The Deskbound Birder: Bedwyn Brail and Romsey

Thursday, 13 September 2018

Bedwyn Brail and Romsey - 13th September

This early part of September has been rather stunning weather wise and I have been amazed at the number of insects appearing on the Canadian Goldenrod in our garden in Romsey. Two of the best species that I have seen have been the Tachinid fly Tachina fera and the Ivy Bee Colletes hederae. I quite like the Tachinid flies, there are some fantastic looking bristly beasts amongst the group and they have an interesting life-history. Typically, Tachinid larvae are endoparasites (internal parasites) of the caterpillars of butterflies and moths. As its name suggests, Ivy Bee is typically found feeding on Ivy blossom but there were good numbers on our Goldenrod.

The Tachinid fly Tachina fera - Romsey, Hampshire

Ivy Bee Colletes hederae - Romsey, Hampshire

On 13th September I was back at Bedwyn Brail near to Marlborough in Wiltshire checking bat boxes, with around 30 boxes to check spread over a very wide part of the woodland it took me much of the day. It was a superb sunny day and there were lots of common insect species and a few migrant birds including Blackcap and Chiffchaff. This is a great site for the localised naturalised Autumn Crocus which was first recorded in the wild in 1783. At Bedwyn Brail it is found in many areas of the site both within the grassland and under closed canopy. In the boxes, I recorded a total of 21 bats, all of which were Pipistrelle species, either Common or Soprano. This is a great site for Barbastelle bats and I was a little disappointed not to record any in our boxes.