Route 66

 

America's famous Route 66 runs east-west between Chicago and Santa Monica, a distance of 2,448 miles. Our, slightly less famous (some would say infamous) A66 also runs east-west, covering the 115 miles between Redcar and Workington but, to get one up on my American friends, ours does traverse the whole country from coast to coast. The main reason for bringing you this week's blog from a lay-by on the A66, is that our Intrepid Local Guide and I have been out buying a bee hive and visiting a garden centre in an attempt to make her garden a bee's paradise. The other reason is simply to chat about roadside verges as a habitat in their own right. Britain's roadside verges cover a land area about the same as the whole of The Lake District National Park. There are over 300,000 miles of them which is more than twelve times the circumference of the Earth. They provide corridors for small mammals such as mice and voles, which is why you often see kestrels like this one hovering over our trunk roads.

This particular verge has a small area of woodland adjoining it, containing a couple of ponds, so let's go and investigate. No frogspawn or tadpoles which is a bit surprising as they seem ideal (apart from their proximity to the road). We do have some Whirligig Beetles which are fascinating insects as they have two pairs of eyes: one pair on top for seeing through air and one pair below for seeing through water. We also have quite a colony of Amber Snails on the Flag Iris leaves and a fair bit of Duckweed on the surface of the water. This is an important plant for waterfowl (such as that Mallard which Jack the Navigator Hound has just flushed) and is also perfectly edible for us humans with more protein than soybeans.

There are a couple of plants in flower around the edges of the ponds. We have some Marsh Marigolds, Caltha palustris, which is poisonous when raw but can be eaten cooked, and some Cowslips, Primula veris, an old, country favourite for making cowslip wine.

Returning to the roadside we have some more winemakers' favourites in a host of golden Dandelions. They are also attracting a lot of pollinators. There's a Ladder-backed Hoverfly to the rear, possibly a Fungus gnat diving into the flower in front of it, and down here at my feet, a Drone Fly of some description. Roadside verges are now the go to places for flowers and their pollinators, as we lost about 97% of our traditional grasslands during the 20^th century. Nowadays 45% of UK wildflower species can be found on roadside verges. 

And finally, a tiny mushroom has pushed its way up through the grasses and leaflitter and even that has attracted a minute insect. So small, in fact, that I didn't even notice it until I looked at the photograph, and it's not in focus enough to be able to tell you what it is (even with my handy copy of The Quick Guide to Creepy-Crawlies) If you haven't got a copy yet, I do urge you to buy one. It makes such a difference to your nature rambles when you know what you're looking at, and at £14.99 it won't break the bank. Go on, treat yourself!

As usual, theres more stuff throughout the week on my website, Steve's Nature Plus,

All the best

Steve

Steve's Gallery

I have put selected pictures up for sale as digital downloads or prints, for both private and commercial use. I shall be concentrating on the pictures which show relationships between organisms (including ourselves) and their environment and interspecies relationships. Gallery.

Steve's Books

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. Yvonne: This was a gift for a family so that the children can understand what they see on days out. The second was for me. Logical and easy to use. If you know anyone who likes nature you can be confident that gifting this book will give years of pleasure.
The Eggs of Saramova You can listen to this book for FREE as it is being serialized on the podcast The Author Reads	£7.50 Paperback edition
Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels  A light-hearted look at life through the eyes of the fairer sex. Janet: If you are short on time but enjoy reading and are maybe not into long extended novels then Not Just For... Twisted Women provides readers with concise stories that stand alone and most certainly entertain with their ultimate twists. Loved it. Helen: A very good read! Well written and entertaining! Margaret: Each quick tale gives a glimpse into a character's life and has an often humorous twist at the end. I would love to read more. Yvonne: These days many people find it hard to find the time to read a novel, so this book of short stories is ideal to dip into. It is also makes a good gift.	£4.99 Paperback edition

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

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LINKS:

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

The Sweet Smell of Rain

Ah, the sweet, rich smell of rain. That distinctive scent wafting up our nostrils comes from a naturally occurring plant oil that is absorbed by soil and rocks during dry periods. When rain falls, the oil is released into the air along with an organic compound called geosmin that's produced by the bacteria in wet soil. It’s this combination that creates that clean, earthy, “just-rained smell”. Rain itself has no odour. Even acid rain looks and smells just like the normal kind.

