Toplou Gorge

Welcome to the all new fortnightly Series 9 of the #CreteNature Blog with a host of new features to come.

Out & About

Winter is early and severe this year as the weather system 'Telemachos' comes marching through on the heels of weather system 'Sofia' and now we have storm Zeus. Not that that deters us naturalists of course and on January 7^th I set off with amateur botanist Julia Cross and a small group of intrepid individuals to explore the Toplou Gorge on the north east coast of the island.

Flowers were few and far between but the Poppy Anemones (Anemone coronaria) were abundant and there were a fair few Mediterranean Mandrakes in flower (Mandragora officinarum) as well as a couple of Friar's Cowls (Arisarum vulgare). Pride of place however must be given to a small yellow job with a couple of black dots which Julia informed me was a Scorpion Violet (Viola scorpiuroides). This was originally a north African plant but can now be found in east and west Crete as well as on the islands of Kythera and Antikythera. Sorry about the quality of the photograph but the light shower in which we'd set off had now turned to freezing rain.

The rain turned to hail, we sheltered under a carob tree and I had an irresistible urge to cuddle up to one of the big, hairy goats nearby for warmth. These proved to be virtually the only animal life that we saw that day. I heard a few larks and a solitary raven but everything else had more sense than to be out in that weather. We waited until the hail had stopped bouncing off the goats and continued down past some caves that definitely looked worth exploring on a warmer day.

At the bottom of the gorge we came to some large pools where I found some Whirligig Beetles of the Gyrinidae family spinning around like tops which is fairly characteristic and some nice green algae of which I took a sample to look at under the microscope later. We didn't stop long at the pools as none of us had had the foresight to bring our swimming costumes but trekked back up the adjoining ravine which involved a short but somewhat steep climb of about 200m and made me realise that I was still carrying a fair few pounds of Christmas fayre. Still, thank you Julia & Co. for an interesting afternoon in good company.

Walking Notes

This would make a nice day trip from nearby Sitia (15mins by car), Makry Gialos (1 hour), Ierapetra (1 hour 30 mins) or even Agios Nilolaos (1 hour 45 mins). Use the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map for routes. The walk starts from the north side of the main road about 200m to the west of the Toplou monastery. There is a small route map on a post. Wear trainers, be prepared for a bit of scrambling, follow the splashes of red paint on the rocks and remember to tie the gate shut behind you about 100m from the start.

Fieldcraft & Foraging

This is one of the new sections I'm building into the blog which I hope will be of interest. This tip concerns using trees as compasses. Every area of the world has a prevailing wind direction. Here in Crete the prevailing wind comes from the north west (in England it is from the south west). Trees in exposed locations, like these at the end of the Toplou Gorge walk, point in the opposite direction from the prevailing wind, i.e. south east. If the location is not so exposed as to make the trees lean in any obvious direction take a look at the roots. The strongest and longest will point in the direction of the prevailing winds as this is where the tree needs the most support.

In The Lab

And another new section. Actually, a bit of a misnomer as the lab is still in the planning stage and bits of it are strewn all over the house and garden at the moment. However, the green algae that I sampled from the Toplou Gorge pools was duly placed under the microscope and looked like this at x1600 magnification. These are desmids of the genus Mougeotia who, rather than pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to get the carbon that they need for photosynthesis, extract it directly from the limestone. The little fish like organisms with the red eyes that you can see towards the top of the picture are single celled flagellates called Euglena.

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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

Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels  Read snippets, samples and stuff at Steve's Books

Cretan Flora   Flowers of Crete   BIRDS OF CRETE   Crete Birding   Greek Butterflies and Moths      Aquaworld Aquarium 

Worlds Within Worlds

Do you want the good news or the bad news? The good news is that we’ve made it safely through the Milonas Gorge. The bad news is that we have a flipping great waterfall ahead of us which means we’ll have to find a way around and down and there are no paths to follow.

No matter, the sun is shining and there’s a flying circus in the sky. In case that seems a bit odd, forget the tents, clowns and performing seals and think of the origin of the word. Circus comes from the Greek kirkos meaning a circle or ring and was applied to a place of entertainment where the seats were arranged in a circle around the performing area. It is also the generic name of the birds that circle as they hunt which we know as Harriers. There have been four species recorded on Crete: the Marsh; Hen (or Northern); Pallid; and Montagu’s. The last three are rare and the Marsh, although a frequent passage migrant in the spring, only overwinters here in small numbers. It’s a bit too high to make out details but it’s still an exciting start to the day as it’s the first Harrier of any type that I’ve seen in these parts.

