Reminiscences I

As I sit here, surrounded by boxes to take to England and bags to take to the charity, I thought it would be nice to look back over the adventures we've shared over the past six years of The Crete Nature Blog. It all started in December 2013 with Welcome to Lasithi when I introduced you to my home in the village of Ferma on the south east coast of Crete and we climbed the hills, investigated the olive groves and went rock pooling down at the little village harbour.

In series two we moved on from merely observing the plants, insects, birds and myriad other life forms and started to look at The Rhythm Of Life including the flowering times of the plants, the appearance of insects in the Spring and migration patterns of birds. The study of when things happen in nature is called phenology which I explained in what turned out to be one of the most popular blog posts, Phenomenal Phenology.

In series three, A Journey Begins, the journey in question took us from the beach at Agios Fotia high up into the Thriptis mountains on unmarked paths where we inevitably got a little lost or, to be more accurate, we weren’t lost, we just couldn’t find a track going in our direction. But the great thing about blundering about in the wilderness is that you get to see so much more.

This journey took us up into the Thriptis mountains via the Eden Valley but, having got up there, we also had to come back. This we did via The Milonas Valley which was an incredibly beautiful sojourn and included another very popular blog post The Milonas Waterfall in which we went wild swimming in early March (brrr). A nice underwater video at the end of that post from the pool beneath the waterfall.

Having undertaken two major expeditions it was time to re-examine home turf once
more so series five took us on a circular walk (and snorkel) around the village in This Is Ferma including the Wildlife Hotel and The Sea Caves of Ferma. 

It was about this time that I devised the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

with which you can click on any of the symbols and read the relevant blog post. 

This covers the first half of the Crete nature Blogs and I'll try to cover the second half before I leave to explore a new part of the world for me, Cumbria, where I expect we will have many more adventures.

Steve's Books

Spring is just around the corner, the flowers are beginning to bud, and all sorts of litle arthropods will be busy. There are over thirty major groups of these creatures and identifying them is impossible without knowing to which group they belong. Help is at hand with The Quick Guide To Creepy-Crawlies which can be used anywhere in the world and is suitable for all ages. For this, and for other books I have written or have yet to write, you can follow me on Amazon.

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog).

Crete Nature Catch-up
Series 1 - Welcome to Lasithi	Series 2 - The Rhythm Of Life	Series 3 - A Journey Begins
Series 4 - The Milonas Valley	Series 5 - This Is Ferma	Series 6 - Upland Villages
Series 7 - The Forty saints	Series 8 - Sunday Strolls	Series 9 -Stormy Weather

Snakeless in Sisi

I had two reasons for wanting to visit Sisi on the north coast of Crete; firstly I'd never been there, despite having been living on the island for 14 years and secondly I'd been promised that I would find Dice Snakes lounging in the rock pools just waiting to have their photographs taken. What better way to start my series of Sunday Strolls with an enthusiastic band of budding amateur naturalists in tow? Sisi is only a small village but somehow Betty managed to get lost in it before we had even started but after a slight delay whilst we phoned her with directions we descended upon the rock pools. I should point out at this juncture that to avoid confusion and boredom by introducing loads of names into these stories (to say nothing of potential ostracism and/or libel actions) all of the ladies will be referred to as Betty and the gentlemen as Bert.

We found plenty of life in the rock pools; everything from Peacock's Tails (see Creature's of the Blue Lagoon if you'd like to know where you put them on your body and why), a couple of nice anemones including the Beadlet that was just coming out to feed, a few young gobies and an intense ecological battle. On one side of the battlefield there were a goodly number of small but beautifully formed, Marble Crabs, which are a native Mediterranean species and, lurking half under a rock, a much larger Sally Lightfoot which is probably the most invasive crab in the Mediterranean. First reported simultaneously off Ibiza and Italy in 1999 and off Crete in 2006 they're eating the poor Marble Crabs out of house and home. Where I live, in Ferma on the south east coast, it's not unusual to see half a dozen or more on one short snorkeling session. The main culprit? Increased shipping in the Mediterranean.

