| A hot summer afternoon full of buzzing insects! | |
| From the car park we started out along the road and onto the disused railway line - past a line of World War II tank traps. Walking through glades of Hazel and Dogwood we came across dozens of Beautiful Demoiselles settled up in the branches. What appeared to be a bee turned out to be a bee-mimic hoverfly called Volucella bombylans. This insect appears in 2 colour forms, 1 mimicing the Buff-tailed Bumblebee and 1 mimicing the Red-tailed Bumblebee - we saw both! | |
© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
Beautiful Demoiselle |
© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
Volucella bombylans |
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The rest of the walk produced many more insects including Scorpion Flies, Alder Flies and several species of butterfly and moth.
Brown Trout were numerous in the river, which had some relics of the old water meadow machinery.
Birds were limited to a pair of Bullfinches, a Buzzard and a trio of singing warblers - Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.
Plants were extremely diverse, with Hemlock dominant on the plant edges and Water Crowfoot in the river. Grasses were all too common for a hay-fever sufferer and included all the usual meadow species. |
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