Pine needles

Firstly, a photo from the day after the last post. It had rained overnight and on going to check if the Grey Dagger and Poplar Hawk-moth caterpillars had survived the hours of darkness, we discovered this...

I have no idea what criteria were used to decide that this was the place to be, but they all seemed to agree on it!

Later that day, we ventured across to the East Mainland to stroll around Mull Head. The weather was kind (Summer actually showed up for a week and a half at the end of August) so, in a bohemian spirit, we walked the route clockwise as opposed to the usual widdershins direction.

Corn Spurrey growing at the edge of a field

Twite

Wild Angelica

Towards the end of the week, I had to venture to the Scottish mainland for a job in Thurso. Afterwards, there was an hour to spare before the ferry home, so I visited a woodland which I had driven by countless times but never stopped to explore. The information board at the car park hinted at several ponds alongside some of the many paths wending their way through the trees. Indeed, the first one I came to had a male Common Hawker flying around it. However, neither he nor I could find a female hawker, and I couldn't find any other odes at all, so I continued onward. The next target water body was by a bird hide, but this was a bit of a disappointment as the pool was completely choked with vegetation. In the end, I abandoned the waymarked paths in favour of a wide forestry track and my luck changed for the better.

On a plant of the Mint family, I spotted a fantastic beetle with a metallic green thorax and chestnut-coloured wing cases. What a fabulous beastie. I had no idea what it was, but posting a photo to the local natural history Facebook soon returned an ID of Chrysolina polita.

Further along the track, I could see a large caterpillar traversing the gravel surface. Presuming that it was 'just' another larva of the Northern Eggar moth, I didn't rush to see it, but as I approached closer, I suddenly realised that it was the caterpillar of an Elephant Hawk-moth and I needed to photograph it before it disappeared into the undergrowth at the other side of the track. 

I had hardly set off again when I spied a Speckled Wood butterfly nectaring on what I think are Michaelmas Daisies (I could very easily be wrong).

And a few metres later, I was brought to another halt by a large flying insect lumbering low over some felled trees. Eventually it landed and I was able to take a few photos (ok, it was a lot of photos). Again, I didn't know what it was, but recourse to the internet soon revealed that this was a female Sabre Wasp, the largest ichneumon wasp in the UK. That prodigious ovipositor is used to lay her eggs onto the larvae of other insects living up to 40mm deep in timber, principally wood wasps and longhorn beetles. 

I did find a few more Common Hawkers and some Black Darter dragonflies, but they were constantly on the move and beyond my photographic skills. Still, I was happy with some new and interesting finds, and I saw a Great Tit, a great rarity in Orkney, though not far away across the Pentland Firth.