Yesterday’s walk saw me exploring new trails – always exciting as I never know what I might find. I’d walked through part of Casehill Woods a couple of times before but in the winter months, when the ground was sodden and heavy with slippery mud, so it was nice to return for a summer visit – the first of many, I think. I particularly wanted to check out the woodland rides, for butterflies and other beasties – and a beastie is what I found there, a new-to-me and new-to-my-local-10km-recording-square hoverfly, Volucella inflata.

This gorgeous golden creature favours woodlands, and feeds on the flowers of Bramble and shrubs like Wild privet and Dogwood, so the habitat at Casehill Woods is perfect for it. These hoverflies should be on the wing for a few more weeks yet so I’ll be keeping an eye out for more when next I walk these paths.