Garden wildlife, East Sussex
Slow worm, UK
Finding wildlife to photograph can often be tricky to say the least, so recently I’ve taken to a bit of macro photography in the garden. Its something that I do mostly on diving trips but should do more of at home, even though it can be an absolute nightmare trying to identify different species!
1st up is 1 of at least 3 slow worms in my garden, they are totally harmless lizards, not snakes, and if you’re wondering “Do slow worms bite?” then the answer is no 🙂 These guys live in and around our compost bins and luckily the area is full of slugs which the slow worms eat.
Thick legged flower beetle
2nd we have a Thick legged flower beetle. Look at the size of those legs!!!! Oedemera nobilis is fairly obviously characterised by those big chunky thighs which also shows it as a male, females are much more dainty 🙂
Woundwort Shieldbug
3rd up is the Woundwort Shieldbug, if you’re looking for shield bug identification then all I can tell you is this fella used to be known as Eysarcoris fabricii (in my book anyway) and is now classified as Eysarcoris venustissimus
ARACHNID ALERT!
Wolf Spider
Last, and number 4 is the Wolf Spider, sounds scary as hell right? we found this British wolf spider trundling around the garden carrying her egg sack around with her, I checked for several days afterwards but never did see her again 🙁
So there you go, a bit of East Sussex garden wildlife photography for your Sunday viewing.
I don’t mind snakes and worms and bugs, but I can’t get my shuddering head around arachnids. I don’t understand it because I watched my mother sweep spiders onto a dustpan and take them outside (rather than step on them) and she had a really good attitude about not killing them. Somehow it backfired for me. Illogically, they terrify me.