Daventry - at last!

Daventry isn't a wildly exciting town and its facilities are limited, but what it does have is a very pleasant area called Stefan Hill. Trees abound - there must be many hundreds of them - and people out for a stroll need only to walk a short distance to find one of several attractive stretches of park. On a still evening it is possible to hear sheep bleating from nearby fields. This is where Chris and I now find ourselves, and we are well pleased.

We have also been very lucky. For the first week after moving in there was no rain so, although temperatures were on the cool side for late August, we had ideal conditions for the thousand and one jobs that a house move invariably involves. We were fortunate too in that the house had been left in a spotless condition by the previous owners.

I am champing at the bit, eager to stroll around and familiarise myself with the trees and open areas but I've had to prioritize things. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but notice that the ivy is already in bloom, surely two or three weeks earlier than usual. A handsome hoverfly, Myathropa florea, basked on a leaf between visits to the nectar-rich flowers.

Myathropa florea on ivy. Ashby Road, Daventry
20 August, 2014

This specimen, a female, shows the pair of distinctive greyish bars between the wings at a point near to where they join the thorax. It is a  bee mimic and, despite the fact that it only has one pair of wings (bees and wasps have two pairs) is moderately convincing - presumably enough to deter most birds.




A couple of days have passed since I began this blog. Virtually all the jobs have been dealt with and I now feel free to begin looking at the local wildlife...and the rain is sheeting down! I remain thwarted,