Natural history highlights - Archive

SELECTED NATURAL HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS ARCHIVE

GARDEN SPIDER SPIDERLINGS: A tightly-packed cluster of recently hatched spiderlings from a cocoon of the Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus), Norwich, Norfolk, May 2025.

DAY-FLYING MOTH: A Mother Shipton moth (Callistege mi), NWT East Wretham Heath, Norfolk, May 2025.

MINOTAUR BEETLE: A male of one of these beetles (Typhaeus typhoeus) found walking on a path at NWT Buxton Heath, Norfolk, April 2025.

SPRING INSECTS 1/3: Hoverfly (Eristalis pertinax), Norwich, Norfolk, April 2025.

SPRING INSECTS 2/3: Bee-fly (Bombylius major), RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk, March 2025.

SPRING INSECTS 3/3: Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album), NWT Buxton Heath, Norfolk, March 2025.

CATTLE EGRET IN NORFOLK: I am still getting used to the sight of Cattle Egrets in the UK. This one was at St Benet's Abbey, near Ludham, Norfolk, December 2024.

HOVERFLY ON IVY FLOWER: A late example of this striking hoverfly (Sericomyia silentis) feeding at one of the last flowers of autumn. RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk, October 2024.

SAWFLY LARVAE IN COMMUNAL DISPLAY: These sawfly larvae (Nematus septentrionalis) were eating the leaves of a small Hazel in our garden this summer (June 2024).

DIGGER WASP WITH PREY: The small black and white digger wasp Oxybelus uniglumis nests in a sandy 'bee-bank' that we constructed in our garden a few years ago. In the summer (June 2024), I was lucky enough to witness females returning to their nest with their fly prey. As in the photo, they transport captured flies in a unique manner by carrying the paralysed body behind them impaled on their sting.

SPARROWHAWK WITH CAPTURED SWIFT: A male Sparrowhawk with a captured Swift on our lawn last spring. I was very surprised to see a Swift as prey in this way, but have since read that Sparrowhawk predation of Swifts is known to occur, but rare. Norwich, Norfolk, May 2024.