This really is an impressive bit of landscape with the lower valley stretched out before us and the great towering limestone cliffs at our backs. Hard to imagine that this was once a sea bed. Look up to that patch of blue sky and try to visualise yourself looking up to the surface of the ocean instead. That it may also once have been a tropical beach is easier to imagine because the evidence is here at our feet. The thing about limestone is that it is good at preserving fossils and we’ve got a smashing fossilized palm fan here. Pity it’s too heavy to lift, it would have looked nice by my fireside at home. Palm trees aren’t entirely tropical, there is one species (Phoenix theophrastii) that is native to Europe but there is only one authentic palm lined beach on the whole continent. Where? Crete of course, at a little place called Vai on the east coast. Remind me to take you there some time.

The water here is pushing its way around the rocks, trying to get to the head of the waterfall, which means that there are some intriguing little pools around. Let’s get a sample under the field microscope and see if there’s anyone at home. That little patch of algae clinging to the rock looks promising. Ooh look, an aquatic worm. There are three types of worm that you can find in pools like these. There are nematodes which thrash about frantically (you may remember that we found some three years ago down at Ferma rock pools – see Rockin' All Over The Shore); flatworms which glide around rather gracefully; and oligochaetes like this one which are rather squirmy wormies related to the common earthworm.

We seem to be making our way steadily downwards with loads of lichens, masses of mosses and cascades of chasmophytes (rock loving plants) lining our route but I see that we also have some lovely little yellow fungi down near our feet. Do you see that milky droplet exuding from the stem?  It looks like latex (but not the same latex that you find in plants) which is exuded by members of the milk cap family. However they exude latex from outside the mushroom not from the stem and there are no milk caps with this colour and habit so it’s a waxy cap like the ones we found in the gorge last week. Just when you thought fungi couldn’t get more confusing!

Hello, we’re into the jungle. It looks as though we’ll have to crawl through this bit. Still, while we’re down here we may as well have a look about and see what’s going on. How delightful, an ants’ nest, just what we need when we’re crawling along on our stomachs. But what’s this in the nest with them? You see the little orange insect trying to hide? It’s an Ant-loving Cricket (Myrmecophilus). Ants’ nests aren’t just for ants. They are like big cities and, just as with our cities, they have a diverse wildlife all of their own. Hundreds of different species have adapted to ant city life and this is just one of them. Absolutely tiny for a cricket, they never grow wings because they never leave the city, they’re deaf and mute and have very poor eyesight. They don’t have sex either, the females have virgin births, a process known as parthenogenesis. Doesn’t sound like much of a life but they seem to get by.

The Extra Bit

At last we’ve emerged into the open and even though we’re approaching midwinter a few of the flowers are beginning to emerge. We’ve got anemones, fumana, Cretan cistus and field marigolds all beginning to open their petals in the midwinter sun. If you look over there you can see the waterfall and that’s the direction in which we’ll be heading next week.

Thanks to JJ Wuilbaut at  Mediterranean Fungi for educating me on the difference between Waxy Caps and Milk Caps and to various members of Crete Birding for chatting about the various Harriers on Crete.

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

See detailed pictures at http://www.inaturalist.org/login  (search - people-stevedaniels-observations)

The Nature of Crete  (Flipboard Magazine)

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 Stream Dipping

To read in other languages use:  Google Translate and copy and paste the web address into the translation box.

We haven’t been out to Red Butterfly Gorge  together for almost a year so it’s high time we took another look. Particularly as last time we went hiking up the track to the gorge (like most tourists do) and missed all the wonderful stuff not a hundred yards from the car park.

