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.”

Football v Nature...

Here in England, there is no escape from 'the beautiful game' (yeah, right) that is the FIFA World Cup. Apparently, erstwhile England manager Bill Shankly, once said that football is more important than life and death. If however you are one of the minority who even dares to admit that football leaves you cold, then may I suggest that you come on in to my latest blog update right now! 

It's lovely in here, honest it is: it even smells great, like wild English honeysuckle after summer rain. Despite what old shaky-Shankly thinks, there is more to life than kicking a pig's bladder around a park!  And as Van Gogh once said "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere". C'mon, do like Robbie Williams did at the opening ceremony, stick a middle finger up and...."Let me entertain you"...♫♫♫

(Click on any photo for a larger view)

Scathophaga stercoraria

What better to begin this update than this beautiful..........DUNG Fly! 

Yes, as its common name suggests, this fly is not only found on the feces of large mammals, but it also breeds there. If you find this abhorrent, then consider the following: the abundance of these flies has been directly influenced by intensive farming by us humans: and so now they are  integral in the animal kingdom, due to their role in the natural decomposition of dung in fields.

Shall we progress to something that is truly beguiling...

OK, I know it's only a fly, but come on, even flies look good in the right light huh? 

These few photographs are all from an early morning trip that I took to Marden Meadows recently. Marden Meadows is a nature reserve east of Marden here in Kent, and is managed by the Kent Wildlife Trust. It is also a site of special scientific interest. 

A Hoverfly (Estralis species)

The hoverfly pictured above, on one of the many large, white daisies that litter the meadows right now, is trying to emulate a honey bee. They are quite good mimics, but unlike the bees,  have only one pair of wings, and no sting. They can be tricky to tell apart, but I think this one is E.tenax.  

Whereas these next photos are of a honey bee, and a very wet one at that!

I also came across this tiny creature: I think this is a leaf beetle larva...

You can possibly tell from these photographs that it was quite a dewy morning. It must be a  fairly vulnerable time for the bugs as they cannot fly until all that water has dispersed, or has been evaporated by the sun,  from their wings. 

Way back in July of 2014 I blogged about a species of weevil called Hypera rumicis, I described the pupal cases of these weevils as being like 'wild spun sugar' (that blog entry is HERE by the way, if you would like to come back and view it after reading this update). Well, I managed to photograph some more of these structures, at Marden Meadows this time. As with everything else I found, they were covered in dew drops...

You can clearly see the larva inside this case

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet

I looked up and saw this ladybird so sweet...

I wonder if male ladybirds mind being called ladies?

And if all of these pictures haven't been enough to hold your interest...well, you won't be reading this I guess! Assuming that you are though, my final offering from my early morning photo shoot is this voyeur image of two bonking beetles. 

This next photo is one that I took closer to home a few days ago...

Pentatoma rufipes

This is a final instar (the last stage before becoming an adult bug) of the Red-legged Shieldbug. They are quite large bugs when adult; you can see an adult HERE in a post from 2011 that I wrote about bugs moulting.

Yes, time to blow the whistle on this particular update before we get into injury time. I shall leave you with a final thought on 'the beautiful game' (that's football, in case you were confused) from a guy called Graham, who called the radio show '5 Live Breakfast, to share these pearls of wisdom..."The game is run by spivs, chancers and gangsters, it's played by morons and it's watched by cretins". Phew! So pleased my name is not Graham...heresy! 

How about a triptych ending then? (couldn't be bothered keeping the football analogy going by calling it a hat-trick) Applying the term loosely of course; here are three photographs I took of a fabulous Puss moth larva...

If you are thinking that it is quite an odd looking caterpillar, just take a look at how it looks immediately prior to pupating...

That'll be all for now chums. Take care until we meet back here for update number 221 in which I will attempt to alienate all cricket lovers, by suggesting that it is the most boring sport...

