![]() ![]() This next video shows them leaving the nest and returning. Does he bring food back or do the others just think that he has? This first video starts with the mother calling for them to leave the nest, there is a little comic interlude of the way that they follow flies, their little heads bobbing in unison and in the last bit the second bird to approach the nest is the returning chick. I had missed the very first flight and only realised when number five returned to the nest. Yesterday morning there were five birds on the nest, there were five birds on the nest and then there were four birds on the nest. It was time well spent.Īnyway you should be glad that you don’t have to watch the whole twenty hours of video, that I now have to sort and delete from my machine to free up space. It has taken me a few days watching and all that you get are a couple of short video’s but for me, my understanding and the pleasure that I got from watching them makes a few days just a drop in the ocean. They are still in the nest today but they have been out and they can fly. ![]() The Swallows have fledged, or at least they are fledging. Now while you were reading that I have had a chat with Fizz and we have decided to give the Butterflies a rest for today and go up to the woods in search of a particular fungus that I feel quite confident of finding and of course we shall play ball in the fields on the way. So that is the beautiful female Pellucid Hover Fly, Volucella pellucens. They belong to the order Diptera (The True Flies) and Diptera literally means “two wings”.Īll insects have four wings but in the Diptera the hind wings are tiny and are not used for flying. The big difference between a Hover Fly and the Bees and Wasps is that Hover Flies only have two wings. Most Hover Flies look a bit like Bees or Wasps and that must help to prevent attack but they don’t sting. When they are ready to pupate the larvae leave the nest and pupate underground and adult flies emerge sometime around June. This may be a symbiotic relationship as the larvae clean the nest and remove (eat) dead Wasps and their larvae and they also eat other insects that they find in the nest. Despite the fact that she doesn’t look much like a wasp she is allowed to do this without being attacked even though Wasp’s nests are otherwise pretty well guarded places. The larvae feed on the debris at the bottom of the nest. She enters the nest of wasps (Common and German) and lays her eggs in their nests. The colouration is supposed to mimic a bee or wasp, that may serve to deter attacks from birds but there is another reason behind it. It has a large white band through the middle of the abdomen and dark spots on it’s wings, also a very pretty face. The Pellucid is one of the UK’s largest flies and quite easy to identify. This one is a female, it is the same with all Hover Flies, the female’s eyes are spaced apart and the male’s eyes meet in the middle. So just to set the record straight and while I am having my coffee and making my plans, this is a Pellucid Hover Fly. A couple of days ago I posted a picture of a Pellucid Hover Fly (above) without properly identifying it. ![]()
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