Slippery Jack, Red Admiral, Nematocera Larva

You’ll have noticed that we’ve swapped the sweep net this week for a pond dipping net and scientifically selected glass sample jars (yes, I know yours has still got a Hoeseradish sauce label on it but I assure you that I scientifically selected it myself). Now the idea is that you wade out into that raging torrent using the wobbly stepping stones provided whilst I sit here on the bank with the magnifying glass and the inspection tray (or upturned one litre ice-cream tub lid as it’s otherwise known). You’ll need the net and this big stick as well. Steady as you go. Place the net on the floor of the stream and muddy up the bed in front of it with the stick. Marvellous, now bring it back to the bank – watch that stone it’s loose – oh dear, never mind, you held onto the net and that’s the main thing. We can get another stick and that sunny branch looks ideal for drying your socks. Let’s have a look and see what you’ve found. Now that looks like the larval form of one of the Nematocera, a suborder of flies that includes mosquitoes, gnats and midges among others.  We’ll have a few more tries and take the results back to the lab. No, you go, you’ve already got wet feet.

Anemone

I think we’ve got time to explore some of this lovely pine woodland on the way back. The Red Admiral Butterflies are out in force as usual and the ground is quite littered with these Slippery Jack mushrooms. As you can see they decompose quite rapidly and the caps soon become quite slippery and slimy. Some species are considered quite a delicacy in parts of Eastern Europe but I believe they only pick the very young ones. Ah, here’s a flower that can sometimes be confusing. This is an Anemone (Anemone coronaria) which comes in violet, pink and white and looks very similar to the Persian Buttercup (Ranunculus asiaticus) which comes in yellow, red and also white. Anenomes however have this whorl of leaves a little way below the flower and no sepals below the petals, Persian Buttercups are the other way around. We’ll get these samples back to base now as I’ve a new project for you to get involved with and I’ll update you with the ongoing projects we’ve already started. Don’t forget your socks, are they dry yet?

The Snails and their initial routes

Last week , as you no doubt recall, we were looking at animal personality and I thought it would be fun to have a closer look at snails and see if they have individual personalities. Are some more adventurous than others? If so does this swashbuckling, devil-may-care attitude make them more attractive to other snails or does like attract like? Accordingly I grabbed a handful of snails that were all resting together under a rock up the lane and put them in a box in the garden and waited to see what would happen. As you know, snails are hermaphrodite so we don’t have to worry about the whole male/female attraction thing and that’s why I’ve given them non-specific gender names. Let me introduce you. Ashley took a day or so to get moving, found a plank of wood on the ground beneath the box, explored half the length of it before coming back to the other end of the plank the following day where it met up with Vivian who’d also found the plank, travelled a few centimetres to the right and thought “that’s enough exercise for one week” and stopped. 

Ashley and Vivian with Big Mark and guests

The following day two baby snails had appeared between them and there the group has stayed and started receiving visitors in the form of two Julid millipedes (whether by invitation or not is unclear). Beverley has had a hard time of it. It also took a day to get out of the box and the following day was lying on its back directly beneath it looking rather forlorn. Since then it has climbed laboriously back into the box and out again, fallen over once more, closed its shell in a fit of despair and finally attached itself to the underside of the box in an apparent sulk. Sam on the other hand is the most adventurous of the bunch. First out of the box within six hours it sprinted three metres to the base of the grapevine on the first day, explored the right door jamb the following day, found this unsatisfactory and on the third day I found it lodged behind the air conditioning pipe 1.58m above the ground. After such a marathon eight metre trek it’s taken a four day break to catch its breath. And Leslie? I’m still looking. Six hours after the start it was still happily in the box, the following morning nowhere to be seen having been away on its toes overnight. 

The Boys

So that’s the snails, come upstairs to the terrace and I’ll update you on the other ongoing projects. You met Alice and Beatrice, our female House Sparrows, last week; now meet the boys. I haven’t named them yet as I can’t quite distinguish between them. Maybe you can? Those of you who know your European sparrows will have spotted that they have brown caps and white cheeks like the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) rather than the grey caps and cream cheeks of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). The truth of the matter is that the distribution of sparrow species and subspecies in the Mediterranean is highly complex and I suspect that only DNA testing and cladistic analysis  will sort out the true relationships and ancestry of these birds.

European Wasp

As to our other ongoing projects: the moss continues to grow in the mossary but the insect egg still hasn’t hatched and I’m beginning to see why this was such a passing fad in the nineteenth century. Even in the days before television, watching moss grow couldn’t have been the most exciting of pastimes. And on the Phenology front I’ve added the European Wasp (Vespula germanica) to our January sightings which still leaves us with a couple of dragonflies and a grasshopper to try and spot on the insect list before the end of the month.

Well I think that just about wraps it up for this week so until next time – happy hunting.

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)