Back Yard Safari

Feeling bored yet? If you're missing the big wide world outside of your front door, go out of the back door instead. There's another, even more wonderful world, in the back garden. Whether it's a beautifully manicured lawn with regimented borders, or looks a bit like a bombsite, there's a host of interesting creatures out there waiting to be investigated. Birds, bats, butterflies; molluscs, mice and moths; the list is almost endless. As I proved, from a hospital balcony a few years back, you can be a naturalist anywhere. See How To Be A Naturalist, Anywhere

Small mammals, amphibians and reptiles are great favourites and there are a number of ways in which you can observe these. A small garden pond will often attract frogs and toads, as well as providing a source of water for other creatures. A bird feeder will attract a host of garden birds, but if you can't get out to buy wild bird seed at the moment, a simple platform with household scraps (fruit is a favourite) will bring them in. A small mammal trap is best for things like mice and shrews but an alternative is to bury a bucket in soft earth, bait it with something tasty, then cover it with wood, propped up about an inch at one end. You will probably also get a fair few snails. If your finances run to a camera trap, then you can get photos of some great nocturnal creatures as well, like this Stone Marten who visited my bird table one night.

My own personal passion is, as you probably know by now, the insect world. Did you know that there are about thirty different orders of insects and hundreds of different families making up those orders? About five years ago, I wrote a post giving a quick run-down on how and when those insect orders evolved. I ended the post with this picture of twelve of the most common orders that you are likely to find in your back garden. See Whiffling through the Woodpile – a short history of insects

This proved to be a very popular post and eventually led to me writing The Quick Guide To Creepy-Crawlies which not only gives pictures and easy descriptions of twentytwo of those insect orders (in both their adult and juvenile states), but also pages of molluscs, myriapods, isopods and all the other creepy-crawlies that you are likely to find in your garden. Suitable for adults and children alike, I am putting it on special offer (a third off, except in the USA where a minimum price applies) until the end of April. So, order a copy, take your camera or phone out of the back door, photograph what you find, and identify them when the book arrives. Congratulations! You've just got yourself a new hobby!

Was £14.99      $17.31      €16.14

Now £10.00      $16.48      €11.52

Due to a technical problem at facebook, many people did not see last week's post. If that includes you, you can read it here: It's a Small World (microscpically small – all about the unseen world of Archaea, Bacteria and Viruses).

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

Steve's Books

The Eggs of Saramova A science fiction novella for those who don't like science fiction. A fast-paced thriller that is, literally, out of this world (and it starts right here in Crete). The Quick Guide to Creepy-Crawlies All you need to know to identify any type of insect, spider, worm or snail very simply and find out more about it. Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels  A light-hearted look at life through the eyes of the fairer sex.

See sample pages of all my books and latest blogs and keep abreast of latest publications here: http://author.to/SteveDaniels

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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)

Nature Is Winning

On the way back from our expedition into The Arms of Giants last week my attention was drawn to a piece of ground that we last visited together in January of last year. This was part of a hillside that had been levelled for development back in 2005 and then, for some reason best known to the Cretan mind but totally unfathomable to the English, the project was abandoned. The subsequent development of a whole new ecosystem we documented in Nature Fights Back. 

Lizards scurry through the Oat Grass

In the past fifteen months the only human intervention has been from my neighbour, who occasionally tethers a few goats up there, so I think it’s time to take another look. The foreground is now covered with a lush, green covering of Wild Oats on the dry side to our left whilst to our right the reed bed around the little spring is tall and vibrant. Plenty of insects buzzing around today and whoops! I nearly trod on a small lizard right under my feet. Unfortunately he’s plunged into deep cover but it’s good to see that we now have reptiles in our new ecosystem. 

A Hooded Crow harries a Buzzarrd over the Tamarisk trees

In the centre the tamarisk trees haven’t grown much taller but they have certainly grown thicker and there are various finches and a blackbird regaling us with song. But look up to the skies: the Hooded Crows are mobbing our poor local Buzzard again. They do this with monotonous regularity and I’m surprised that the beleaguered bird puts up with it. It has nothing to do with protecting the nest or the young as it happens at all times of the year. It could be territorial but I think that the crows, who certainly have an air of devilment in their make-up, just do it for fun. Just showing off to their mates as it were.

