Paxton 18th July

 A few images taken on the Third Thursday Walk at Paxton. A warm day so a few insects around including a Bee-wolf Wasp, Brimstone, Robber Fly and Southern Hawker, the Great Crested Grebes and the Common Terns were busy fishing and feeding their young, Tufted ducks have returned, while up to 6 Little Egrets have taken up residence with the Grey Herons.

Annual Visit to Bee-Wolf Wasp Site, Sandy

We are probably past the peak time for the Bee-wolf Wasps but there were still a fair number around. I was very pleased to find the spider-hunting wasp Episyron rufipes dragging its prey a considerable distance before leaving it for a couple of hours while the tunnel was excavated. Lots of Astata boops wasps, one with a shieldbug - looks like the 4th instar of the Gorse Shieldbug. A couple of Ammophila sabulosa but not with their caterpillar prey. Cast completed by a Sarcophaga fly, Dasypoda hirtipes and ?Field Grasshopper

Sandy Heathland - More Interesting Inhabitants

Thanks Richard for the information about the Ivy Bee colony at Sandy - we spent a fascinating couple of hours there watching the amazing number of bees digging (females) or just hanging around waiting for a female to emerge (males). I didn't manage a mating ball so I may have to return!! Perhaps even more interesting for me was the Digger Wasp that caught a fly and then flew off with it, a Broad-headed Bug (Alydus calcaratus)  and also one lonely Bee-wolf Wasp.

Annual Visit to Sandy

We visited Sandy yesterday on a very hot day so the Beewolf Wasps were very active. I mainly shot video and you will be 'treated' to my compilation when complete but I also took some stills of the wasps with their prey, the male resting in the shade (very sensible), the Pantaloon Bees (good number of these this year). The Red-banded Sandwasp had caught a very large caterpillar and struggled to get it back to its burrow. We lost sight of it heading through the undergrowth.

I have just uploaded a page to my website of all the complex interactions that I have recorded on the heath - link here for some fascinating stories!

Annual Homage to the Bee-Wolf Wasp and Friends

I always enjoy a visit to the Bee-Wolf Wasp colony not just for the challenge of getting them in flight but also for the abundant behavioural observations and the rarer species that you find there. The Fuji XT-3 is a great camera for this job with very fast autofocus and low contrast images in the bright light. There was a confrontation between a Common Wasp and a Bee-Wolf Wasp and a strange ant-like creature which turned out to be the nymphal stage of a plant bug Alydus calcaratus. Final two images of a female and male bee commonly known as the Pantaloon bee!