On Wednesday a group of 8 RPS Nature Group Members visited RSPB Headquarters at Sandy Bedfordshire and a nearby site with the main objective of photographing insects including the Beewolf Wasp.
The weather was very much against us being mostly cloudy, very windy with a rain shower just after lunch. However, in the sheltered parts of the woods we found several dragonfly species including Southern Hawkers (Ann Miles) and Darters (John Kirkelionis) together with butterflies such as Brown Argus (Ken Rassmussen), Small Copper and several species of Whites.
in the walled garden of the house itself, we found a great variety to photograph, especially Shield Bugs (Carole Harvey), Grasshoppers (John kirkelionis) and mating Hoverflies (Ken Rassmussen) .
After lunch we transferred to a nearby sandy ridge where there is a very large colony of Beewolf Wasps together with the appropriately named Pantaloon Bee (Dave MacKay, Carole Harvey, Ann Miles).
We photographed the resting bees and wasps on the flower heads and peeping out of their burrows. The rain came and went and eventually the skies cleared to give late sunshine.
The Beewolf Wasps and Pantaloon Bees were very active, digging out their burrows but only one Beewolf Wasp was sighted carrying its Honeybee prey and then it was time to leave!
For more events to attend go to Nature (rps.org)
