What am I doing here? For that matter what are you doing here?

How and why do you start a blog? Why blog at all? Well, the idea behind this one is to post regular wildlife pictures from here in Virginia USA to all of you, who mostly arent in Virginia USA.

As an ex-pat I'm astonished most days by the wildness of the wildlife and the sheer un-british variety of it all. And so I think this is more for those who aren't familiar with American flora and fauna than it is for the locals who might drop in. Welcome one and  all, whereever you may be.

I hope you'll come for the bugs and beasties and perhaps stay for some music, movies, ramblings and enthusiasms.

I wondered how to start the bug pics part of the blog and I've decided to just jump in posting whatever is new and interesting day to day. You'll get to know the cast list as we go along, I'm not going to post pages of old stuff up front. I hope one thing will lead to another and that as the year goes by you'll meet all my regular residents and visitors and you'll meet the new guys as I do. Its Banished's Bugs first and foremost but there will be more than insects. What ever turns up in camera range, in the garden or out and about is fair game.

So without further ado, lets post some pictures from this past weekend.

These attractive little beasts are Varied Carpet Beetles Anthrenus verbasci. As you can see they aren't in or on a carpet but feeding on pollen (I assume) on one of the pots we have planted out in the front yard. And strangely enough, of all the flowers now blooming this is the only plant they are showing the slightest interest in. Only 2-3 mm long I need to take their pictures so I can see what the heck they do look like.

    
Damselflies and dragonflies are appearing in some numbers now but it is tree pollen season here right now. Everything is covered in a layer of yellow pollen, including the damselflies it seems.

One of the joys of having bird feeders here is the sheer variety of the birds that turn up there. We have 5 species of woodpecker visiting throughout the year in greater or lesser numbers. The last week or so our frequent visotors have been the tiny Downy Woodpecker and this the Red Bellied Woodpecker.

 Well there you are Banished's Bugs is official up and running. And it will get more interesting, I promise.