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)

Toplou Gorge

Welcome to the all new fortnightly Series 9 of the #CreteNature Blog with a host of new features to come.

Out & About

Winter is early and severe this year as the weather system 'Telemachos' comes marching through on the heels of weather system 'Sofia' and now we have storm Zeus. Not that that deters us naturalists of course and on January 7^th I set off with amateur botanist Julia Cross and a small group of intrepid individuals to explore the Toplou Gorge on the north east coast of the island.

Flowers were few and far between but the Poppy Anemones (Anemone coronaria) were abundant and there were a fair few Mediterranean Mandrakes in flower (Mandragora officinarum) as well as a couple of Friar's Cowls (Arisarum vulgare). Pride of place however must be given to a small yellow job with a couple of black dots which Julia informed me was a Scorpion Violet (Viola scorpiuroides). This was originally a north African plant but can now be found in east and west Crete as well as on the islands of Kythera and Antikythera. Sorry about the quality of the photograph but the light shower in which we'd set off had now turned to freezing rain.

The rain turned to hail, we sheltered under a carob tree and I had an irresistible urge to cuddle up to one of the big, hairy goats nearby for warmth. These proved to be virtually the only animal life that we saw that day. I heard a few larks and a solitary raven but everything else had more sense than to be out in that weather. We waited until the hail had stopped bouncing off the goats and continued down past some caves that definitely looked worth exploring on a warmer day.

At the bottom of the gorge we came to some large pools where I found some Whirligig Beetles of the Gyrinidae family spinning around like tops which is fairly characteristic and some nice green algae of which I took a sample to look at under the microscope later. We didn't stop long at the pools as none of us had had the foresight to bring our swimming costumes but trekked back up the adjoining ravine which involved a short but somewhat steep climb of about 200m and made me realise that I was still carrying a fair few pounds of Christmas fayre. Still, thank you Julia & Co. for an interesting afternoon in good company.

Walking Notes

This would make a nice day trip from nearby Sitia (15mins by car), Makry Gialos (1 hour), Ierapetra (1 hour 30 mins) or even Agios Nilolaos (1 hour 45 mins). Use the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map for routes. The walk starts from the north side of the main road about 200m to the west of the Toplou monastery. There is a small route map on a post. Wear trainers, be prepared for a bit of scrambling, follow the splashes of red paint on the rocks and remember to tie the gate shut behind you about 100m from the start.

Fieldcraft & Foraging

This is one of the new sections I'm building into the blog which I hope will be of interest. This tip concerns using trees as compasses. Every area of the world has a prevailing wind direction. Here in Crete the prevailing wind comes from the north west (in England it is from the south west). Trees in exposed locations, like these at the end of the Toplou Gorge walk, point in the opposite direction from the prevailing wind, i.e. south east. If the location is not so exposed as to make the trees lean in any obvious direction take a look at the roots. The strongest and longest will point in the direction of the prevailing winds as this is where the tree needs the most support.

In The Lab

And another new section. Actually, a bit of a misnomer as the lab is still in the planning stage and bits of it are strewn all over the house and garden at the moment. However, the green algae that I sampled from the Toplou Gorge pools was duly placed under the microscope and looked like this at x1600 magnification. These are desmids of the genus Mougeotia who, rather than pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to get the carbon that they need for photosynthesis, extract it directly from the limestone. The little fish like organisms with the red eyes that you can see towards the top of the picture are single celled flagellates called Euglena.

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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

Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels  Read snippets, samples and stuff at Steve's Books

Cretan Flora   Flowers of Crete   BIRDS OF CRETE   Crete Birding   Greek Butterflies and Moths      Aquaworld Aquarium