At Holyland Wood, Pembroke - is it plane? is it a bird? No its quite a nice butterfly plus a bumblebee relatively new to Pembrokeshire

Today, after doing a training event with Pembroke 21c, we ventured down to Holyland Wood where, earlier in the summer, we had recorded birds and bumblebees, including discovery of the presence of tree bumblebees Bombus hypnorum (a colonist of the UK from mainland Europe since 2001, spreading north and west having reached Pembrokeshire some time in the last year or so). This species breeds in tree holes and will often take up residence in bird nest boxes, so its worth checking your nest boxes for this species! We couldn't find any more today but believe John Hayes has found them in a nest box in the Pembroke area.

We did have another nice invertebrate find though, a recently emerged white-letter hairstreak butterfly on the edge of the car park in Holyland Wood, present no doubt due to the magnificent elm trees that are growing well there (elm being the food plant of the caterpillar). They nectar on bramble, thistles etc near elm trees so its well worth the while looking in suitable places during the next few weeks that they are on the wing to see if any more colonies are around.


Not too much to report on the bird front but we did hear a willow tit calling on the edge of the wetland near Holyland Wood, which was nice. Later this afternoon at Martletwy, we noted an adult male goshawk carrying prey along the edge of a wood towards a likely breeding location (where we last saw them displaying a few years ago). So nice to be able to get out recording on a warm, sunny and relatively calm day.