Growing around the rock pools was a fair amount of Rock Samphire, an edible plant that one can pickle in vinegar or brine or use the leaves raw on salads. I handed a few leaves round and I think that we all agreed that we'd rather not. Whereas the unrelated Marsh Samphire has a pleasant, salty taste that goes well with fish dishes, Rock Samphire has a distinctly medicinal tang and could only accompany dental mouthwash in my opinion. As we continued on our leisurely way around the inlet, where ducks and geese lazed on the shore or honked across the water impersonating fog horns' Betty came upon a bush of black berries. As she correctly observed, they looked almost, but not quite, like blackberries.

“Are they a close relative?” she asked.

“Not remotely”, I replied, “and what is more, the berries are poisonous.”

“You can't eat them then?” added Bert, just wanting to get everything absolutely clear in his mind (which is always a top idea when contemplating the consumption of anything in the wild).

“Er, no,” I confirmed.

Betty gave Bert a look which, if she'd turned it on the plant, would have had the berries withering on the stalk but left Bert totally unfazed.

The plant in question was Common Lantana, also known as the Bacon and Egg Plant as its tricolour flowers, radiating from centre, are yellow, white and raw bacon pink.

Of more use around the home were the Chaste Trees that grew alongside the road. Although used in herbal medicine as supposedly fine tuning our circadian rhythms, its efficacy has yet to be proven scientifically. Their common name derives from the fact that it was considered an anaphrodisiac in ancient times and, according to Pliny, it was used by Athenian women to cool the heat of lust in their menfolk. Personally I use it as pot pourri because, even to my anosmic snozzle, it smells pleasantly like lavender.

Insects were a bit thin on the ground this week but as we passed through the Bougainvillea bedecked arbour that leads back down to the sea I managed to capture an Egyptian Grasshopper or Locust who seemed quite happy to swap his resting place on the side of a tree for a similar position on my index finger whilst Betty and Bert admired him.

“What's the difference between a locust and a grasshopper?” asked Betty.

“Scientifically, none,” I informed her, “but in common parlance, locusts usually refer to the larger, strong flying grasshoppers such as this fellow, that occasionally form migratory swarms and do significant damage to crops on their way.”

Returning said Grasshopper/Locust to a nearby tree where he promptly continued his siesta, we made our way down to the spit that protects the little harbour in search of birdies.

We were instantly rewarded by a group of about fifteen large birds flying in a somewhat ragged formation out to sea which I at first took to be a phalanx of storks but on closer inspection of the photograph back in the lab, turned out to be a flight of herons, possibly a mixture of grey and purple herons but that could be a trick of the light. On the spit itself we were entertained by a couple of kingfishers chasing each other around the rocks. Autumn is the season when Kingfishers begin their courtship with the male chasing the female, calling after her almost incessantly. Later she will accept presents of fish but they will not merge their territories until the spring as each bird needs to eat 60% of its body weight each day.

So, no snakes, but plenty of other wildlife and we meandered back to one of the many seafront tavernas where we played at being kingfishers and attempted to consume 60% of our bodyweight in gyros and chips. If you'd like to join Betty, Bert and I then details of the next two Sunday strolls are below. Otherwise just click on the 'G+ Follow' icon in the top left panel to keep abreast of our adventures. Until next week, when I let Betty and Bert loose in a wildlife refuge, enjoy your autumn wherever you are.

Diary Dates

Stroll #2

Sunday 30^th September

11 am

Ag. Charalampos, Lassithi Plateau

A gentle walk around the lower slopes of the Plathini-Lagkada Wildlife Refuge where I hope that we shall see some Griffon Vultures (unless they see me coming and decamp like the Dice Snakes).

Stroll #3

Sunday 7^th October

11 am

Kroustas Forest

(Details next week)

Photographic Bit

Many of you have asked me what photographic equipment I use so for details of aperture settings, shutter speeds etc. my pictures will be on Flickr within a few days and that has all the geeky stuff.Pictures were edited with FastStone Image Viewer and combined with Microsoft Paint.

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LINKS:

Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels 

A light-hearted look at life through the eyes of the fairer sex. 

