Hyde's Heath

[puddleshark]

Poole Harbour, from Hyde's Heath.

On Thursday I went walking on Hyde's Heath, a recent extension to the RSPB nature reserve at Arne.



The RSPB acquired the 67 hectare site in 2019, large parts of which had been planted over with conifers, and is in the process of restoring it to heathland.




Normally in August, the heath would be purple with heather flowers. But this summer has been too hot, too dry, and there's very little heather in flower.


Looking over the marshy harbour margins.


Grayling butterfly. They bask on the heathland tracks with their wings folded and carefully angled not to cast a shadow; perfectly camouflaged until they take off suddenly with a flash of orange upper wings.


Catsear (probably. Catsear is the most common heathland dandeloid).


And a photography fail, but an interesting one. I had absolutely no idea what this was - wasp? bee? - but one of the experts on ispotnature identified it as Epeolus, a type of cuckoo bee. The width of the abdomen and the markings are positively spiderlike - I wonder why these evolved? It can't be Batesian mimicry, where a harmless creature camouflages itself to look like a more dangerous creature, because cuckoo bees are not harmless, they have stings.