We’ve had rather a lot of rain recently but before we go down and see what effect it has had on our stream I noticed this little patch of ground when we emerged onto the track last week. It is regularly cultivated later in the spring but let’s have a look and see what’s taken hold before the rotavator moves in. Plenty of Wood Sorrell here at our feet and some stands of White Mustard in front of the Date Palms but just check out these little pink flowers. These are Small Herb Robert and they are certainly attracting the little Bee Flies. As their name suggests they are flies that have evolved to protect themselves by looking like bees. Whenever you come across an animal that seems to have two contradictory names the second name tells you what it is and the first name tells you what it resembles. Thus a Whale Shark is a shark that resembles a whale and a Curlew Sandpiper is a sandpiper that looks like a curlew and not the other way around.

The rain has certainly put a bit more vim and vigour into our stream; it looks as though it can’t wait to get to the sea. Let’s have a dig along the bank and see what turns up. Earthworms – now these are quite exciting for me because I don’t see many in our arid climate out here. The one on the right is an adult Lobworm and the one on the left looks to be a juvenile. How can you tell the difference? Earthworms are hermaphrodite (both male and female) and when they mature they develop a ‘saddle’, technically called the clitellum, which contains the eggs. After two earthworms have mated the sperm from worm 1 is transferred up the body of worm 2 to the saddle (and vice-versa), the clitellum secretes material that forms a ring which the worm then slides out of and injects the eggs and sperm into it. The ring seals itself into a cocoon in which the baby worms develop, emerging as fully formed juveniles two or three months later. Now you know all about the sex life of the earthworm. You’ve always wanted to know that, haven’t you?

I see that we have a diminutive cascade running into our stream from the valley side. Do you fancy a climb? We could do with a change of scene. There are quite a number of White Hedge-nettles about: another totally misleading name as they are not nettles at all and they don’t always grow in hedges as you can see. If you look at the flower shape you can see that they are similar in design to Sage, Rosemary and many of the other culinary herbs and that is because they are in the same family. Nettles are in a completely different family and their flowers are totally dissimilar and very dull in comparison. Mind you, you can eat nettles but as far as I know there are no recipes for White Hedge-nettles despite their family connections. That may be one for our friend Haris Saslis at Forage Crete to investigate.

Here’s another one of those pesky flies trying to look like something it isn’t. It has all the colouring and shape of a wasp but it’s a Hoverfly. This one is male and they usually appear earlier in the spring than the females giving them a chance to mature (you know how long it takes us boys to grow up –I’m not sure I’ve got there yet). How do I know it’s a male? The eyes are set very close together and appear to almost join in the middle. In the female the eyes are set further apart.

Quite a nice view of the opposite side of the valley from up here and we’re almost back to the coast. Look back down to the track a moment. There, sitting on top of that telegraph pole – a kestrel. They often patrol up and down this valley. They’ll be breeding soon, nesting in holes and scrapes in the cliffs or maybe in an old crow’s nest. They can lay up to six or seven eggs and like many birds they are r-strategists. That is they spread their parental care over a number of offspring allowing the strongest to survive. This compares to animals like ourselves who are k-strategists (in the developed world at least) who have fewer offspring but devote considerable care and attention to ensuring that they all survive. I sometimes wonder, from a purely biological rather than a humanitarian viewpoint, whether we in the developed world are correct in imposing our k-strategy thinking on those parts of the world where the r-strategy prevails.

And on that thought I think we’ll call it a day and make our way back down to the track. Watch your footing, going down can be more treacherous than climbing up and I don’t want to pick you up in a heap at the bottom.

The Extra Bit

Just in case these blog posts give you a taste for visiting the Mediterranean I am hosting a new facebook site called Mediterranean Island Insights which features posts from bloggers on various Mediterranean Islands. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1309179912496006/

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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)