HOVERFLY ON A SENECIO POLYODON FLOWER

I can feel the winter hammering on my garden gate.  The wind's blasting the leaves off the neighbouring trees and my lawn and flower border are covered with them.  The birds appear greedier than usual with five collared doves arriving at once and pushing out the poor Wood Pigeon which is a much bigger bird but obviously has better manners, or is less greedy.  There's food enough for all; I make sure of that.  A small squirrel visited today and soon I'll be putting out the fat and seed balls that I made late last winter and the remains of which have been kept in the freezer all year.  I've noticed that the little birds seem to have taken to the cage feeder that I bought a week or so ago. 

Hoverfly on Senecio Polyodon flower - Sept 2014

It's lovely to watch them all through my kitchen window.  It seems as if the days of my taking photographs of pollinating insects on my flowers might be numbered unless we are blessed with an Indian summer.  I won't pack up the hammock cushions yet.  I took this photograph a little while ago, early September, when the sun was shining and the temperature warm.



I'd cut back the Senecio polyodon plant, in the above image, in early summer when it became too straggly and big, and it has been poking flowering stems in and amongst its neighbouring plants ever since.  Although the flowers are tiny, at about 1-1.5cm diameter, they are little dazzlers.