In the backyard

Photo: Currant Clearwing.

Great to see our resident currant clearwing moths flying this week in the glorious sunshine. Next doors currant bush spills over into our "backyard" and though it's a bit shaded by an old elder tree, we still get these fabulous moths. In the photo above, notice that you can see the moths leg through the left wing.

I spent a few hours today watching ants collecting hondeydew from aphids on the elder tree. It's fascinating to watch, the ants basically run a protection racket, give us your honeydew and we'll protect you from predators. I'm not sure I've actually seen it happening before today. It's really stretching my camera to the limit!

This is a flea beetle, so named because if you try to touch it, it jumps like a flea! Apparently it can be a bit of a pest in gardens but I won't be mentioning that to Elaine!

This magpie moth was in the house a couple of days ago, but I've also seen a couple in the backyard.