Insects and Spiders

Thanks for that id.
Saw, and photographed something very similar on the de-commissioned Ruislip Golf Course.

Had a rose chafer visit the garden today

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Beautiful.

In other beetle news a Red lily 🐞 on the watering can.

Not v popular by all accounts.

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Lily beetle or black headed cardinal?

Oooofla.

Yes, you might be right! Tbf I didn't know either existed or the rose coloured chafer 24hrs ago. :o)

Seems to be a bumper bug year!?

Love the colour on the rose chafers. Think the cardinal beetles are pretty voracious and hoover up all the things that eat your plants.

Suppose everybody’s out a bit more this year, and more time to spot things!

Wow. From zero to hero in one correct identification. :o)

Just had to rescue the rose chafer from the house. She's now merrily burying herself in a pot which is full of weeds so she's welcome to that.

Came across this little guy whilst fishing and miserably failed to imitate him. In restrospect using google-fu I think it’s a welshman’s button or Sericostoma personatum.

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There's at least 6 caddis species that look like that, only obsessives and other caddis flies can tell the difference. Try an emerger pattern in brown, trout mainly eat them as they hatch, that hackle fly is fooling nobody!

Limited fly choice, as only had a few on me. Were feeding on emergers but refusing dries as you guessed. Funnily enough were ignoring the huge mayflies drifting on by too.

They are very attractive but very destructive to a number of lily species.
I don't like killing things but spent a spring a few years back hunting these down and squashing them.
They do have the unnerving ability to 'scream' when in distress ie shortly before being squashed (it's actually air being compressed by their wings)

Was just about to ask what they were as we had one on our roses a few days ago, very beautiful

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Another pic

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At dusk last night I saw what I thought was a bat flying across the garden, however its path was a bit dizzy.

Then I realised it was a Stag beetle, antlers an all in flight.

#csb

We get tons and tons of bees of all shapes and sizes in the garden, but very rarely a hoverfly, which was quite enjoyable to watch buzzing around.

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Tried to reclaim a forgotten pot in the garden to find a huge cardinal spider had already claimed it. She was too quick to get a good photo.

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This living in our roses...

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Amazing pic.

Having trouble identifying the cardinal spider.

Looks like a large house spider? (Same pattern)

Are they the same thing?

Fantastic pic. Amazing it would go for something so large!

Yeah it's a type of house spider, just the biggest one

My wife loves them. :oP

Cool pic. Found one of those in our elder flowers when picking a few weeks ago. Current infestation is shield bugs which seem to love the rhubarb and the lavender beetles are just getting going. They look super cool.