A million to one shot

As Saturday was such a glorious day, we drove over to Stenness to visit Russadale, in the hope of seeing some odes. Parking at Happy Valley, we first had a look at the pond there.

I have not yet seen an adult dragonfly or damselfly here, which is odd, as by all accounts there's larvae been discovered during pond dipping sessions.

Then we wandered up Russadale, heading for the old quarry and its pools. Just about the first insect we saw was a male Black Darter...

but the second insect, and the nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine after that were all midges. We lasted about five minutes, just enough time to photograph a rove beetle (ID'd as Staphylinus erythropterus by DD) and a diving beetle, before beating a hasty retreat back out into the valley.

In the comparative safety of a more open area, I started to see other insects amongst the vegetation...

A Common Carder bee on the flower of a Devil's-bit Scabious. (Thanks to AF for the bee ID)

A moth, Udea lutealis, again on DBS. (Thanks to MH for the moth ID)

I think this is either a gall or an ichneumon wasp.

A Meadow Brown butterfly.

A hoverfly. (an Eristalis spp, thanks to AF)

Later at home, whilst strimmering a particularly overgrown bit of the garden, I disturbed this fellow. ID'd as a Square-Spot Rustic by MH (thanks again!).

You will be glad to hear that I didn't bother trying to photograph the midges, as this would have resulted in this being a much longer post.