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)

Thirlmere - The 'Waisted' Lake

 

Once upon a time, there was a little lake called Thirlmere, so shallow that you could walk across the middle at times. 'Thirl' probably derives from Old English denoting a narrowing. Then, in the 19^th century, the growing city of Manchester acquired it for a reservoir and built the dam on which we are now standing. The water flows downhill, all the way to the metropolis 96 miles away, without the need for pumps of any kind, flowing over aqueducts and through tunnels in an incredible feat of engineering. If you fancy a ten mile hike, you can walk all the way around the lake but today, we're going to concentrate on the north west section.

There are buzzards and a kestrel high in the sky, wheeling and hovering around Raven Crag to our right, while down here by the lake dunnocks and chaffinches flit from branch to branch and we also have a Chiffchaff. The chiffchaff is a rather nondescript little warbler who rather helpfully calls its name with a repetitive chiff chaff, chiff chaff. Distinguishing between warblers and female finches such as the chaffinch is relatively simple; just look at their bills. Warblers eat spiders and insects and have thin bills adapted to that purpose. Finches, being seed eaters, have thick, powerful bills.

Later in the year, this bank will be covered in dense, green bracken but now is just the right time to see it unfurling against a backdrop of pale moss. At this stage in their development, they always remind me of seahorses, gently floating amid the undulating seaweed.

The bluebells are just starting to come into flower and here we have a lovely Orange-tip butterfly. This is one of the 'White' butterflies in the family Pieridae, as are the common Small and Large Whites. If you look at the underside of the wing, you can see that it is a mottled green, similar to the Bath White.

Here we are at what was once the waist, or thirl, of Thirlmere and we have a lovely view of sunlight on the fells. Apart from the emerging Bluebells and the last of the Daffodils, we've not seen much that is new in the way of flowering plants this morning. The Dog Violets and Golden Saxifrage were both blooming last month, but we do have some Wild Strawberries in flower, much to the delight of this little ant. 

A very pleasant walk, particularly if you are not fond of going up hill and down dale, and we shall return to Thirlmere again to see it in different seasons. Meanwile, do join me throughout the week for Minibeast Monday, Podcast Tuesday, #CumbriaNature on Wednesday, Pic of the Week on Thursday (to introduce the new feature below) and Foraging Friday. All this for free on 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 and their environment and interspecies behaviour. 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 A science fiction novella for those who don't like science fiction. A fast-paced thriller that is, literally, out of this world. Shanaya: At last! A book with a ballsy female lead with no superpowers whatsoever who battles against the odds and wins (or does she?). I really related to her! And I laughed out loud at the last story.	£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

The Great British Countryside

Much as I adore living here in Crete with its wall-to-wall sunshine there is something to be said for rain; it does make things green. So come with me if you will, down Simonscales Lane, for a walk in the great British countryside. Notice the difference between the hedgerow on the left and the one on the right. There are far more woody species on the left indicating that it is probably the original field boundary with just a footpath this side. You can estimate the age of a hedgerow by counting the number of woody shrubs in a 100ft stretch and multiplying by 100. This makes the original boundary over 600 years old, whereas the footpath was probably upgraded to a track and the second hedgerow planted within the last 200 years. Besides the woody shrubs there are plenty of herbaceous plants such as Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) and Crosswort (Cruciata laevipes). These are providing food for the local insects as we can see from this Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) sipping nectar from a Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Highly poisonous to us humans but we're made differently to butterflies.

At the end of the track a stile takes us onto a footpath alongside the river Cocker as it wends its way towards the town. A bit of a botanists dream along this stretch. We have Bistortia (Bistortia officianalis) who's leaves are used to make Dock Pudding over in Yorkshire; Lady's Smock (Cardamine pratensis) which you should never bring indoors or use in a May Day garland for fear of upsetting the fairies; some knapweed (Centaurea sp.) which clued-up farmers allow to grow wild as they persuade beetles away from their crops; and some Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) which was such a popular plant for making tea (as well as being considered to be good for gout) that it was nearly eradicated from London in the eighteenth century.

We'll leave the river now and indulge in a bit of bug hunting. Every child's favourite, the 7 spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata), is here and so too, the Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), one of about 19 species in the UK and three hundred around the world; nestling in this buttercup in various attitudes of repose we have some Marsh Marigold Moths (Micropterix calthella) and finally a rather finely marked Snipe Fly (Rhagio scolopaceus) which we'll leave alone as many snipe flies are bloodsuckers and they can inflict a rather painful bite. 

Heading into the woods and pausing to say hello to a rabbit on our way I see we have a much nicer tempered fly on the fence. This is a Noon Fly (they like to sunbathe in the middle of the day) and they are nectar feeders and have no interest in biting us. Just as well really as, when they're not sunbathing they spend most of their time on cow pats where they both mate and lay their eggs. They also make a mockery of the saying 'breed like flies'. The female Noon Fly lays only five eggs in her lifetime, each in a separate cow pat. Thus spake Wikipedia but unfortunately with no citation. I like to check my facts thoroughly before passing them on to you but after half an hour's searching I cannot verify that this fact is true. Can any dipterologist out there confirm or deny?

I love the great diversity of broad leaved trees in England. We have trees in Crete of course but they're mainly olive and pine with the occasional Plane and Oak thrown in. This one for instance, standing there as though posing for a Liz Black Dowding painting, is a Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastrum). Supplier of conkers for playground games, they have medicinal qualities and were also collected in great quantites during the first world war to be used in the production of rifle cartridges. The conkers provided the starch to ferment the Clostridium bacterium to produce the acetone to make the solvent to manufacture the cordite that propelled the bullets from British rifles up until the 1950s. Sounds like an idea for a cumulative song like The Court of King Caractacus, doesn't it?

Anyhow, that about wraps it up for Cumbria. Next week we start on our journey back to Crete by rail and sea. Don't forget your passports.

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

Steve's Books well, just the one at the moment but I have now completed all of the adult critters for 'The Quick Guide to Creepy-Crawlies' as well as the terrestrial juveniles. Just the aquatic juveniles to go and it will be ready for proofreading.

Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels  A light-hearted look at life through the eyes of the fairer sex. Kindle Edition 1.99 pounds sterling (or equivalent). Click on the links to the right to buy or preview Paperback Edition 4.99 pounds sterling (or equivalent).. Read snippets, samples and stuff at Steve's Books

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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

Cretan Flora Flowers of Crete BIRDS OF CRETE Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)