 |
| Tachina grossa |
A large fly
called Tachina grossa has been a frequent sight these past few
weeks, black and the size of a medium sized bumblebee, soldier beetle, along with other flies
it was favouring the umbelifers, in this case Hogweed.
 |
| Soldier Beetle |
At the Islay Development apiary site there is a patch of hedge woundwort in front of the hives, although some
of the honeybees can be seen visiting the flowers the main interest is from the
bumblebees (the longer tongue of the bumbles able to access better the tubular
funnel of the flower), primarily Garden bumblebee and Carder bees. I counted c. 35 in total at one tally. 
 |
| Wasp visiting Figwort |
Sunday's Killinallan dune walk was not attended by anyone this week, but I walked through the dunes anyway to see what was out and about.
There were plenty of butterflies: Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Grayling, Small Heath, and Dark Green Fritillary.
Flowers now showing were Devil's Bit Scabious, Harebell and Autumn Gentian with many of those out a month ago setting seed and on the wane.
 |
| Snowy Inkcap on cattle dung |
 |
| Dark Green Fritillary |
My end goal
was to reach the beach at the point, below me down the dune was a fantastic
patch of Sea Rocket in full bloom and on closer inspection was a very busy
place, 4-5+ white-tailed Bumblebees on each bush and then lots of smaller bees
which when I got in close up all turned out to be the small mining bee Colletes floralis, hundreds of
them! I spent ages with camera aiming
for the perfect shot, and scanned up and down all the clumps to see what other
bees there were. A red tailed individual
caught my eye, bees with red tails are not at all common here, I never did get
a great shot of it but my first Mountain Bumblebee, there appeared to be only
the one amongst the....195 white-tailed bumblebees, yes I counted them, give or
take 5 or 10? I got very excited by a
very yellow looking bee, so took lots of pics, for ID later, it has turned out
to be a male white-tailed bumblebee, in all the surveys I have been doing this
is the first one I have knowingly seen, quite distinctive and different from
the female queen and workers. I so
wanted it to be a great yellow bumblebee, but alas no big fanfare, that would
be a first for Islay!
 |
| Colletes floralis |
 |
| Mountain Bumblebee |
 |
| Male White-tailed Bumblebee, the only one amongst the 195 others |
Fiona MacGillivray
The weather
although a bit cloudy has been fair and warm which has been great for
pollinators. I spent a nice afternoon on
Saturday walking the road from Sanagimore to Kindrochid finishing off a
pollinator survey. Despite the verges
having been cut earlier in July the margins beyond the cut were still prolific
in flowers knapweed, the bramble bushes and meadowsweet providing the main
focus to bumblebees and butterflies.
Near the Islay Development apiary site the honeybees have been mainly
foraging on bramble and the meadowsweet too, the latter made obvious with a
build up of green pollen in the bee's pollen sacks. Observation indicated bees were focusing
either one or the other, not mixing visits between flowers.
My end goal
was to reach the beach at the point, below me down the dune was a fantastic
patch of Sea Rocket in full bloom and on closer inspection was a very busy
place, 4-5+ white-tailed Bumblebees on each bush and then lots of smaller bees
which when I got in close up all turned out to be the small mining bee Colletes floralis, hundreds of
them! I spent ages with camera aiming
for the perfect shot, and scanned up and down all the clumps to see what other
bees there were. A red tailed individual
caught my eye, bees with red tails are not at all common here, I never did get
a great shot of it but my first Mountain Bumblebee, there appeared to be only
the one amongst the....195 white-tailed bumblebees, yes I counted them, give or
take 5 or 10? I got very excited by a
very yellow looking bee, so took lots of pics, for ID later, it has turned out
to be a male white-tailed bumblebee, in all the surveys I have been doing this
is the first one I have knowingly seen, quite distinctive and different from
the female queen and workers. I so
wanted it to be a great yellow bumblebee, but alas no big fanfare, that would
be a first for 
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.