A recently published web page by The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales notes that Common Ragwort has "done really well this summer" due to the inconsistent weather of this year and the flowers, leaves and plants have acted as an invaluable source for "at least thirty species of invertebrate". These include one form of aphid, 12 fly species, 7 leaf beetle species, 1 macro moth, 7 micro moths, 1 form of mite and 1 type of thrip. The article states that other invertebrates use it as a nectar source, especially if other flowers haven't survived as well, and these include 2 bee species, various butterflies, Conopid flies, hoverflies, at least 40 species of Noctuid moths, a minimum of 30 species of solitary bees and a minimum of 18 solitary wasp species. (Please note, that some of these details are repeated from the last post).
The reason for the larger than normal image is so that you will be able to see the bee, the beetle and the butterfly, any ideas on what they might be?
It is tiresome and back-breaking work, once in a while you get a wonderful view - I have been accompanied by some kestrels and possibly a buzzard. If you look at the photograph below, you may even seen one of the avian accompanists to my ragworticidal acivities.
Unfortunately the camera on a phone is not the most ideal at trying to take long distance shots of hovering kestrels. I will say that as I left last night, I looked back to see that my work hadn't disturbed the birds. I saw one, two and then to the left another pair - there were four kestrels hovering across the length of the field, if any more had turned up I would have thought that they may have been auditioning for Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds'.
The above photograph isn't a complete waste of time - it shows a loose stand of Common Ragwort. Next time, I will explain more about the stands tomorrow. I bet you can't wait?
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