Hanging on to Summer

 

Quite a lot of people suffer from SAD, Seasonal Affected Disorder. It's 8.30 in the morning as I write, it's tipping it down outside, it barely got light an hour ago, but there's something warming and comforting about viewing the outside world from my study window, all snug inside (even if the current energy crisis makes it injudicious to put the heating on!). Astronomically speaking, it is still Summer, at least until tomorrow (Friday 23^rd September). The equinox is a late one this year. The date varies because the calendar year is 365 days but the Earth actually takes 365 and a quarter days to travel around the Sun. But although the clocks go back at the end of next week, let us embrace the Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness as Keats put it, get out and about when we can and snuggle down when we can't.

Autumn is a great time for foraging. The brambles are laden with blackberries, hazelnuts are ripening nicely and the woods are full of delicious fungi. For those of you with gardens, it's harvest time, and one of my favourite places at this time of year is the kitchen. Stuffed marrow is on the menu tonight. Recipe in Steve's Wild Kitchen plus Stuffed Halloween Pumpkins.

Autumn is also a lovely time of year for bird watching. Taking Mattie for a walk, down on Parton beach earlier in the week, turned up a couple of Gull species, a Little Egret, a Redshank and a Curlew, plus a Northern Wheatear. This bird holds the record for the longest migration of any songbird at 9,000 miles each way from Alaska to sub-Saharan Africa and back.

Insects are still about too. In the past week I've seen grasshoppers, leafhoppers, beetles and butterflies and quite a number of the large, furry Fox Moth caterpillars. They are out and about looking for leaf litter in which to hibernate over winter. They will emerge in the Spring as fairly large moths, reddish brown in the case of the male and greyish brown in the female. Both sexes have two creamy lines across their wings.

Tips From Yesteryear

I try to live life simply, here at The Old Corn Mill, and often think back to how my grandparents used to do things (and I'm old enough to be a grandparent myself, so we're going back a bit). They didn't live in the throwaway age and nothing was ever wasted. Potatoes that had sprouted too much for the pot were returned to the earth where one potato produced a handful. The roots cut off spring onions were placed in a pot on the kitchen windowsill to produce another spring onion. It wasn't called recycling then, it was just what people did.

Talking of yesteryear, I'm pleased to say that my little on-line antiques shop, that I started at the beginning of the year, is doing rather well. This is in no small part due to the series of blogs I've been writing called 'Steve's History of Things', which gives some fascinating insights into the history of everyday objects. Here's a list of the series so far, and feel free to browse around the shop: Steve's Vintage Collectables

Steve's History of Things 1 Introduction		Steve's History of Things 2 5 Good Reasons to Buy EPNS
Steve's History of Things 3 Fielding's Musical Tankards		Steve's Hstory of Things 4 Jasperware
Steve's History of Things 5 Blood Pressure Monitors		Steve's History of Things 6 Chodov Porcelain
Steve's History of Things 7 The Pottery Detective			Next week: Royal memorabilia

Happy Equinox,

Steve

Beetles and Butterflies; spiders and scorpions; woodlice and worms. How do you tell them all apart? To say nothing of crane flies, dragonflies, bee flies and yet more butterflies. Are they all flies? If not, why call them so? If you're fascinated but confused by the beautiful world of the very small, then this is the book for you. 82 pages of information on all aspects of the world of minibeasts, with over 100 photographs and illustrations, this book will help you track down and identify any arthropod, in its adult or juvenile state, anywhere in the world. See all of my books at author.to/SteveDaniels

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Bramiana in Sprimgtime

It’s been some time now since I’ve taken you out to the reservoir at Bramiana and although I like to take you somewhere new each week this magnificent wetland habitat is well worth a visit in every season. So, load up the picnic basket and we’ll go and see what changes have occurred since our last visit.

Standing here at the southern end of the reservoir I see that the Yellow-legged Gull colony is down to a couple of dozen individuals now from the 350 or so that were here in the winter and the Pochard and Teal have both migrated northwards. I can’t even see a coot on the water which is unusual as we usually have a few hanging around all year.  It all seems rather quiet doesn’t it?

Let’s move down to the water’s edge and see if we can find anyone foraging around in the shallows. We have a couple of Common Sandpipers, a Greenshank and some Swallows skimming the water. These are the first Swallows I’ve seen this year. They usually appear from about the middle of March so either they’re late or I’ve been walking about with my eyes closed. Hang on, what’s that over there on the far bank? It’s either a Curlew or a Whimbrel. They’re very similar looking birds but generally the Curlew’s beak is longer and straight to begin with and it’s a slightly larger bird. The best way to tell them apart is the call, the Curlew is one of those birds that calls it’s name –ker-loo, ker-loo  but this one is being resolutely quiet. If I had to stick my beak out I’d say it was a Curlew but they are both rare passage migrants to Crete and this is the first time I’ve encountered either. 

The good thing about the low water level is that we can go and play in the mud! Let’s go for a squelch and see what we can find lurking beneath the rocks.  Now here’s someone I’ve been wanting to meet for years. It’s a Freshwater Crab which rejoices in the name of Potamon potamius. I don’t know if anyone has recorded them at Bramiana before (or even looked for that matter) but I’m happy to report that they’re here, alive and well.  Sorry to disturb you Sir, I’ll just put you back under your rock.

It’s been quite a day for rare sightings so I suggest we go and lie down amongst the flowers, munch a sandwich or two and see what’s going on at ground level. There are so many flowers it’s difficult to know which to look at first so let’s select a couple of the clovers.  If you thought that clover was just little white or mauve flower balls on a stalk with three leaves then think again.  There are about 300 different species worldwide and 37 here on Crete.  The delicate yellow one on the left is Boissier’s Clover and the star shaped one on the right is, not surprisingly, Star Clover. They all have a three leaf structure which gives them there generic name Trifolium but that is where their physical resemblance ends.

Something rather large is rustling through the grass towards your slice of cake. Large for an insect that is. Pass me that collecting tin would you? Here’s another animal that we’re very lucky to see; it’s a Mole Cricket. They spend the majority of their lives tunnelling underground and generally only come out at night when looking for mates. The male is a great acoustic engineer. Like other grasshoppers and crickets the males rub two body parts together to produce a noise (a process called stridulation). In the Mole Cricket this is a scraper on one wing and a file on the other which makes either a chirp or a trill depending on the length of time he does it. The clever thing is – he excavates a special chamber shaped like a double horn and stridulates in there which amplifies his song like a megaphone. I wonder what it’s doing up here in the middle of the day?

Well… a Curlew, a Freshwater Crab and a Mole Cricket – three unusual species in one day. Who can ask for more than that? Have an interesting week, especially those of you who are on holiday, (and I know a lot of you are because the readership figures have dropped considerably. But if that means that you are out there enjoying the world around you rather than reading about it second hand on my blog then that is lovely). Enjoy our planet and good 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)