Kindle Edition 1.99 pounds sterling (or equivalent).

Paperback edition will be available in time for Christmas.

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Explore the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

40 Saints III - Fenced In

As the first part of our walk today takes us along the road from where we finished last week I thought we'd make an early start of it to see if there are any hares or badgers making use of the human highways at this time in the morning. No sign of any yet but we do have some wildlife that I suggested that we look out for in the Late Winter Almanack. Firstly the Pine Processionary Caterpillars, Thaumetopoea pityocampa, are up and about (although these are described as nocturnal in many of the texts I've often found them reluctant to go back to bed in the mornings) and secondly, as I was just bending down to photograph this Storksbill, a little movement in the undergrowth revealed a beautiful Silver Y moth, Autographa gamma, which is one of the migratory moths I mentioned. The little silver markings in the middle of his wings give him both his English name (being shaped like the letter Y) and his scientific name (being shaped like the Greek gamma).

Here's the track where we diverge from the road and get up in amongst the Forty Saints once more but there are a couple of wayside flowers to take note of before we head up into the wilderness. The little mauve job that I was about to photograph before being distracted by the Silver Y is the Storksbill and the other is a White Hedge Nettle. I always think of this as being a rather insecure plant. For a start it's name is based upon it's nettle like leaves which are just for show, they contain no sting at all and secondly you always find it growing up through other plants as if it's afraid to go out on its own.

This old ruin seems like a nice place to sit and rest awhile. I can hear chaffinches, a Sardinian warbler and the first greenfinch of the year and we may be able to spot them flitting about from the top of those steps. Meanwhile I seem to be getting infested with tiny beetles. Their wing cases are a little short and they seem to make quite a job of tucking their wings in. That, along with their minute size and their little clubbed antennae identify them as members of the Nitidulidae family which includes the Picnic Beetle. These are so named for their habit of gatecrashing picnics and diving into any alcoholic beverage that happen to be about. Their usual diet includes decaying fruit as it begins to ferment, hence their predilection for alcohol. These chaps however, belong to a different subfamily and are purely pollen eaters as you can see from that one happily feasting on the chamomile down there.

We have three tracks ahead of us and I think that if we take the left hand one we should be able to return by the middle one and save the right hand one for another day. A nice choice as there's another of those cisterns from which we've disturbed rather a nice buzzard. Which reminds me, we haven't seen our ravens, Huginn and Muninn, this morning although I did hear them cronking away in the Milonas Valley as we walked up the road earlier. Probably looking for anything that didn't make it through the night for their breakfast. Meanwhile we have another little cavelet if we just push our way through these carob trees. No signs of recent occupation so if we carefully lower ourselves down into this juniper filled gully we'll climb to the top and see what's up there.

A nice view of the Milonas valley and that defile in the centre hides the Milonas waterfall. There are absolutely loads of these tiny little crocus like flowers up here too but they're not crocuses, they are Romulea (named after Romulus) from a totally different family. A case of covergent evolution; they're more closely related to asparagus than the crocus. We also have a non-native Candelabra Aloe from South Africa up here behind the pumping station looking somewhat incongruous. There's a track leading down from the pumping station and if my calculations are right it should lead us back to the three way junction. Well, it would have done if someone hadn't erected a two metre fence across it. Oh well, we will just have to force our way through the thorny scrub on this side until we come to the end of it. Not all bad news, at least we've found an interesting little puddle. Nothing here at the moment but possibly a good place to set up a camera trap.

I can see the end of the fence – just the other side of this steep walled five metre deep gully. There's a small goat path up the other side but this side is a scramble and slide job. Here goes. Well, that was interesting but I still seem to have the seat of my trousers intact and I was right about the track; there's the little ruin where we met the pollen beetles. Next week we'll see where the third track leads us. 

Photographic Bit

Many of you have asked me what photographic equipment I use so for details of aperture settings, shutter speeds etc. my pictures will be on Flickr within a few days and that has all the geeky stuff.Pictures were edited with FastStone Image Viewer and combined with Microsoft Paint.