Arthropods abound in the dry areas

Now, if we can just force a passage through these Tamarisks (says he, trying to disentangle the sweep net from a host of flowering branches and getting covered in fluffy seeds in the process) we’ll see what arthropods we can find. Arthropods? – mostly little animals with their skeletons on the outside containing the soft squishy bits -as opposed to Chordates like ourselves who hang our squishy bits from an internal skeleton and keep the lot together in a bag of skin. We seem to have quite a haul so  let’s see what we have here. Firstly, a Great Green Bush-cricket (notice the long whip-like antennae); then the nymph of one of the short-horned grasshoppers (you can tell it’s a nymph as the wings have not developed). They usually come in green or brown but pink forms like this, although not common, are far from rare. Over on the far wall we have a lovely powder blue Southern Skimmer dragonfly taking in the sun and finally a beautifully marked little Orb Web Weaver spider. A delightful little crew.

A pool full of microscopic life

Listen. Did you hear that soft croaking? Not only do we have reptiles in residence up here now, we also have amphibians. Let’s plunge into the pools and see if we can find the owner of the croak. There he goes! Coming your way. My but he moved quickly. No, don’t chase him any further, just let him be. Come and have a look at these black, squiggly things in this puddle instead. Remember last week we were discussing complete and incomplete metamorphosis in the insect world? All the two winged insects in the world (flies, midges, gnats, mosquitoes and so forth) belong to the insect order Diptera – from the Greek meaning (unsurprisingly) two winged. The Diptera is one of those orders that undergo complete metamorphosis (egg-larva-pupa-adult) and here you can see both larvae and pupae. Here in the puddle it’s difficult to tell what they are exactly but if we take some home with us, let a couple hatch and then put them under the microscope we should be able to find out what they are. 

A mosquito wing under the microscope

You can tell a lot about an insect from its wing venation (the pattern formed by the veins on the wing) and this particular pattern is that of a mosquito. “What use are mosquitoes?” you ask. Well, they’re very good at producing more mosquitoes which is the whole point of life surely? Oh, I see, what use are they to us? Do they have to be? As it happens, without them and their other dipteran relatives we’d probably starve to death. Not all of those squiggly blobs will make it to adulthood. The greater majority will finish up on the dinner plate of other insects or higher animals such as that frog that skipped off nimbly into the reeds. Those that do survive, and many of the insects for which they provide essential nutrition, will go on to pollinate the plants that we and our livestock eat. Life on Earth is a series of large interconnected processes of which we are but a small, if somewhat destructive, part. Unfortunately that may be our legacy in the great panoply of existence. Evolution thrives on periodic mass extinctions and there have been five already in the planet’s history. We are currently engineering the sixth. That’s a rather sobering thought. Come on, let’s go down to the Carrot Club. There’s an orgy going on and we’re invited. 

Welcome to The Carrot Club

Welcome to the Carrot Club. The beautiful purple flower centrepiece is one of the ways in which you can distinguish a wild carrot from similar looking plants such as the deadly poisonous Hemlock (for total security look for three-forked or pinnate lower bracts). We’ll grab ourselves a carrot juice and have a look to see who’s in today. Over in the top left corner I see we have a wasp, finely turned out in glossy black with a white shoulder wrap (one of the Scoliid wasps I think). Moving round we have a Flower Chafer Beetle, also decked out in shiny black with fetching white blotches. The tall, thin guy in black (seems to be the ‘in’ colour this week) and the iridescent, silvery wing cloak is one of the sawflies – a close relative of the wasps and the couple in reds and browns over there in the corner, defying the dress code and exhibiting the sort of behaviour that certainly wouldn’t be tolerated in the better London clubs, are Soldier Beetles. In fact, looking around, there seem to be a lot of soldiers in today. Well, it IS the Carrot Club; nature’s own and totally uninhibited. Cheers everyone!

Until next week – 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)