Insectwatch on the Oak Tree Community farm

 I picked up my veg box at the Oak Tree Community farm, and looked for insects first.

 

This is a Common Flower Fly Syrphus ribesii

 This is a hoverfly, according to observation.org which was 100% certain of ID, so I'll take that. Apparently males have the eyes meet at the top of the head, according to the wikipedia entry

In common with many other species of hoverfly, males have the eyes meeting on the top of the head, whilst females have their eyes widely separated.

 

 

Common Flower Fly
Something grisly going on here, the same individual has moved on to a hawthorn leaf

Honey bee
Honey bee Apis mellifera carrying pollen sacs

Yellow dung fly
Yellow Dung Fly - Scathophaga stercoraria

Finally, a Yellow Dung Fly ,according to Observation with high certainty.

 While on site I decided to educate myself about the weeds I saw

Cypress Spurge
Cypress Spurge Euphorbia cyparissias

 The RHS list this under plants for pollinators along with some charming common names 

Bonaparte's crown
Faitour's grass
graveyard ground pine
graveyard weed
Irish moss
kiss-me-Dick
love in a huddle
tree spurge
welcome-to-our-house 

This plant with attractive blue flowers growing near the car park is Green Alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens

Green Alkanet
Green alkanet

Finally I heard the lovely sound of Linnets some distance away

This isn't a great recording, it was using a cardioid mic into a handheld recorder and isn't really up to the range to the birds or discriminating against the road noise, but the essence of the delightful finchy sound of the flock is there.

Location: Playford Ln, Rushmere St Andrew, Ipswich IP5 1DW, UK

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