Natural highs and lows

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,...

As alluded to at the end of the previous post, there was so much insect activity to see (amongst other senses...) whilst wandering about Stanger Head on the island of Flotta, that a second post was deemed a necessity. The target species chosen by our walk leader, Helen, was the Six-spot Burnet, a day-flying moth which is on the wing at this time of year. Whilst widespread in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and spreading through Scotland, here in Orkney, this is its only known site. Reason enough then for a pilgrimage to see it, and that's before we consider how it looks to the human eye, a visual treat of glossy, dark bluish blacks and stunning reds. Of course, to other animals who might consider the moth as prey, those colours are a warning sign, as the adult and caterpillar contain hydrogen cyanide, rendering them unpalatable or poisonous in sufficient quantity. Some of our group did try sniffing a moth, with the female contingent having more success than the male one at det...

It's still Summer in Orkney! I know this because it is raining. Vertically. So what better time to have a brief catch-up on wildlifey happenings in this neck of the woods since the last post nine days ago (and definitely not just because I was called out for not having blogged for over a week. Honest). Amongst all the hoverflies, bumblebees, social wasps, butterflies and moths nectaring in the garden, we have been keeping an eye out for the occasional potter wasp. This isn't just because they're wonderful little solitary wasps, but also because they're stalked by the rarely seen (let alone photographed) Ruby-tailed wasp, a parasitoid of the potters, who lays her egg alongside the potter's egg, and her larva consumes the host egg or larva and all its stored food resources. We haven't spotted a Ruby-tail so far. On the subject of social wasps,  oddly, they're the ones that folk think of as antisocial come late Summer. Stocky Mason Wasp, Ancistrocerus oviventri...