Last
time we were out and about we finished up being bitten to death by
Stable Flies in an old stone structure but I couldn't tell you
anything about the origins of the building. Today we're going to
start off in a similar structure a little way down the road (but
without the flies). These structures are about two and a half metres
long by two wide, square at one end with a cut out that suggests a
large pair of doors once stood and rounded at the other. I now think
that I know what they were: Venetian windmills [1]. The Venetians
held Crete from 1205–1669
and these milotopi, as they are called, were one of their legacies.
This morning though, the dried grasses poking up through the floor
are proving of great interest to some small, pale insects flitting
about in the morning sun. Sweep net time.
 |
| Grass Jewel, Chilades trochylus |
I
didn't catch one but I did get one of the small blue butterflies; the
rippling waves, two eye spots and double tail protruding from the
wing are enough to identify it as a Lang's Short-tailed Blue,
Leptotes
pirithous
(named after the 19th
century British lepidopterist Henry Charles Lang). Like most
butterflies in the Lycaenidae family it is small with a wingspan of
3cm at most. However I see that you have caught one of our small,
flitting insects and lo and behold it is a not dissimilar looking
butterfly but it's absolutely minute. If I sit him on my thumb his
wings wouldn't reach to the edge of my thumbnail even at full
stretch. It's a Grass Jewel, Chilades
trochylus
which, in Europe, you'll only find in Greece and on some of the
Greek islands such as here on Crete and, not surprisingly given its
general appearance, it is a diminutive member of the same family.
Let's
go out through the doors and investigate those pine trees in the
middle distance. It looks like someone has built their house on windy
ground as there's rather a large nest on the floor here that seems to
have been dislodged from the branches above. The construction of a
nest can often tell you a lot about the architect as all birds have
their own methods of nest building passed down from generation to
generation. This one starts with a substantial base of interwoven
large twigs in the centre of which a nest proper has been woven out
of dried pine needles. This has then been lined with softer material,
sheep's wool by the looks of it. Very comfy. Back in the early spring
that would have held up to six, brown speckled, blue eggs for it is
the nest of the Hooded Crow.
Interesting
though this little gully is we are now heading in the wrong direction
so lets go back to the track and see what else we can find. Some
dilapidated old dwellings – they're always good to poke around in.
Oops, someone's home, it was a mouse I think (too small for a rat). I
noticed a hole outside with a fair amount of debris around it so
we'll take a look at the midden and see if it can tell us anything
about the occupant. Firstly it has an inordinate fondness for snails
by the look of it. There are a couple of rodents on the island that I
know eat snails: The Wood Mouse, Apodemus
sylvaticus
and the
Broad-toothed Field Mouse, Apodemus
mystacinus
and the rats, black and brown, are omnivorous so they can't be ruled
out. We also have a couple of species of Hedgehog, Erinaceus
concolor
and Erinaceus
roumanicus
who are partial to the odd snail or two but unlike the European
Hedgehog they tend to build grass nests. There is also the endemic
Cretan
Least Weasel Mustela
nivalis galinthias
which
is known to live in the walls of derelict old buildings such as this.
However, he's more likely to eat the small rodents rather than this
amount of snails. Finally we have three species of Shrew, two of
which are possible contenders (the third, the endemic Cretan
White-toothed Shrew, Crocidura
zimmermanni lives
only in the high mountains). What we really need at this point is the
naturalist's old favourite; some pooh, but I've scoured the
surrounding area and there's no sign of a scat anywhere. My money is
on one of the mice, particularly as we've just seen one, but the
evidence is purely circumstantial.
Behind
the house we have some sun scorched grassland but down in the shady
hollow there is still some fennel in flower which may still hold some
late morning activity so lets go and take a look. I see we have our
new beetle friend, Chlorophorus
varius.
That makes three sightings in three outings. Either he's very fond of
us or there are a few of them about. Now this is interesting, what on
earth is that Mud Dauber Wasp doing with that Chocolate Banded Snail?
Mud Dauber Wasps have a tendency to be quite prey specific,
provisioning their young with moth and sawfly caterpillars in the
case of Ammophila
species,
grasshoppers for Prionyx
species, spiders for Scleriphon
species and Crickets for Sphex
species.
I have never heard of a mud dauber tackling a snail. Maybe it's not a
mud dauber at all but another insect imitating a mud dauber? It won't
be the first time I've been fooled (nor will it be the last). Ah
well, your thoughts in the comments box as usual please -like all
naturalists I'm always ready to learn something new.
I'm
on safer ground now; those are definitely Feral Pigeons flying
overhead. Twenty four of them which is good news. Three years ago I
told you that “we
used to have a regular flock of 17-18 Feral Pigeons and one pair of
Collared Doves. Last year the flock was down to 14 and we had two
pairs of Collared Doves.” (See
Hey
Hay!)
Now, as you can see we have two dozen in the flock of feral pigeons
and we're back to the one pair of Collared Doves plus another male
chancing his arm (or wing I suppose). In Ierapetra however, I didn't
do a count but it seems that the Collared Dove has almost fully
replaced the Feral Pigeon and they've certainly taken all the best
nest sites around the hospital. This is happening all over the
northern hemisphere, particularly in urban areas. For instance in the
UK there were an estimated 3,000 breeding pairs of Collared Doves in
1964. In 2008 there were just short of 300,000 breeding pairs. In the
USA less than fifty escaped from captivity in the Bahamas in 1974.
They can now be found in virtually every U.S. State as well as
Mexico. However, the Feral Pigeon seems to be holding on – for the
moment. And now I see that our paths are diverging. I think we'll
take the left one and make our way back down the hill next week. But
for now let us be content to sit a while and enjoy a quiet moment or
two just drinking in the wonders of nature that surround us.
The
Extra Bit
In
some respects we're quite up-to-date in Ferma – we even have wall
art! I found this lovely depiction of a butterfly on the whitewashed
wall inside one of those derelict buildings.
Photographic
Bit
Many
of you have asked
me what
photographic equipment I use so here's a quick rundown on the cameras
used for each picture. 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.
Picture
1 Nikon
Coolpix S33
Insets
Canon EOS 1300D
Picture
2 Nikon
Coolpix S33
Insets
nest:
Canon
EOS 1300D, Hooded Crow: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3
Picture
3 Canon
EOS 1300D
Insets
Nikon
Coolpix S33
Picture
4 Nikon
Coolpix S33
Insets
Canon
EOS 1300D
Picture
5 Nikon
Coolpix S33
Insets
Flock:
Canon
EOS 1300D Individual
birds: Konica
Minolta DiMAGE Z3
Extra
Bit pictures Canon
EOS 1300D
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)
See
detailed pictures on Flickr
