Sun Fly

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 According to the news this week our Prime Minister is keen for pupils to learn Latin and Greek as part of his "levelling up" agenda (despite the fact that funding for modern languages has been drastically cut). I suppose that if we were all good at Greek then nobody would have made a mistake in the naming of the sun fly.

I took this photograph when I was having a macro photography walk recently. This little fly (look at those eyes!) is common around water and marshy ground. As a result of this its scientific name is "Helophilus pendulus" or the dangling marsh fly. Somebody at some time with a smattering of knowledge of the Classics mistook "Helos" for "Helios" (relating to the sun) and so misnamed the fly the "sun fly". I reckon this is a mistake that we can all live with and that Boris Johnson can find a better use for public money.

It's a kind of hover fly for those that are interested!

Diary
The recent rain has finally topped up the water table and the stream below the bottom field has water in it again and has a slow flow. The International Panel for Climate Change report was published this week and makes grim reading. It looks like dry rivers in summer and floods in winter are to become the order of the day. I worry about what sort of planet our grandchildren are to inherit.
 The tawny owl was on his perch in the orchard this morning. Last night's cameras revealed a fox and a roe buck. I had to sift through over 200 ten second video clips to spot this with most of the clips being either rabbits or vegetation blowing about in the wind.







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