This stunning, beautiful beach is near Dunedin, out on Otago Peninsula. You can’t drive right to the beach, you have to walk quite a way from the carpark. As you’ll see though, it’s well worth the trek. Huge sand dunes and lots of big open space.
Sandfly Bay, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand.
Photos taken by Nigel 05 Feb, 2017
When we examined the steep rock area, to our surprise we found ladybirds on the surface, quite a few although there’s only two left in this photo.
Text by Liz, photos by Nigel; Exploring Colour (2019)
Exploring Colour 
Wow – fantastic scenery! I’ve seen ladybirds at the beach once – there was a massive horde of ladybirds at the coast in Norfolk a few years ago. I mean millions of them – they were lying in drifts like red snow on the ground, people were sweeping them out of cafes and some folk were getting a bit unnerved by them. It was truly weird – I would never have thought it possible. I’m just glad it was something benign!
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Thanks for sharing your story Ann. I’ve never seen anything like that, ever!
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It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen! But I’ve read that there were even more in 1976. Apparently ladybirds lay huge numbers of eggs at a time and a spell of very hot weather meant there were lots of aphids to feed them…
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A gorgeous place, well worth the trek to get there! And how interesting to see those ladybirds at the beach.
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Yeah it was Ellen, big surprise to us to find them on the rocks at the beach!
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Great beach, Liz. At first I thought there was snow in the third image but then remembered February is summer there. Must be white sand. I’ve never seen ladybugs at the beach.
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Yes.. beautiful white sand. Lovely 🙂
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Ladybirds are strange. We have dozens of them coming indoors at the moment, where they usually just die. Masses of really tiny ones too. Do ladybirds start off as babies?
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I did a post’ Crawling With Ladybirds’ couple of days ago and Steve from New England USA commented it’s ladybird season there and about how lots come inside. I’ve never seen them in huge numbers like that. I don’t know anything about their lifecycle Jane.
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I keep meaning to look it up. They end up in the shower room window and the south facing window of the study. I’ve never seen such tiny ones before.
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I thought Pete Hillman has relevant photos and found this that shows the larvae of the Harlequin Ladybird. I’ve never seen any larvae. Odd things but still colourful even in the larvae stage! https://petehillmansnaturephotography.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/before-the-ladybird-we-have-harlequin-ladybird-harmonia-axyridis-larvae/
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We had lots of them when we had a garden. They’re really strange when they pupate. The stick on a leaf maturing, and when they’re ready to turn into a ladybird they flip up and down. Maybe it’s to break the case. Certainly looks weird.
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How interesting.. really strange! But you’ve never seen the ladybird actually emerge?
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I have, but I haven’t noticed that it was any smaller than an average ladybird which makes me wonder where these tiny ones come from.
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Hmmm.. that’s surprising!
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Very!
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It looks so beautiful there Liz!
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I imagine you’d love this beach too Pete 🙂
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Wonderful. It looks like it may be the beach we went to when I was in Dunedin years ago. We saw some of the yellow-eyed penguins. Wow!
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Nice you got to see the penguins Louella!
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How beautiful, Liz. Sandfly Bay – is that name prophetic?
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Probably at times, but not when we were there.
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Could be a summer thing. 🙂
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Thanks for taking us along.
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Always good to have some company!
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You’ve made me want to go see the sea.
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Surrender, go while it’s still autumn 🙂
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Wow – so beautiful!
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It was memorable that day!
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