Ivy Visitors 13

Top of the ivy league today, the central image, is a hornet mimic, Volucella zonaria. These were rare in 1940 but are gradually increasing and spreading north. I've chosen it as it is probably the largest insect which will visit the ivy bush, unless an actual hornet or dragonfly drops in. I have seen hornets on the ivy in the past.

I like the very bristly Tachina fera and a white-tailed bumble bee buzzed in. A different drone fly, Eristalis arbustorum, the plain-faced drone fly, visited. Nice to see a different Drosophila and a tiny bug in the same frame. I think I might have photographed a soldier fly. The yellow fly with dark eyes is a gout or pest fly, Chlorops pumilionis. It's tiny, as is the hoverfly on the right. Birds rarely perch in the ivy but one has left a feather.