Damsels, Dragons and Painted Ladies at Helmingham Hall

 

We visited the gardens at Helmingham Hall last weekend in the hope that we might be some early 'dragons' or 'damsels' around the moat. As you can see, the walled garden was looking very beautiful. 

We were thrilled to see our first Painted Ladies of the season, and since then we have had one in the garden at home. 

And yes! There were damselflies, many of them Large Reds like the one in the photo. 

We saw a couple of these Broad-bodied Chasers. The males are blue, but females and immature ones are a shimmering gold. 

Insects in the Grounds of Helmingham Hall

I seem to have been chasing my tail a bit recently, so here are a few pretty pictures of Helmingham Hall and the insects in the grounds. You may have seen the hall on the Antiques Roadshow recently or perhaps on a previous Who do you think you are? programme. I tried to keep a casual eye open for bees on flower heads as we strolled around, particularly in the walled garden. But we saw some other insects, too ...

I think the creature above is a Variable Damselfly and the one below is an immature Large Red.

The moat makes an ideal environment for odonata.

Inside the walled garden we smiled at the topiary rabbits ...

and a frog prince!

It was good to see a few Meadow Browns, my first of the season.

I'm wondering if these were leaf or Flea Beeetles of some variety, possibly Crepidodera aurata. 

We noticed a couple of Broad-bodied Chasers on the vertical posts.

The next few photos show bees I noticed on the flower heads ...

This bee favoured a beautiful Delphinium.

You can see David here by the knot garden, with this fragrant patch of lavender and old-fashioned roses just in front of him. Despite the grey weather, the scent was one of pure summer!

Carlton Marshes: My First 2013 Damselfly and Dragonfly

We saw our first Damselfly (just the one) and Dragonflies of the year at Carlton Marshes on Bank Holiday Monday, 27 May. This seems very late in the season for first sightings, but perhaps not surprising after the cold winter. 

A female Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa)