Come all without, come all within...

I have a five-legged spider living in my garden right now. I call her 'The Mighty Quinn'. Losing three legs has had no effect on her ability to build a web, I will share a photo before this update is done (if I can remember).

                                      

Samuel Butler lived in the 1600s. He was an English poet and satirist. Google him and you will no doubt find many quotes. I have chosen just two to illustrate the narrative of this part of my blog update:

"A News-monger is a Retailer of Rumour, that takes up upon Trust, and sells as cheap as he buys. He deals in a perishable Commodity, that will not keep: for if it be not fresh it lies upon his Hands, and will yield nothing. True or false is all one to him; for Novelty being the Grace of bothe, a Truth grows stale as soon as a Lye..."

Four centuries ago the press were obviously already practicing what a friend of mine, and former journalist once said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story". I couldn't reveal his name here but...it was Brian Johnson!

Almost four hundred years later, what has changed? That IS a rhetorical question by the way: witness these examples...

Yes it's the annual tabloid press scaremongering! Actually, it's not even just the tabloids.

If it's not too sensationalistic in itself, I would like to use Adolf Hitler's term here..it's a "Big Lie." In fact, let's stay with the WW2 analogies and add this attributed to Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." 

Fiction: Something that is invented or untrue.

Just to put all this nonsense in perspective, here's spider expert, and all round good guy Tone Killick's response when I asked him for a quote:

The fact is not one of these so called spider bite articles has any factual basis and one common theme that runs through every story is "I didn't actually see what bit me" In this day and age of click bait, the larger the fear inducing headline, the more clicks equals more money generated. That's the bottom line. The tabloids are not concerned with the amount of fear they are creating nor the species of spiders wiped because of these stories.

Hmmm...wise words indeed and redolent of a certain young lady making headlines right now?

"We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!"

                                                                                             Greta Thunberg

Okay! As Oscar Wilde said, "Life is too important to be taken seriously."

If you can't laugh at yourself, call me and I'll laugh at you - I don't think that was one of his?

Moving on: We have just had the autumn equinox and Samuel Butler had a fine quote about that too: “Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.” 

Apparently autumn/fall was once known by a different name: according to the written record, harvest is the earliest name for the third season of the year. It’s found in Old English as hærfest, a word of Germanic stock, perhaps with underlying, ancient sense of “picking, plucking.”

I once tried to construct a poem around those two words, I was okay with rhyming picking, I had kicking - licking - ticking - flicking. Plucking had me stumped though!

Notice anything wrong with this magazine cover?

If it takes you awhile, don't feel bad about it. I've had this magazine since 2011 and it took a friend to point out the mistake recently.

Next up, let's talk about a tiny insect that is neither a moth, nor a fly, yet it is called a Moth-fly. It's also known by the common names of Drain fly - Filter fly - Sewage fly and Owl-midge. 

So many names for such a small critter (about 5mm max) in fact one for each day it lives because 5 days seems to be about the extent of its life. Imagine that! They are totally harmless, although like humans, they can become annoying in large numbers. 

I've been lucky with my bird bath this year. Through 2018 I was plagued by insects falling in and being unable to climb out. Just had one bumble bee this year and I happened to spot it in time to effect a rescue and  place it on a flower whilst it dried out. 

I had several large white butterfly caterpillars pupate a few weeks ago but only one eclosed (emerged) and so I guess the rest will now over-winter and become a spring brood in 2020. They are wonderful looking things though...

I rotated this for better viewing

Time to be brave - I know there are those amongst us who still can't even look at spider pictures. But if Lady Hale can get away with wearing a spider brooch in court, I am sure I can get away with sharing the spider in my garden that I christened The Mighty Quinn...

The judge was hailed as the “spider woman” and the brooch described as “utterly badass”. 

And so...

Yes, she may only have 5 limbs but she constructed a reasonably tidy web that worked so well she had snared her first meal within a few hours. And so she somehow managed to lose three legs, but do you think there are the correct number between these two harvestmen? I think not!

Harvestmen share a trait with insects and have what scientists call the “alternate tripod gait,” where three legs touch the ground at any given point.

That elegant stride is initially hard-hit by the loss of a leg. In  harvestmen , the lost leg doesn’t grow back.

But they persevere. A harvestman that’s missing one, two, or even three legs can recover a surprising degree of mobility by learning to walk differently. Which is probably a good thing as there is about a 60% chance that they will lose at least one limb at some point.

 which all reminds me of this classic Pete and Dud sketch...

Peter Cook: Now, Mr. Spiggott, you, a one-legged man, are applying for the role of Tarzan.

