Queendown Warren

Back to Queendown again but the morning was much colder and far less sunny than I expected. Still I managed to find one adder in the overcast conditions and once the sun finally emerged a total of 3 males and a single female. Many bumble bees and bee-flies and having read Steve's New Hythe blog I was on the lookout for dotted bee-fly and without too much difficulty I was surprised to find one. Albeit the only one I saw amongst the more common Bombylius major.
Dotted Bee-fly

The adders definitely appeared not to like the cold and this small male whilst trying to gather the most of the mornings heat looked decidedly chilly to me as it tightly rapped its coils together. The blue cast over the eye is a sign that it will soon shed its skin, called sloughing, normally the eyes are a lovely red in colour.

I believe that their normally excellent eyesight is diminished during this process and you'll be pleased to know that it remained in this exact location both before, during and after the shots were taken. Plenty of gulls around as well including a couple of adult Med gulls.

Is it me or are the carpets of wood anemones not quite as good this year?

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