroachment and poaching) gave the impression of wanting to eat/bite/sting/suffocate/chase you down and generally consume you with indecent haste.

So, when some years ago here in the uk,  I mentioned to my Dad whilst sitting in a typically green and floriferous meadow teaming with hover-flies and butterflies, that 'I love the wild life here' he nearly fell over hooting with laughter at my comparison of English countryside wildlife to our joint African childhood WILDLIFE.

But it is true - wild life here in the mild temperate zone that I now live may not be as big and as hungry as a pride of lions but they certainly hold their own.

Our week away in Scotland certainly produced our fair share of wee-wild-beasties and with my new lens - they took on epic proportions!

Look!

Yellow dung fly on Gorse blossom  (I can smell their coconut scent as I type) 

Green Tiger Beetle

Female Adder

Tadpoles and *holds breath coz this is the FIRST time I have seen one for real*  a Palmate newt

(about 20 in this pond!!)

?Quaker moth? Not sure, not that hot on my moth identification even with the help of the tinter 

Black headed gull - waiting for picnic scraps

Fast disappearing brown hare

 Barnacles and Mussels

Small fly ?Scatella

How small? Well it is dwarfed by that small curl of the fern

 Male Chaffinch and Youngest's fingers

 And much to his delight - the chaffinch happily took crumbs from his fingers

 And came back for more!

 Peacock

 Dung Beetle - jet black with iridescent blue highlights!

Sporting a 'furry' chin and legs

Red Squirrel 

 Drinker moth caterpillar 

I have probably bored you by now, but I have plenty more photos stashed away! The more sharp eyed of you might have noticed a couple of interlopers - the peacock and the squirrel.  The former we could hear when we were camping - happily screeching away first thing in  the morning and last thing at night and the squirrel was a chainsaw carving and the only 'red squirrel' we saw this holiday!


I am participating in #30DaysWild Day - making space for nature for the month of June and loving it!

#30DaysWild Days - you can do it too.