Dudley Moore: Yes, right.

Peter Cook: A role traditionally associated with a two-legged artiste.

Dudley Moore: Yes, correct, yes, yes.

Peter Cook: The leg division, Mr. Spiggott. You are deficient in the leg division to the tune of one. Your right leg I like. It's a lovely leg for the role. As soon as I saw it come in, I said, "Hello! What a lovely leg for the role!"

Dudley Moore: Ah!

Peter Cook: I've got nothing against your right leg.

Dudley Moore: Ah!

Peter Cook: The trouble is -- neither have you.

I will leave you with this final image of what I think is a male honey bee. Probably the very same species that Mighty Quinn was making a meal out of. This one however was quite safe in another part of the garden...or was it?

One final thought to muse on until I return with another update: “When a male honey bee climaxes during sex, his testicles explode and he dies.”

Caterpillar poo and the lawyer's wig...

You could conduct a search of online blogs that contain nature related subjects and no doubt find some interesting and informative things to occupy a late autumn evening or two but let's be honest here, how many will contain an animated photograph of a caterpillar having a poo?

Well I wouldn't want you thinking that I'm merely a perfunctory poster of these blogs-I do try and go the extra (country) mile to ensure something different each time. If you think that's not the case, then why not go along with Lizzie, my other half who thinks this could be a metaphor for my blog entries! Huh! Metaphor? An analogy, yes-an analogy would have been fine, at least an analogy only implies!

I'm sure you won't find this offensive? After all it's just nature in the raw; what goes in must come out. I know, I know, that doesn't necessitate some 'divvy' (olde colloquial term) with a camera being there to record it for posterity-after all, how would you like.....

By the way, I know I've stated this before but if you only view these blog entries via e.mail, you probably won't see the animation (and some other bits). You need to click on the name of my blog in large lettering at the top of the e.mail and that'll bring you here, to the blog proper. 


How do you follow a caterpillar taking a dump? It's a question we all need to know the answer to surely? Just in case it ever comes up in conversation.
The way I intend to follow it is by ignoring it-pretend it never happened and let's get on to something much easier on the eye. 


When I tire of walking the fields behind our house as happens from time to time, I jump in the car and head off to an area I know equally well as I once lived right beside it. There are ponds and lakes as well as open fields and rolling Kent countryside that always makes me welcome and reminds me just how lucky we are to be living in such a glorious county.


That's where I found myself during the week, a week that has seen the weather turn from constant grey drizzle, to patchy sunshine with an accompanying rise in temperatures that has even fooled a few butterflies into brief feeding forays on some of the rotting fruits that have been dumped by the local farmer (what a waste).


My first stop? The lakes...

Click on any photo for a larger view

Although the Autumn/Fall colours were great to see and photograph, I couldn't help thinking that this year has been something of an anti-climax after last year's spectacular show. Perhaps it's more that last year was exceptional?


Perhaps, It is still a little early in this topsy-turvy season for the colours to be at their very best, as this next shot shows, some of the trees have still to turn to gold and red.

Having drunk my fill of the lakes (not literally) I was then on my way towards the real purpose of my outing. It is only a short walk (as the crow flies) uphill past the local Primary School, crossing a small road, climbing over a locked five-bar gate then negotiating a public footpath that runs beside stables and a horse paddock before arriving via a grape orchard (is orchard the right term for a field of grapes? Probably not? Vineyard seems more correct but it is hardly that with only a few rows of plants). Anyhow, I digress-in the far right hand corner of this field, tucked away from view is the entrance into one of my favourite places to wander.

You can just see in the picture above, both the rows of grape vines and the dark little entrance to the left of the last tree trunk. It looks pretty uninviting but once through the opening it opens out into a beautiful woodland.

The first section is mainly Beech and Chestnut with a few Hazel but then once it opens out properly it becomes more mixed with some lovely woodland rides.

The gate at the far end of this scene leads to an arable field with a footpath crossing it, leading to more woodland with a stream where last spring there were mayflies and water scorpion.

But my purpose today was to confine my meandering to the woods before reaching that gate and to have a good hunt around for fungi.
I was hoping to find the iconic Fly-agaric (Amanita muscaria) but there were none to be seen.I did manage a few shots though and I've posted some of the results below.

