RXwildlife Sightings

Highlights from Castle Water today included Bittern, 3 Raven, Garganey with a brood of ducklings, 2 Marsh Harrier, 3 Cuckoo and a Hobby. The small pools that have featured in previous posts are continuing to provide emerging dragonflies, today a further 14 Emperor and 12 Black-tailed Skimmer exuviae were found, amazingly that brings the total of Emperor from one small pool to 76. Common Darter are also now on the wing.

Black-tailed Skimmer at stage 1 of emergence.(completely out of the water but cuticle has yet to split)

Sam’s entry below mentions the Southern Cuckoo Bee Bombus vestalis, but there is at least one other species of Cuckoo on the wing at the moment, the Red-tailed Cuckoo Bee Bombus rupestris (below). This species parasitises the Red-tailed Bumblebee Bombus lapidarius (bottom) to which it is very similar. Cuckoo Bumblebees have no workers, only queens and males, and their lifestyle involves them taking over ‘normal’ bumblebee nests, killing or subduing the resident queen and ‘enslaving’ the workers to rear her own young.

Bombus rupestris
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