After the extreme heat the week before the weather turned much cooler and windy for our visit to Dunster. We met up with two volunteers who do insect surveys which only started last year so the team are still discovering what creatures lurk in their shrubbery and meadows.

We started in the Dream Garden but it was too windy for insects to be on the wing. However, we did find a solitary bee on an open flower covered in pollen showing one of the way these bees help pollination, they can be more effective than honey or bumblebees as they are often more untidy collectors of pollen. 

There were also some white/buff tailed bumblebee workers and we had a discussion about the ID of workers and males of these species. The workers are impossible to ID in the field so get lumped together as W/BTBB aggregate, however it is possible to ID Males. The males of the white-tailed have yellow faces while the buff are plain. To distinguish between males and workers the former do not have pollen baskets as they do not need to collect any so they will be seen without pollen sacs and just feeding on nectar, so they move from one flower to the other just sipping with their proboscis.

As it was windy we went down to the River Garden where it was calmer. On the way we saw various butterflies including Green- veined White which like damp areas- a useful ID tip as the three white butterflies (GVW, Small and Large) are difficult to ID when on the move). By the mill stream we found both Beautiful and Banded Demoiselles which are stunning metallic blues and greens, they live in slightly different habitats along streams, the former in more shady areas and the latter more open and this was the case here. We were also inspected by a very curious Dragonfly which was difficult to ID, later Kevin confirmed most likely it was a teneral (immature) Migrant Hawker, these have not fully changed to the adult markings.

At the watermill there had been nesting Dipper and Grey Wagtail and we were told of interesting behaviour of both- the dipper collected moss from the wheel and wet wall for its nest and piled it up on the side before carrying it off and the Grey Wagtail appeared not to like an open window by the side of its nest hole so it would have to be shut. I presume, as with wagtails, it thought its reflection was an intruder.

As it warmed up and the wind lessened we went up to the Vine Terrace and were shown at least 9 larvae of dragonflies which were emerging from the small ornamental pond, such amazing looking creatures. Then we did our first FIT count (Flower Insect Timed Count) on 

Achillea, nice open flowers in the full sun. A count lasts 10 minutes and it gives you an opportunity to really watch the comings and goings of insects. On this plant we saw mainly small flies which came and went in waves, in total we recorded 30 insects using the app which is then submitted to PoMS (Pollinator Monitoring Survey)

Next stop were the meadows as the wind was now less. There were plenty of Field Grasshoppers which can be quite variable in colour and also a lovely green Meadow Grasshopper in contrast which is larger and more robust.  There was an explosion of  Painted Lady Butterflies on thistles – they have had a good year by the look of it and an egg was found on a thistle of one of these as it is their larval food plant. The second FiT count on thistle yielded butterfly, bees and a yellow jacket wasp, total of 6 insects.

By then we reached the end of the event so with much thanks to our hosts, who were so generous with their time, we had to leave. We had a great opportunity to exchange knowledge and discuss invertebrate life and reflect on the effects of our climate on the insects, the recent extreme weather having an impact.

Records:

Butterflies and moths

• Red Admiral
• Panted Lady
• Large White
• Green-veined White
• Speckled Wood
• Box Bush Moth (recent invasive species decimating Box)
• Small Tortoiseshell
• Gatekeeper
• Meadow Brown 

Dragonflies

• Banded Demoiselle
• Beautiful Demoiselle
• Migrant Hawker

Bees and Hoverflies etc

• White/ buff -tailed BB workers
• Red-tailed BB worker
• Common Carder Bee male
• Marmalade Hoverfly sp
• Yellow Jacket Wasp

Grasshoppers

• Meadow
• Field

Birds

• Swallow
• Chaffinch
• Chiffchaff
• Raven
• Coal tit
• Blackcap
• Great tit
• Dunnock

Thank you very much to the staff at National Trust at Dunster for allowing our group to visit and explore insect life.