I'm not clear about species with these first shots but I do know that the following are all Shaggy-ink cap (Coprinus comatus)

This is an interesting species, sometimes also called 'Shaggy mane' or 'Lawyer's wig' and it is a good, edible mushroom, providing it is eaten soon after picking; within 4 to 6 hours of harvest seems to be the recommendation.
It must also be harvested and eaten young (before the gills turn black) which they do fairly rapidly, turning from white to pink and finally black when they secrete a black liquid filled with spores-hence the name 'Ink cap'

Why have I included a butterfly photograph that wasn't taken this week but rather back in the early part of the year? Well, because it illustrates nicely the origin of the specific name of this species.
The name derives from 'coma' or 'hair' hence 'comatus' (hairy or shaggy).At the base of the wings on this shot of a Comma Butterfly you can clearly see just how hairy it is.


Now I hope you were all taken in by my logic and the authority with which I delivered the facts and the depth of my knowledge in such matters? Truth is, I have no idea at all as to the validity of my claim/assertion but you have to admit that it is plausible?


That's about it for this entry apart from leaving you with a little picture to puzzle over until I post the answer in my next blog entry. Here's an ultra-close shot of something that I'm hoping you will be able to identify? Good luck!


Until the next time then...

Can you identify?

Return of the frost...

There is a quote that uses the analogy of painting styles to describe the seasons, I can't remember it word perfect but it's along the lines of, winter being an etching, spring a watercolour, summer an oil painting but autumn a mosaic of them all.

Click on any picture for a larger view

Well, that was the premise behind these shots.I purposely took them out of focus to give an impressionistic vision of Autumn. Rubbish? Probably, but it pleased me so indulge me?

Autumn is just beginning to come alive though and we've been lucky enough to have quite a few clear, sunny days. The two shots above were taken directly behind our house using the little Lumix camera that I've started to carry with me more often now that the colder weather is here.The colours are a bit over saturated but I kinda don't mind too much.

It's also been possible to get a good daytime view of the moon lately.

Whilst I don't seem to have had a great deal of spare time to go bug-hunting recently, it's also true that there are considerably fewer around to see anyhow.

On fine days I still spot the occasional butterfly and as usual there are caterpillars around if you look in the right places.

These two pictures are examples of recent finds that illustrate perfectly how the variation in form, size and colour can make caterpillar/larvae identification tricky. The top one of the two above probably would be most people's idea of a caterpillar when in fact it isn't a caterpillar at all. Whereas, the second photo possibly isn't how you would expect a caterpillar to look and yet this one actually is a small copper butterfly caterpillar.

In case you're wondering...the top one is a sawfly larva.

One creature that will be around throughout this winter however bad the weather gets is the springtail or collembola. These hardy little things can sometimes be seen crawling around on the fresh snow or ice.If you do fancy looking for these yourself, I ought to warn you that the one I've photographed here is one of the largest of the species but even this one is only around 5mm or so.

A Springtail

We have already had a few overnight frosts in this corner of Kent; not hard frosts but enough to turn the grass white and to have to scrape the car windscreen. There's little doubt that the harsh temperatures will have already been responsible for the demise of a good number of our insects. Dragonflies are one species that are not safe in the cold.

A common darter dragonfly

When I spotted something moving on a small piece of wood laying in a crop field whilst out walking recently, it shocked me to find that it was actually the common darter dragonfly shown above. It was soaking up the last of the day's sunshine and was fairly slow to the point where I was able to get a few shots before it moved off. A nice sighting so late in the year and especially so following the frosts.

A couple of days later I was walking the dog on one of my regular routes when I thought I'd check some rhododendron bushes beside a local pond to see if there was any sign of bug life. I'd seen the spectacular rhododendron hoppers there earlier in the year but couldn't imagine that these tiny things would have survived the recent frosts; once again I was proved wrong when not only did I find one but counted at least a dozen on different bushes.

Rhododendron leafhoppers

Speaking of hoppers, whilst walking at the edge of a ploughed field I heard the unmistakable sound of a grasshopper but couldn't actually seen one. I did spot it eventually even though it was well camouflaged. I'm unsure of just which particular grasshopper this is but here's the photo anyway...

Squashbugs are mainly confined to the south of the country and of the 10 species, only two are classified as common. The one that I see most often is Coreus marginatus, the 'Dock Bug'. They feed mainly on fruits and seeds and also possess stink glands and it's for this reason they are sometimes also called 'Stinkbugs'

Coreus marginatus

These bugs can when threatened emit a foul smelling odour from the stink gland that is meant to deter any would be predators.

A closer look at the stink gland

The last photograph in this blog entry is of a little weevil that I found running around on the edge of a cattle trough. It's usually to be found on dock plants, hence it's name of 'rumix'.

Apion frumentarium (Red rumix weevil)

That's about all for now but I'll be back with another update soon. This strange year for insects isn't over yet and there are still some nice finds to be had if the weather continues to be kind.

Until the next time then...