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| Venus - both the "Evening" and the "Morning" Star |
One of
the great things about winter in the northern hemisphere is that you can
observe the creatures of the night in the evening and still get to bed at a
reasonable hour so, as it’s relatively mild and the sun is going down, I
thought we’d spend an evening on the terrace and let the wildlife come to us.
We’ll take a couple of braziers up and cook some of the delicious local
sausages to keep us fortified in case it gets chilly later and mull a drop of
wine as well for the same reason. I see that the Evening Star is rising in the
west to keep us company. A bit of a misnomer as it is not a star at all but the
planet Venus. If we were to stay up all night we’d see it rise in the East in
the morning when we’d call it by the equally incorrect name of the Morning Star.
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| Noctuid and two types of Geometer |
The
terrace lights have been on for a couple of hours now and I see that we’re
already beginning to attract quite a few insects. Not surprisingly the majority
of these are moths. I’ve found representatives of fourteen families of moths,
mostly up here on the terrace, and that doesn’t include all these small fry
that you see flitting about that are collectively known as the
microlepidoptera. But if you are just starting out on moths then the two
biggest families that you are going to come across are the noctuids (Noctuidae)
and the geometers (Geometridae). The big hairy one on the left which usually
holds its wings back over its body and overlapping each other is a noctuid. The ones that hold their wings out
sideways are geometers, the smaller one underneath (of which you see many) are
known as pugs and are part of the Geometer subfamily Larentiinae. There are
moths in other families which share similar characteristics (which I’m sure
they do just to confuse us) but knowing your noctuids from your geometers is a
very good place to begin when trying to identify moths.
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| Green Lacewing |
Now
here’s a little insect that you probably won’t see until Spring if you live
further north but down here on the southern shores of Crete I see them all the
year round. They are called Green Lacewings and they’re from a very small and
ancient order of insects called the Neuroptera. They are fascinating little
animals not leastly because the female attaches her eggs to the underside of
plant leaves on slender stalks. When the larvae hatch they immediately moult
then climb up the stalks to the leaf where they become voracious predators of
small, soft bodied insects such as aphids, injecting them with digestive juices
which dissolve them within minutes. After pupating they emerge as adults and
sing to attract mates by vibrating their bodies. Each species has a different
song so this fellow here which is probably the Southern European Green
Lacewing, Chrysoperla mediterranea, hums
a different tune to his more northerly counterpart the Common Green Lacewing Chrysoperla carnea.
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| Leslie the Prodigal Snail |
How are
those sausages coming along? Nearly done? Good, because I can hear Maria and
her daughter coming up the stairs and I do believe they’re carrying great pots
of mashed potato and baked beans. So let us sit down and sup and I’ll update
you on our ongoing projects. Firstly, big news on the snail front: Leslie’s
back. If you recall Leslie disappeared on the first night and was, so I
thought, never to be seen again. But, lo and behold, there was Leslie, large as
life on Friday morning, firmly adhered to the outside of the box from which it
had started out eleven days ago and
there, curled up alongside was Beverley who’d made the gargantuan effort of
travelling the five centimetres over the lip of the box where it had been
dozing all week. In fairness to Beverley we’ve had no rain this week and none
of the other snails have moved much either. Vivian disappeared for a time last
night but was back with Ashley and the two Marks when I checked on them this
morning. So, Leslie and Ashley are wanderers and they’ve paired up with Vivian
and Beverley who are stay-at-homes. Maybe it’s a bit too early to say that in
the snail world “opposites attract” but an interesting start to the project
nevertheless. Have you had anything similar with your own snail projects? What
do you mean: you haven’t started yet? Shame on you – go out and grab a handful
of snails tomorrow morning, You’ll have hours of fun.
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| Black Redstart in its nightly roost |
And what of the Sparrows I hear you ask. To be
honest I’ve seen very little of Alice, Beatrice and the boys over the past
week. A quick nip to the table, grab some food and away and I haven’t seen any
of them for the past two days. If you go down the stairs and look above the
front door you’ll see a possible reason why. Roosting above the door there is a
Black Redstart who comes and stays with us every winter. Now he’s a very
territorial bird, a bit of a bully in fact. Although I’ve never seen him
physically attack another bird he seems to make his presence felt by sitting on
the telephone wire above the table, dropping down on to it (but not eating) and
generally careering around the terrace. All of which seems to disturb the
sparrows. Another example of his oafish behaviour is his choice of night roost.
Between 2005 and 2009 that roost was occupied every winter by a Chiffchaff. Then
in the winter of 2010/11 the Black Redstart appeared and began to roost on a
nearby arch. Gradually they changed places. During the winter of 2011/12 only
the Black Redstart came back to roost and the Chiffchaff hasn’t been back since
(in fact I haven’t seen a Chiffchaff locally since February 2012).
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| Bird seed - help or hindrance? |
Despite the lack of sparrows the bird table has not
been totally devoid of interest as I seem to be growing a number of small
seedlings. I’ve no idea what these are as yet although the secondary leaves are
reminiscent of Loquat leaves, a tree from South East Asia but widely grown in
these parts. It does beg the question however: “What plants are we introducing
to our local ecosystems with our kind-hearted bird feeding?” I realised I had
absolutely no idea. I buy my seed from an open tub at the local pet shop but
goodness knows where they come from. As we know, all of nature is
interconnected; local birds feed on local seeds and insects that either come
from, or are dependent upon, local plants. If we inadvertently introduce
invasive plants via our bird feeders then we’ll be depleting the birds’ food
supply rather than supplementing it. I shall take a tip from my parents and
hang bags under the bird table. It takes a while for the birds to accept this
but it catches a lot of scattered seeds (that can be reused), keeps the ground
below the table clear of weeds and helps to reduce potential environmental
damage.
On that note I think I’ll have another plate of
sausage, mash and beans. Is there any of that mulled wine left? Until next week
– happy hunting.
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LINKS:
Naturalists
(the facebook page that accompanies this blog)
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