Hill's neat blues

Next weekend, Megan and I are leading a walk for the Orkney Field Club. During the Winter, we had blithely volunteered to put on some events looking for hairy caterpillars, and this will be the first one. This walk will be on the island of Hoy, between Lyness and Wee Fea, a gentle uphill climb with several different habitats en route. Last weekend, we thought that we had better carry out a recce to see if there was any of our target species to be found. Well, we did find a few caterpillars but, wow, we found a lot of everything else.

Bees and Wasps

A male Tormentil Mining Bee, Adrena tarsata (thanks to JW for the ID)

Also a Tormentil Mining Bee, possibly a female

A Spider-hunting wasp with prey

A Mason Wasp Ancistrocerus oviventris busy building pots to house its larvae

A Ruby-tailed Wasp which parasitises the larvae of Mason Bees

Beetles

A Green Tiger Beetle

A small hole in the ground was the only clue that here is the burrow of a Green Tiger Beetle larva. Like its parents, Junior is also armed with fearsome jaws, and patiently waits at the surface for some poor unfortunate invertebrate to wander by.

Damselflies

A male Common Blue Damselfly

A male Large Red Damselfly

A female Blue-tailed Damselfly

Birds

In a conifer plantation, we first heard, then saw, a small flock of Common Crossbills

Whilst staring at the tree tops searching for crossbills, way above them was a White-tailed Eagle 

Butterflies and Moths

Purple Bar moth

Our first Common Blue butterfly of the year

Same insect, different food source

It was a bit scruffy, but this moth was a lifer for the pair of us, a Beautiful Yellow Underwing

A small caterpillar busy spinning silk on a Yellow Flag leaf. Possibly the larva of a Timothy Tortrix moth about to pupate.

A caterpillar of the Garden Tiger Moth

Clouded Border moth

On the day, if we manage to relocate that collection, we will be very happy.