*********************************************************************

LINKS:

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Explore the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Series 7 The Forty Saints

Here we are, having turned sharp left at the Asteria Taverna in Koutsounari and that massive block of limestone before us is the area which we shall be exploring together for the remaining winter weeks and on into spring. It is designated Agioi Saranta, or the Forty Saints. These were a group of Roman Christian soldiers who were martyred for their beliefs, at Sebaste in Turkey, in 360AD. The method of their martyrdom sends shivers down your spine. They were stripped naked and left on a frozen pond all night in sub zero temperatures. Why they should be commemorated here is something which we may or may not find out along the way but first we have to get up there. So we'll leave the old jalopy at the end of the road and walk up that track to our left and see what adventures await.

A fairly steep climb to begin with to get the muscles working and a fairly typical phrygana landscape with low, mat growing plants including this little Rock Rose that is just coming into flower; Fumana. Like all rock roses (family Cistaceae) they have a couple of tricks that help them cope with this harsh environment. Firstly, they do not work alone. Beneath the soil they work in tandem with fungi of the Tuber genus (the genus which includes truffles) to absorb the scarce nutrients. Secondly, they have a very hard coating to their seeds, some of which remain dormant in the soil for long periods. Should there be a wildfire, to which this type of habitat is prone, the seeds split open and germinate giving them an advantage over other plants. Onwards and upwards. This is beginning to look like an expedition to “The Land That Time Forgot”.

Another plant here where we turn right and head eastwards. This is one of the Asphodels which will soon be coming into flower and if you look closely at these leaves you can see that it is swarming with tiny bug nymphs. Many of these look very similar so trying to identify them can be a problem. Having said that, I think that these may be Dionconotus neglectus and the reason I think that is because we've come across them before. Cast your mind back to March 2015 when we found The Chamomile Lawn. We found a host of these in their adult livery on some Yellow Asphodels. Although the literature says that they are polyphagous (eating many plant types), on a regional basis it makes sense for them to stick to the type of plant with which they are most familiar if it is in plentiful supply.

Now this is what I've been aiming us towards today, a little cave perched half way up the rock face. It doesn't look like too difficult a climb. Give me your hand and we'll attempt an ascent. Reasonably accessible in a trouser ripping sort of way; now who's lurking within? A bit of a midden where some small animal has been having a feed (we must get round to investigating some of these middens as they provide a wealth of information) but for the moment we have a fine example of the architecture of a Funnel Web Spider. Don't be alarmed, the Funnel webs (family Agelenidae) are a pretty harmless bunch and not related to the infamous Sydney Funnel-web which is a type of funnel-web tarantula from a different family. 

Take a closer look at the web. Hang on, I'll give you a leg up. It's like a perfectly woven hammock, anchored at the top by a couple of lines and positioned to catch anything tumbling from above. It isn't adhesive but insects have a number of sticky out bits that get entangled in the mesh. The spider resides in that silk tunnel at the back to which one corner of the hammock is attached allowing the spider quick and easy access. Drop a little stone into the hammock and see if anyone comes to investigate. What a shame; it appears to be unoccupied. Ah well, lets go back to the entrance and sit and admire the view for a while before we continue.

There are some great views even at this low level. I should imagine that they'll be quite spectacular when we get up top but for today I think we'll just concentrate on the mid level because, if my eyes don't deceive me, that is a butterfly that we haven't seen before. You may be familiar with the Comma (Polygonia c-album) which is widespread over Europe but this is it's cousin, the Southern Comma (Polygonia egea). According to IUCN it's major caterpillar food plant is Common Pellitory (which isn't common round here) with a note that it also probably feeds on Nettles (also not particularly abundant in these parts) as well as Willows and Elms which are non existent here. So keep your eyes peeled for little grey caterpillars that appear to be sprouting yellow Christmas trees and see what they're feeding upon. You never know, we may discover a new host plant.

Have you noticed that deep cronking sound that's been accompanying us for most of the morning? The owners of those sonorous, if somewhat unmelodic, calls are flying above us. They're a pair of ravens and they seem to be orbiting the very summit. I wonder if they are a breeding pair? As we're going to be up here for the next few weeks we'll keep a close eye on them and see if they'll allow us a little glimpse into their lives. As we hope to become more intimately acquainted I suppose we had better give them names. How about Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory) after Odin's corvid companions in Norse mythology?

