Category: Fauna

Honey bee

If both have survived the winter, there are two feral honey bee colonies in the reserve. Feral bees are an important backwater in the Apis mellifera gene pool, busy adapting to the changing environment rather than to the needs of the beekeeping industry.

In March, our honey bees will be clearing out their nest cavities and working to replenish their depleted honey stocks. Here is a video about the way in which individual bees fit into a workforce of tens of thousands.

Warren

There is a rabbit warren under the hedge where Corn Field, Sheep Field and Sleepers meet. Its many entrances and exits are hidden under the brambles but you may well have walked atop the warren itself.

Above: a buzzard photographed in the reserve last week by Philip Knight. And below: a second, much lighter coloured buzzard, this time from regular contributor, Cheryl Cronnie.
Buzzards are fiercely territorial so it’s probable that this is a breeding pair. Their territory will cover a much wider area than just our reserve and may contain several different nest sites that they use in successive years.We know that there is one nest site in the trees at the bottom of the field just across the road from our car park but it would be great if they chose a site in our woodland.
If you know of another buzzard’s nest in the area. please let us know

Ruby tiger moth

Another expedition into the reserve’s species lists has produced a ruby tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) found and identified in the summer of 2021 by our lepidopterist, Hugo Brooke. This is a common day-flying moth, its adult stage so short lived, that it doesn’t feed; its only purpose is to mate and lay eggs on the ragwort, plantain, dock or dandelions on the edge of our woodland.
At this time of year, the ruby tiger is overwintering as a caterpillar, at ground level, among the leaf litter. Its blood contains a natural antifreeze which will have protected it through our recent sub-zero cold snap.

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