Any ideas?

Ichneumon Wasps sometimes called Ichneumon Flies are arguably the largest group of creatures in the world. Some authorities place the number of species around the 100,000 mark worldwide. These distinctive insects with their slender wasp like shape parasitise other insects.

It’s not often I hear a scream from the kitchen. I was beckoned. The cause of the commotion was an Ichneumon Wasp. It’s January. Almost every self-respecting insect should have had its feet in the air months earlier. So why did Falcon Cottage have an Ichneumon wasp in the kitchen?

In fact it was courtesy of Morrisons … it had been packed in a lettuce… originating from the warmer climes of Spain.

Now there’s a whole argument here about introducing species and what damage they can do but putting that aside I tried to identify this particular species. Whatever it was it was tenacious that’s for sure, having spent the best part of a week in the fridge and presumably having been inside the packaging since leaving Spain.

This is a family that is notoriously difficult to identify and true to form despite having distinctive dark tipped wings (something I’ve never seen before on an Ichneumon Wasp) I found it impossible to give it a name. Any ideas welcome.

Bending Light!

The late morning sun was streaming in through the branches that surrounded us within the open copse.

We were looking upwards, methodically searching the flock of Lesser Redpolls for something a little more special. Our necks were craning and binoculars were being lifted and then rested at regular intervals as we inspected each bird dangling from the alders. To my left I heard movement among the leaf litter.

I could see something quite large … well … larger than the redpolls we were watching moving around among the dense vegetation. I repositioned myself and refocused my bins. It was a Muntjac, or Reeve’s Muntjac to give it its proper name, quietly grazing on new buds. Our silence had enabled it unwittingly to venture close to us.

I slowly moved the camera from pointing at the canopy and attempted to get a clear line of sight to the deer. To avoid foliage, branches, twigs and an assortment of brambles I would have to seemingly bend light! With a degree of bobbing, ducking and at one point kneeling I got some sort of shot as the sunshine lit one side of the deer’s face.