Back in July I went looking for the Large Scabious Mining Bee - Andrena hattorfiana on Salisbury Plain. A bee which as its name suggests is mainly to be found on scabious flowers from which it collects pollen. The pollen of scabious is pink which gives the pollen brushes a very attractive and distinctive appearance. Once again I managed to see my target species (plus others) within a few yards of where we parked the car. For a while though I thought I was going to have to go home empty handed because every site I had planned to visit was out of bounds due to a large military training exercise. Eventually just as we were about to give up and go home, the trackway we wanted to drive down was reopened so we parked up and I was able to get some nice shots. We had just gone on spec to take advantage of the lovely sunny weather but in hindsight we should have gone at the weekend when the army normally aren't training. For plant hunting I used to go at 5am but that's not going to work very well for bees!
Female Large Scabious Mining Bee - Andrena hattorfiana
Here seen on the same flower-head as another scabious specialist the Scabious Longhorn Moth
Scabious Longhorn - Nemophora metallica
Orange Vented Mason Bee - Osmia leaiana
Essex Skipper - Thymelicus lineola
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