Day 26 - Bug hunting in the garden

I set up my activity for Day 26 the night before, when I got home from the meadow walk.

I ate the grapefruit that had been in the fridge for over two weeks (bought specifically for this activity!) and then took the two halves down to the bottom of the garden, barefoot of course!

This is what I was up to...

An activity I thought would be fun from this great book in my collection. I set one half down near my log pile, where there are some fallen leaves and a few grass cuttings under the hedge.

Whilst I was there I noticed this fly on some grass... look closely (though it's a blurry shot) and you can see it's abdomen has been eaten - it must have been parasitised by something.

I set the other half of the grapefruit down amongst the flowers and grasses near the pond. I accidentally disturbed a frog here, but he plopped into the water before I could take a photo.

I couldn't resist a peek before I went to bed, around 12:30.  There were slugs all over the path so I had to tread carefully! All I had so far was one baby slug.

In the morning, there was still just a baby slug.

Plus several using the grapefruit half by the log pile as a shelter.  They stayed underneath it all day.

So, I concluded this activity had been a bit of a failure. Maybe the other creatures don't like red grapefruit? Maybe they all visited and then disappeared before I saw them? Maybe it's better for autumn - the activity did say to put it in a leaf pile so perhaps I will try again when there are fallen leaves around and see if any other creatures visit!

I checked again after school in the afternoon and still there were just the same slugs that I'd seen in the morning.  I decided to bug hunt in the garden to make up for the grapefruit fail!  There haven't been as many bugs around this year so far, I haven't seen as many as I normally do but there were lots of flies and bees. The laurel hedge is always full of bees and wasps.

I found evidence of something on one of the leaves.  I've not had any success discovering what creature caused it yet.

I rescued this pair of ground beetles from the pond. I had to use an old net as they were in the middle.  I see lots of these greeny browny ground beetles in the garden, I like their colours.

I spotted an insect on a stem in the pond. At first I though it was a longhorn moth but now I think it's a longhorn caddisfly. I only took this one photo before it flew away so I didn't get a closer look. I haven't attempted a proper ID.

Another mark left by something, this time on the buddleia, again I've not yet discovered which creature left it.

Three for one here - cuckoo spit, a spider and a weevil (I think). The spider was getting closer to the weevily bug so I think it was probably eaten soon after I took this photo.
 

More cuckoo spit - you can see a bit of froghopper in this one.

A bee in the iris

One fly eating another fly

Late in the evening, after a heavy downpour, I went out for a last check on the grapefruit (still only slugs) and heard a woodpecker in a nearby tree. It was calling from amongst the branches and I couldn't see it but then it flew to the top for a few minutes.