The Last Ever Crete Nature Blog?

At the end of my last blog I left you rather floundering at the Hotel Astir in Patras. Sorry about that but my own life has been a bit astir since then. To finish off that part of the story, the following day comprised a morning swim in the rooftop pool, crossing Greece from Patras to Piraeus by bus and train, then boarding the overnight ferry to Heraklion. From thence back to Ferma and home. More tiring than exciting and little time for nature watching.

I then spent the next three months finishing The Quick Guide To Creepy-Crawlies which, I am pleased to say, is now available on Amazon alongside my anthology of short stories, Not Just For Twisted Women (the ebook is now free with Kindle Unlimited). Both books can be viewed on my Author Page and both make great Christmas presents (honestly!).

So, why The Last Ever Crete Nature Blog? Well, without going into detail, at the beginning of November I began to feel a bit lost and lonely down there on the south east coast of Crete and decided to return to the UK for a couple of months and spend Christmas with the family up here in West Cumbria. I shall be returning to Crete in early January but my plans for 2020 are very fluid although I suspect that it will involve more time in the UK and less time in Crete.

I daresay that I shall continue to write next year (I can't keep quiet for too long) but after six years of the Crete Nature Blog it is time for something new. Until then, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Steve

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

Mirtos River

The sun is shining and there's hardly a breath of wind. Drop everything, cancel all plans, we're going out! With all the rain we've had recently (and more forecast in the coming days) good walking weather is at a premium. A morning stroll by the Myrtos river followed by a spot of lunch in the town is definitely in order.

Out & About

The birds are certainly enjoying themselves. Apart from a murder of hooded crows mustering in that gum tree over there, discussing goodness knows what, I can hear the descending trills of chaffinches, a twittering of goldfinches, the long, drawn out 'dzeee' of a greenfinch and the sharp 'tak-tak' of a male stonechat. And sitting pretty as a picture on that bush to our left is a female stonechat cocking an ear to the male whilst keeping a beady eye on us.

It's nice to see a few more wildflowers coming into bloom. The Branched Asphodels are a sure sign that spring can't be too far away and the Common Lantana (or Bacon & Egg plant as it is also known) always adds a splash of colour. This is not a native Cretan plant but originates from Central and South America. Since being imported as an ornamental it has gaily spread itself around the world bullying out native species as it goes. There's a fair bit of Tree Medick about, easily differentiated from similar looking yellow bushes by its unusual disk-like seeds, and these are a great favourite of bumble bees. Finally, down by the wall, we have some delightfully named White Ramping Fumitory. Medicinally, it is used to treat conjunctivitis but only when laboratory prepared – otherwise you're likely to end up with a secondary eye infection and make things worse rather than better.

Fieldcraft & Foraging

Ah, we've reached the bridge and there's a church at the far end which gives us a chance to practise a little bit of fieldcraft which I think you'll find interesting. How do you find your place in space and time in a church without a clock? 

Christian churches, of any denomination, are aligned east-west wherever conditions allow with the business end in the east (that's the end with the small doors for the priest as opposed to the big doors for the congregation). Therefore, if you stretch your arms out like this and line yourself up with the church and you can feel the sun behind you then you are pointing due north. Just to prove it I'll put my little compass down on the parapet. Look at that, magic. If you then put your stick (or anything else that comes to hand) in front of you you can estimate the time from the shadow it casts. The sun travels from east to west so if the shadow falls to the left it is morning, dead ahead it is noon, to the right it is afternoon. The further it diverges from north the earlier or later it is. When you get the knack of it, it's surprisingly accurate. Our shadow is very slightly to the left of north so it's probably about a quarter to twelve or thereabouts which means that by the time we've walked back along the other bank and wandered into town it will be just about lunchtime.

We haven't done any foraging on this particular outing but seeing these citrus trees on our right here reminds me that I have a rather nice recipe for very simple marmalade to share with you. Obviously you can't go pinching fruit from someone's trees unless you are under twelve (when it is known as scrumping – a minor felony) or over seventy (when it is known as being a cheeky old sod who thinks that life's rules no longer apply). However, if you do unexpectedly find yourself in possession of four decent sized oranges, a lemon and an apple, head over to Steve's Wild Kitchen and I'll show you how to turn them into two 680g jars of marmalade without all the fiddly mucking about usually associated with jams and preserves.

In The Lab – Forensic Entomology

Now here's an interesting little fellow that is out way past his bed time. He's a carrion beetle and this particular species, Ablattaria laevigata, likes to feed on snails at night. Those fierce jaws can pierce their shells. Female carion beetles like to lay their eggs in dead animals, including human cadavres. If you have a murder victim that has been gradually decomposing in the woods for some time then it is very difficult to estimate when the deadly deed took place using conventional forensics such as body temperature. Fly maggots can, and often do, help to extend this window but if you have young carrion beetles whizzing about all over the corpse you are on to a winner because their heads grow at a known rate. You simply get your calipers out, calculate their age, work out when the eggs were laid, subtract the average time it takes a female carrion beetle to find a corpse and Bob's your uncle. OK, not quite that simple but you get my drift. Just the sort of thing that Sherlock Holmes would have been into but unfortunately forensic entomology wasn't de rigeur in the late 19^th century.

