Bug 1

I am guessing its a hornet

Sorry to disapoint you Digidark It it a Hover fly. Hornets wasps and bees have antenae. But look at the eyes and you see it is a fly. Some of them mimic bees and wasps
Nice capture. :)

Thank you for the info Chocky.Have made a note of your identity explanation

Nice photo - and we get the beautiful flower as a bonus!!!

It's good here as you get to find out what the hell it is that you have actually photographed! This thread of mine has another one that is a bee-mimic... which I didn't know when I took it - I thought that it was a weird bee. It also has a link to a hover fly site.

http://www.thamesvalleybirds.co.uk/showthread.php?t=665

I agree its brilliant to have such helpful people on site.Am making page after page of notes.Thanks for the link and for the one from Rolf. I didnt realise this nature stuff could be so interesting

I really like hoverflies (apart for the grumpy one on my 'ID requested' thread)! They are pretty and I love the way that they hover and dart. It's very impressive the way that hey can appear to just hang in the air.

Yes. There are many different types and they are interesting because of the way they mimic other insectds.
I spent hours trying to capture one hovering with no sucsess Then took a photo of a buterfly and caught a perfect hover fly as well in mid air.