Next week we'll continue circling the summit and see who else lives among the forty saints and hopefully Huginn and Muginn will continue to keep us company.

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LINKS:

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Explore the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

The Purple Ponds of Lithines

The purple ponds are teeming with microscopic life. 

We'll make our way back to the main Sitia-Makry Gialos road to Lithines where there are a few interesting ponds to the north west of the village that are worthy of investigation not least of all for their intriguing colour at this time of year. We are still awaiting significant rainfall and the ponds are very shallow at the moment but packed full of nutrients and it is these that are responsible for their unusual colour. If you check them out under the microscope they are absolutely teeming with microscopic life with nematodes, desmids and the like flitting about at tremendous speeds all over the place. But before we get down to them lets see what we can find on the way.

The first signs of the upcoming change of season are here by the track with these Wood Sorrels or Bermuda Buttercups which will soon be adorning every roadside and olive grove. You can make a nice warming winter soup with these; just bring a pot of chicken or vegetable broth up to the boil, chuck in a handful of cooked rice and a handful of wood sorrel leaves, simmer for about eight minutes. Finally stir in a dollop of cream, salt and pepper to taste and serve with a couple of the flowers floating on the top. (Obligatory word of caution: Wood sorrel contains oxalic acid so if you suffer from rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity then it may aggravate the complaint but for the rest of us the odd bowl or two is fine). You can also add flowers or leaves to salads for a sharp, lemony bite if you wish as well. As with all wild plants, wash them well, remove any bugs such as this Shield Bug nymph and pick away from roadsides or other contaminated areas.

There are the ponds down there which we have to find our way down to somehow but first a Small Copper has just landed nearby. They like to lay their eggs on Sorrel which is their caterpillar's food plant and you could be forgiven for thinking that this is rather handy as we have some wood sorrel nearby but not so. This is the old confusion of common names. The Wood Sorrel is Oxalis pes-carpe in the family Oxalidaceae; Sorrels (without the wood) are plants of the Rumex genus in the Polygonaceae family. The ambiguity arises because they are all acidic tasting and the word Sorrel reflects this being derived from the old French 'sorele' meaning sour.

Here we are, down at the ponds without too much difficulty and there doesn't seem to be too much activity on the surface but just take a look at this rainwater ditch nearby where the water is a little more free draining. The dragonflies are having a high old time, there must be six pairs here at least, flying along in tandem with the males clasping the females' necks with their special pincers. These little Darters stay together after copulation and then the female gently dips her abdomen into the water and lays an egg which, if we sit and watch them for a few moments we can witness. There she goes, and another, and another. These will hatch out into extremely predatory nymphs and providing that the ditch doesn't dry up they can spend up to three years in this stage before emerging as adults.

And finally the ponds themselves and what an unusual, attractive colour they are at this time of day. Not entirely devoid of life on the surface, I can see one small, white insect skating along on the surface but what precisely it is I cannot tell. No, I am not going to wade in and take a closer look. I have a strong suspicion that beneath this shallow water there lurks a good few inches or more of evil smelling sludge with which I have no desire to get better acquainted thank you. Well, that just about wraps it up for Autumn. Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice and if you'd care to join me in raising a glass to the shortest day of the year the the time of the solstice, when the Earth is at its furthest point from the sun, is 16.48 Universal Time or almost ten to five Greenwich Mean Time as us oldies prefer to call it. That's a most convivial time for a libation out here in Crete being about ten to seven in the evening. So, wherever you are and whatever you're celebrating, have a good one and we'll meet up again on January 3^rd 2018. Cheers!

Photographic Bit

Many of you have asked me what photographic equipment I use so for details of aperture settings, shutter speeds etc. my pictures will be on Flickr within a few days and that has all the geeky stuff. Pictures were edited with FastStone Image Viewer and combined with Microsoft Paint.

*********************************************************************

LINKS:

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Explore the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)