Talking of Sherlock Holmes, I deduce from the bulges in your coat pockets, that four oranges seem to have made their way about your person. As I happen to have an apple in my pack then you know what we need to find now? A lemon tree my dear Watson.

Walking Notes

This is a very easy road walk and completely wheelchair accessible. The stone bridge may present a challenge but in summer it is probably more practical to use the adjoining concreted ford. If so, I suggest that you go up the west bank and return via the east bank (the ford gradient is steeper on the eastern side). For those that still retain their agility there are plenty of opportunities to go 'off-road' and get down to the river itself.

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 - (Current series start)

Steve's Books (well, just the one at the moment)

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 4.99 pounds sterling (or equivalent)..  Read snippets, samples and stuff at Steve's Books

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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 Art of Nature

Out & About

This week I'm taking you up to a little place in the hills called Psychro but instead of hiking up to the church of St. George as most people do (and indeed, as we did back in October 2016 – see Into The Woods), we're going for a short stroll down the valley on the other side of the road to look at the sometimes overlooked beauties of nature.

Starting with the obvious, sublime winter landscapes can be found almost anywhere on a crisp winter's day. This is especially so if you have a background of blue skies and mountains, an interesting old man-made structure in the mid ground (in this case a long defunct watermill) and you are looking at it through a trio of stark and leafless trees.

Landscapes are a great favourite with artists and photographers, as are the common 'pretties' such as flowers, birds and butterflies but take a closer look at any damp wood or rock and you will find an almost limitless array of interesting shapes among the world of the mosses.

There are others who enjoy their art by taking brass rubbings in old churches. Bark rubbing of trees, which employs the same techniques, is also practised by a lesser number of devotees. If however, you strip away the bark of many a fallen branch or log that has not yet had time to decay, you will find the intricate tunnels of beetle larvae which are surely worth rubbing.

The sounds of nature are amplified on a cold winter's day and as you may have noticed as we've been poking and prodding about down here, we've been followed all morning by the song of the robin, bouncing around the limestone walls. He's been trailing our progress and has finally paused for breath in that mass of ivy up there.

We started with the sublime so we may as well finish with the ridiculous which has its own kind of beauty. As we've been sitting here at the end of our little whiffle through the tulgey wood, as it were, I've been watching the honey bees delicately sipping nectar and collecting pollen from the wood sorrel; the flower heads gently dipping on their long, pendulous stalks. A couple of carpenter bees have also been watching them and, thinking that it looks a simple idea, have tried the same trick. What they haven't allowed for is the fact that they are substantially larger and heavier than honey bees. At every attempt the flower heads have arced down, with great rapidity, leaving the carpenter bees clinging on like a drowning mariner to a piece of wood or, finding themselves unceremoniously dumped in the foliage. Like Rabbie Burns' spider they try, try and try again but I fear that success has eluded them so far.

Walking Notes

This is a short and relatively easy stroll which you can extend down further if you wish but the route gets progressively more difficult. I should not advise going much further in winter or early spring as there are places where you can only pass through narrow defiles. If water trapped further upstream suddenly breaks through then it would be all too easy to get trapped in a flash flood. As always, when walking in this type of terrain, make sure that you have an escape route. To get here follow the route from Ierapetra to Ferma and turn left in the village of Koutsounari signposted to Agios Ioannes. Continue through village (Psychro is signposted) and you will find the entrance to the path leading to the Church of St. George of Psychro well marked at an obvious picnic site on the left hand side of a hairpin bend. Just make your way down into the valley on the opposite side of the road. (If you reach the village of Schinokapsala you have overshot by a couple of kilometres). 

Fieldcraft & Foraging

The last bit of foraging that we did involved Wood Sorrel leaves (see Steve's Wild Kitchen - 1970s Prawn Cocktail with Wood Sorrel Garnish) . That was a very basic 'recipe' barely worthy of the name but as Wood Sorrel is still very abundant at the moment I thought we'd stick with it but have a look at the roots. The two largest that you can see here are a bit yellowish as it's been struggling to grow out from beneath this log that I've just turned over. But look at the third largest one at the back; does it remind you of anything? Wood Sorrel root can be used as a substitute for that staple of Asian cooking – the bean sprout. Simply grasp the whole plant at the base and gently pull it from the ground. Top and tail the root and keep the white part. Note: you shouldn't do this with all plants as some are rare and it may even be illegal to uproot them but this one is native to South Africa and is classed as an invasive species in many parts of the world. So this week's recipe from Steve's Wild Kitchen is for a tasty Chicken Chow Mein using crunchy Wood Sorrel roots in place of bean sprouts. 