My good 'Flickr friend' Jason, has some lovely photos of the green veined orchids at Marden Meadows that you might like to check out HERE

Camber Sands and a pillbox...

Monday 4th February we were told by the weather forecasts would be one of the best days for sunshine so far this year. I'm not saying that they were wrong (perish the thought) but following quite a hard frost, at 10am it was still cold enough to be painful.
But then, to be fair I was by then at Camber Sands on the East Sussex coast and it's invariably colder at the coast.

Click any photo for larger view

Low tide might be a good time to find any wildlife that may be present and also reveals huge expanses of smooth sand, ideal for Herbie the terrier to run around on.

Unfortunately the opportunities for finding any live macro subjects were almost zilch! Too cold, too early in the season? The sands themselves were vast but offered little to tempt me aside from the abundance of sea shells.

By late morning,despite as thorough search as I could manage in the cold conditions, the only living things I had photographed were some horses as they were being prepared for a 'hack' (is that the right term?) along the beach...

I determined to spend some time photographing the sands as there seemed plenty to choose from...

The next photo was one of those happy mistakes. I half-dropped the little p&s camera as I was switching it on and this was the resulting picture...I kinda liked it...

And a couple taken towards the sun that by now had managed to lift the temperature nicely...

With the sea at your back, the dunes that are a big part of this environment become obvious and that's where the next few pictures were taken...

I found this lovely spike..possibly new growth?

From the edge of the dunes, you can just about make out the wind farm at nearby Romney Marsh...

The wind turbines viewed from a different spot, this time with a few of the famous Romney Marsh sheep...

Returning to the dunes, these are mostly of marram grasses but there are also dense areas of sea-buckthorn and although I had no idea of just what buckthorn looks like, I think that this is what the next photo shows, it's still in its bare, winter state and so difficult to be sure 100%...

Apparently this stretch of sands (approx 7miles) is home to the brown-tail moth caterpillar that makes its home on sea-buckthorn. It might be worth another visit come late spring when the buckthorn is in full swing and the caterpillars are emerging?

The other thing I found in the dunes that was a real surprise was this beautiful moss(?) It was only very small and growing directly on the sand. I haven't had much luck yet with an i.d. for this but then, I wouldn't expect to, as I've said before my photography skills are better than my identifying skills.

Back to the beach then...must be something worth pointing the macro lens at down here? Herbie decided at this point to either emulate me or parody me, not sure which...

What had I discovered to photograph?

And then more sandy shots...

And finally before it was time to move on, I came across this gorgeous little shell. I just had to photograph this one...

And so it was time to bid farewell to sunny Camber and head for Rye and a diversion through Appledore, hugging the edge of the military canal where I find so many dragonfly species along with the huge marsh frogs in summer, before arriving in Tenterden to check out the spectacular display of crocus flowers under the plane trees that line the main road through.

On the road to Rye, I stopped to photograph the trees that seemed to be on fire. Probably new growth on the willow(?) trees...

Through Rye and heading for the village of Appledore, time for a coffee break. There was a pull-in large enough to park up and restore caffeine levels. Having done so, I noticed a small gate that led to the canal and standing at the top of the bank, a World War ll pillbox...

These are small fortified constructions supposed to protect occupants from any invasion. There's more about these strange little buildings here should you wish to abandon this blog update in favour of war relics.

A look inside a pillbox

      And looking through one of the openings used for fire arms...

Directly opposite this pillbox the stretch of canal seems to be home to a pair of swans...not too sure what this one was doing...honking?

On to Appledore then and a brief stop to photograph another swan, this one was green though!

Then Tenterden and yes, there were drifts of crocus flowers under every tree and all were being visited by honey bees.Spring, what a beautiful and energetic time of year. So much to look forward to, I have a feeling this year is going to be special...

Something of a marathon update but hopefully you've found something of interest and if not? Well there's always next time...

Until then...tarra chuck (or any endearment you prefer)...