More beach beauties

Here’s another beach bird from Sunday, a Eurasian linnet (Linaria cannabina). It’s a “small finch of open country, from wild moorland to rough grassland and weedy patches in urban areas.” There were a handful of these little cuties flitting around in the trees atop the dunes, and this one perched against that beautiful blue sky just long enough for me to get this shot.

Here’s the longest damselfly I’ve ever seen, a willow emerald (Chalcolestes viridis), by the look of its pale wing spots. I read that the ancient Latins called these markings pterostigmata, and they are not just for decoration.

In fact, “the purpose of the pterostigma, being a heavier section of the wing in comparison to nearby sections, is to assist in gliding. Without the pterostigmata, self-exciting vibrations known as flutter would set in on the wing after a certain critical speed, making gliding impossible. Tests show that with the pterostigmata, the critical gliding speed is increased 10–25% on one species of dragonfly.”

Who knew, right? And “yay”, Science. I bet those were fun tests to do. Not painstaking at all.

Here’s a ring-necked pheasant from the field below were the buzzard hangs out and behind the fence on which the barn swallows perched on Saturday.

Back at the dunes by the beach on Sunday, here’s another butterfly, which looks like another meadow brown, but I believe all that orange, especially on the inside (dorsal) of the wings, means that it is actually a gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus).

Finally, here’s one more great tit from last weekend.

In other news, we really are having a heatwave here now. It was in the high 80s yesterday afternoon, and is supposed to get even hotter this afternoon. Many of you may already be thinking “high 80s, really?” But remember that I hardly ever see a fan here, let alone air conditioning. Anne kept my apartment bearably cool yesterday by closing the windows in time, but I’m not sure that will work for day two. Wish us luck!