In The Lab

There are times when you wish to study a small insect up close in the field but they can be quite uncooperative when you approach them with a hand lens. They turn their backs on you, tumble off flowers and lose themselves in the foliage, or simply fly away. It is at times like this that one needs a pooter. It is simply a device for sneaking up on specimens and sucking them into a tube so that you can bring them back to study in the lab or inspect them more closely on the spot. The inset photo here, of this small wasp, was taken at the side of the road. Satisfied that the photograph was good enough for identification purposes (at least to family level) I was then able to let him go about his business. As you can see, it wouldn't be difficult to make such a device yourself but this one I bought from my regular equipment suppliers,Watkins & Doncaster, for less than 15 pounds.

PS. If The Ritz in Picadilly would care to put me up for a night or two I'd be happy to do a blog from their gardens if only to use the blog post title “Pootin' on the Ritz”. (Sorry about that folks – still, you never know!)

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 - (Current series start)

Steve's Books (well, just the one at the moment)

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 4.99 pounds sterling (or equivalent).. Read snippets, samples and stuff at Steve's Books

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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

Season's Greetings

Seasons Greetings to all.

I'm currently pupating but The Crete Nature Blog will be back in the New Year.

Crete Nature Almanack 2018 Autumn

Autumn is nearly upon us and the birds are already flying south from northern Europe and either staying or passing through Crete on their way to sub-Saharan Africa. Find any stretch of water and you are likely to see birds such as Ruddy Turnstones, Arenaria interpres (top left); Common Sandpipers, Actitis hypoleucos (top right); and possibly even a Spotted Redshank, Tringa erythropus (bottom right). Look out also for the first appearance of the Black Redstart, Phoenicurus ochruros (bottom left), which usually arrives down here on the south east coast somewhere between late October and the end of November.

The flowers will start to appear after the first autumnal rains which have been getting gradually later over the past five years; from September 16^th in 2013 to September 29^th in 2017. I have chosen just three of them, but can you spot the connection? The first one is the Autumn Buttercup, Ranunculus bullatus, which grows throughout the Mediterranean, including north Africa. The second is the Autumn Squill, Prospero autumnale, which although it can be found throughout southern Europe and the Middle East, for some reason can also be found in Great Britain according to Kew Garden's world checklist. The third one is Crocus laevigatus, which is endemic to Crete and is one of a number of crocuses sometimes known as the Autumn Crocus as, like the others, it flowers at this time of year.

The rains also bring forth the snails, of course, and the familiar Garden Snail, Cornu aspersum, starts to appear in considerable numbers in gardens and supermarkets across the island. Apart from being edible did you know that its yucky, slimy secretions are used in American skin creams? The second one is the Chocolate-band Snail, Eobania vermiculata, which also appears in gardens but not so often in supermarkets. They are edible but considered inferior to Garden Snails by the Greeks so we export them to France (mind you, that little nugget of information is 37 years old, so don't quote me on it). Finally, the Green Garden Snail, Cantareus apertus, which has a shell that can vary from creamy yellow, through olive green, to almost black but is easily recognisable if you pick it up. It will blow bubbles all over your hand which reeks of slightly off garlic and lasts for days. Incidentally Wikipedia notes that “In Crete this species is active for 3–4 months after the first rainfalls in October.” Rubbish; I've found them out and about at the end of March.

As the seasonal rivers and streams start to fill, listen out for the a capella amphibian assembly after dark. The frogs and toads become very vocal in the autumn. The main singers being the Green Toad, Bufotes viridis, (left) which I think is a very dull name for such a beautiful animal, the endemic Cretan Frog, Pelophylax cretensis (middle). This is a particularly vivid specimen, they are usually much duller, and the diminutive European Tree Frog, Hyla arborea, which, although small, certainly holds his own in the croaking stakes.

Autumn also sees the opening of the mushroom season and lets hope we have a better one than last year when they were very few and far between. In fact, the only ones I found were these Mica Caps, Coprinellus micaceus, a nice, edible mushroom but you have to get them in the pan within the hour and, given the other caveats (see Voila - Turkish Delight ) one wonders whether they're worth collecting at all. Hopefully, this year we'll find a few more species.

That's it for the almanack; next week sees the start of Steve's Sunday Strolls and for those of you who are on the island during the next fortnight here is where you can join me:

Sunday 23^rd September

11 am

Sisi

(see last week's post for details).

Sunday 30^th September

11 am

Ag. Charalampos, Lassithi Plateau

A gentle stroll around one corner of the Plathini-Lagkada Wildlife Refuge and a handy village taverna where we can chat about what we have seen afterwards.

The Extra Bit

A big thank you to all who have taken the time to investigate my book of short stories and an even bigger thank you to those of you who have actually bought a copy (Amazon Kindle £1.99 or currency equivalent).

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:

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