If Spring Never Sprung

Crown Daisies, Glebionis coronaria

We are nearly at the end of our journey down the Milonas Valley but before we reach the point where the little river enters the sea I want to take a slight detour to a small, fallow field nearby because it sums up this season of spring so succinctly. In this one field I counted twenty different wild flowers when I chanced upon it the other day so let us wander among the crown daisies and the poppies and watch spring in action.

Buff-tailed Bumble bee, Bombus terrestris Common Poppy, Papaver rhoeas

This is no quiet landscape; a veritable orchestra of insects are chirruping, buzzing and droning as they go about their business of collecting from the flowers, pollinating as they go. The deep bass notes of the Buff-tailed Bumblebee down in this Common Poppy are counterpointed by the Honey Bees investigating the Yellow Asphodels around the edges of the field.

Flower Weevils,  Malvaevora timida Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris

The beetles too are adding a further layer to the symphony. All our old friends are here; the Soldier Beetles, the Flower Chafers and the carpet Beetles but who are these small fellows hiding in the folds of the Mallows? Some tiny little Flower Weevils and not all fellows it would appear. There is definitely some action going on here that you wouldn’t expect of the Royal Philharmonic (not during a concert at any rate). 

Pale Shoulder, Acontia lucida Mediterranean Sand-spurrey, Spergularia diandra

I think we’ll take our lead from this Pale Shoulder moth and laze awhile on these soft beds of Spurrey. The larvae of the Pale Shoulder feed on Goosefoots and Mallows among others and this field hosts plenty of both so it’s no surprise to find it here. No great wonder to find so much Spurrey either as it is a very salt tolerant plant and we’re very close to the sea. You know, I could lay here in the spring sunshine for hours just listening and watching but there are so many intriguing sights, scents and sounds that are just crying out to be investigated. Let us move on.

juvenile Balkan Green Lizard, Lacerta trilineata

Where you have insects you have predators of course and here among the stones at the edge of the fields the lizards are lurking ready to snap at any unwary insect that comes too close. Just stop and listen for a while: overlaying the rhythmic background of the insects you can hear the intertwined melodies of the songbirds in the olive groves that surround us. The trilling piccolos of the finches, the percussive rattling song of the Sardinian warbler and the beautiful flute solo of the Blackbird. Spring is indeed the most wonderful of seasons.

The Extra Bit

Spring has definitely sprung; the flowers are blooming, the insects are pollinating and the birds are singing for mates in the trees. But what if spring never sprung?* Or leastways, if it failed to spring in the manner to which we’ve become accustomed? Unfortunately this is happening right now. From my own notes I know that the rainfall patterns have shifted forward by a month in the last ten years, the Crown Daisies that used to start flowering in November/December are now rarely seen before January and the insects aren’t always keeping pace with the changes. That Pale Shoulder moth was one of the few noctuid moths that I’ve seen this winter whereas ten years ago I was photographing species by the score. Worldwide the climate is changing. Of that there is no doubt and arguing about whether we are to blame or whether it is part of a natural cycle is pointless now. If the flowers, insects and birds go out of synchronisation (and evidence shows that they are) then our agriculture also slips out of gear. We are going to have to adapt to survive. Sure we can do it, by cobbling together artificial solutions to crises as they arrive, but days like this will be lost.  The Mayans, Romans and Ancient Egyptians have shown us that civilisations don’t last forever and western civilisation as we now know it is in for an interesting century.

* For pedants and students of the English language the phrase "If Spring Never Sprung" is grammatically incorrect. Either "If Spring Never  Sprang" or "If Spring had Never Sprung" would be correct but they do not have the same impact as a title.

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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)

Along the Ardefsi

After last week’s somewhat arduous trek, both physically from the top to bottom of the Milonas valley and mentally through the annals of evolution, I thought we’d reward ourselves this week with a quiet walk along an ardefsi. To be more precise an ardefsi kanali or, in English, a less poetic sounding irrigation canal. These little concrete canals were built to take water from the hills and mountains to the farmlands below but nowadays have fallen into disuse, replaced by ubiquitous black plastic pipes that snake their way across the landscape like so much spaghetti negro. In truth, they are not too obtrusive as they soon get covered with a layer of brown dust and begin to blend in. So with the sun shining across a millpond like sea, the sky turning a shade of cornflower blue and the first Swifts of the year wheeling overhead and uttering their shrill squeaks of delight let us sally forth along the ardefsi and see where it leads us.

Cistus, Star Clover and Pimpernel

The swifts? Yes they usually appear at any time from mid March to the end of April along this part of the coast. Last year I didn’t see them until the end of May which either means that they were delayed or I was being unobservant, both of which are possible. But what have we here? See how the ardefsi has filled up with earth over the years providing a microhabitat for some of our smaller flowers. Shielded by the ridge behind and in the lee of the pink flowering cistus bush we have some Star Clover (those of you with long memories will remember that we found this and other clovers last Spring out at Bramiana Reservoir) and some Scarlet Pimpernels. Yes, I know that they are blue but if you’ve read Baroness Orczy’s novel of the same name you will recall that Sir Percy Blakeney, the eponymous hero of the story, was a master of disguise. There are three forms of this flower: orange, red and blue. Personally I have only seen the orange and blue forms out here, never the red. I seek it here, I seek it there, …that demned elusive Pimpernel. Sorry, getting a bit carried away there.

Robber Flies mating on a fallen Pine

It would seem that our path is not going to be as easy as we thought. We’ve already had to clamber up and down the hillside a couple of times to avoid dense shrubbery and now a fallen pine tree is blocking our way. However, fallen trees are always good for a find or two and this one I see is providing a marital bed for a pair of Robber Flies. Now this is interesting: Fauna Europea only lists one species of Robber Fly out here, Cerdistus creticus, which we had the pleasure of meeting whilst walking round The Bottomless Lake of Agios Nikolaos but these look slightly different. We’ll send some pictures off to a few experts and see what they make of them. Now, do we go over, under or round? Over I think.

Longhorn Beetle among the Yellow Asphodels

The fallen tree seems to have presaged a slight descent around a pine cloaked valley which will give us a bit of welcome shade. It really is getting quite hot today. Is it my imagination or is that stretch of our canal opposite us going uphill? Never underestimate the powers of Greek geometry. I see we still have some of our old friends the Yellow Asphodels in flower down here in the cool depths although most of them are now setting seed and looking like stalks of tiny Golden Delicious apples. A couple of weeks back on our walk to The Chamomile Lawn we found the dying flowers full of Orange Blossom Bugs but today we have a new visitor, a beautiful little Longhorn Beetle that goes by the name of Agapanthia. Just look at those magnificent black and white banded antennae.

Quaking Grass and Swallowtail Butterfly

With the valley dropping far away below us the ardefsi seems to be making a loop around the head of it. I wonder if we can peer over the edge? Wow! Another vertiginous chasm, we must find a way down into it at some point in the future, make a note will you? The rock face opposite looks quite damp, there may well be pools at the bottom teeming with interesting discoveries. But that’s for another day, let’s go and sit on the ardefsi and just soak in the sights, sounds and smells that surround us. There’s a beautiful warm breeze coming over from Africa and we’ve all the time in the world to relax and take it all in. This part of the ardefsi is full of little Quaking Grass, nodding their heads in approval of the Spring Sunshine and look, the first Swallowtail butterfly of the year and I do believe I saw a Clouded Yellow earlier, flitting through the pine trees like a slice of lemon on the wing. Ahh! Let’s just stay here in this idyllic spot all week shall we?



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)