Brede High Woods

I've found a few similar but they say they are quite small, will keep looking. This guy is at least 3-4cm in size, but a lovely coppery color. Update: Gotta love having great contacts on flickr! Thanks JJ for the help with ID on this one :)

....dog owners would not just leave piles of poo in the path, oh well I suppose its far better than to bag it then toss....ER HANG ON A MINUTE!! Thats not poo....LOL

He finally turns his head, a bit aggrivated that we are not just passing him by, you know 'if I ignore them maybe they'll just go away'. He stayed for about 10mins while I went mad with the camera then hid his head in the shrubery. We left him to get on with enjoying the day after he had made my year! Now, who wants to go to Brede! :D

This beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, brave, tolerant animal just stays in the path and lets me take untold amount of photos of him. I've seen them at Brede before, we actually photographed a young one last year, deep in bracken so wasn't great shots, and we saw the tail of a female scurry away moments before this. This guy was very patiently waiting for us to vacate his premisis :) BTW: I used a 250mm lens for these so although it looks like im just inches away I was actually a safe distance for him and for me, even though I really just wanted to give him a cuddle! :)

This little beetle would not be still, I thought it was a rove beetle of sorts but can't find one with the long wings. It has stopped here to munch the wood. Thanks again to Thaptor for an ID :)

Walking along and I can hear this tiny 'crunch, crunch, crinkle, crunch', I looked for the noise to find this guy munching away on a dead leaf. I didn't realize grasshoppers would eat dead leaves, at least not while there is a supply of live ones still. Maybe the fresher stuff gives it wind!! :P

Another Tunnel Web spider and fast as lightning! Gave a little tickle to get it to appear for us. Thanks Andy for correcting the ID as Coelotes sp.. I so need better reference material...hehe

Tiny but lovely moth, bad angle on this because it was so small, I could get either its eyes or its ...em wing tips in focus...lol

Was quite happy to let me get some shots, even yawned at one point bored with me.

Haven't had a chance to look for these properly yet. Lovely little yellow flowers. Update: Thank you Rockwolf for correctly IDing them.

Under wood @ Brede

I've wanted to see one of these for years, we decided that Brede was a good wood to try to find Stag Beetles, and we did see some lovely beetles turning over logs and wood, being careful to place them back carefully. The first one we turned had one of these but it ran away. This guy stayed long enough for a photo or two :D

Showing me he is none to happy about being discovered by us.

Trying to hide in the side.

Abax parallelepipedus Thanks Thaptor for this ID. Man Beetles are FAST!.. haha

Need an ID on this little jumper, it was stunning colors, some folks with an inquisitive dog came by and it ran away before I could get decent shots...lol Update: Thanks to several of my contacts for all the help in IDing this gorgeous creature as Evarcha falcata, Female. I haven't heard from Andy Phillips as yet but I think he will agree with this diagnosis :) A new contact ( Jones J E ) seems to be quite the 'Spider Guy' himself and I reckon since he had one jump on him as a youngster thats as good a reason as any to agree with his ID...lol