Hunting on the lawn

As I typed that subject I thought that most of the hunting I am going to report on was not of things on the lawn - which could lead you to think of grasshoppers etc.  Rather, I was on the lawn and hunting for things on the surrounding vegetation.

The possible exception was butterflies, but all I caught was a Cabbage White and a Common Grass Blue, neither of which could get me excited enough to wield the camera.

Most of the action was around our Photinia robusta shrubs.  While not native they do seem to be well regarded by the local Swamp Wallabies who basically browsed the beejasus out of them while we were away in Winter.  Due to their depredations, 2 months ago this plant looked almost dead, but it has sprouted with brilliant bronze foliage.

 A larger shrub didn't get hammered so badly and as a result has a lot of flowers, at least out of Swampie reach.

Many insects are attracted to the flowers including what I believe to be a dipterid fly with lurid green eyes.

When they have been feeding for some time the hairs on the fly become covered with pollen, making for a phuzzy foto (but as you can see the proboscis it must be in focus).

The main insects around thus far are hoverflies.  They are in swarms as indicated herein:

 Here are a couple of images of the hoverflies.  They comes in various sizes, and different patterns, which I take to mean several species.

We also have a blue flowered shrub  I think this is Ceanothus thyrsiflorus  'Blue Pacific".  Whatever it is very popular with bees.  The first is a basic European Honeybee ...

 .. while this second, much smaller specimen is a native bee with a red abdomen.  Possibly some form of Resin Bee.