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,...

We had planned a Sunday trip to Hoy, not work-related, not wildlife survey-related, just Megan and I losing ourselves in Nature. Because it was mid-June, the obvious hope was for dragonflies, but the temperature was barely into double figures Celsius, with low cloud, rain showers and a chilly northerly breeze. As we drove off the ferry, most of the other passengers were either headed for the Scapa Flow Museum and its naval memorabilia or to Rackwick Bay and the scenic path to the Old Man of Hoy. This was our cue to take the quieter road in the opposite direction for a circumnavigation of South Walls, birding from the car whilst the weather did its worst. An hour and a picnic stop later, we finally headed back north with the bird list on 40 species and a pleasant Coronation Chicken aroma in the car. Despite the meteorological evidence to the contrary, we thought we would have a look at the pools near to Rackwick, just in case any damselflies were braving the conditions. They weren't...