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

Boing!

My answer is that it depends on my mood. Right now I am a half-full kinda guy because spring makes me feel optimistic and spring 2016 has come to my little corner of the British Isles.

For starters, the bluebell woods are just reaching their full potential and the sight of this carpet of blue is enough to lift anyone's spirits, but if you add in the aroma, then you really do feel a harmony with nature that is very powerful.

When the buds on the cherry tree burst open to reveal some of the flowers, white and fresh as morning snow, I knew it would be just a matter of time before the honey bees arrived in large numbers to harvest the pollen. Now, just a day later the tree is alive with 'the voice of the garden' as somebody once described it, i.e. the hum of hundreds of bees. Magic!

Oh yes! The butterflies are coming out of hibernation too, but more of that later. The female worker bees have also found once again that the willow provides ample sustenance for the colony...

And then I came across this bee in the water. I don't know if it got there by mistake or had been attacked by something. It seemed very lethargic and quite unable to release itself from the surface tension. I did wonder for a second if it had a parasite of some kind attached, but on closer inspection saw that it was a teeny springtail. Did it arrive with the hitch-hiker, or did it climb aboard once the bee was in the pond?

It's only a natural light shot and so there isn't the same amount of detail as in a macro photo lit by flash.

I did rescue this bee by offering a stick for it to climb on to, which it did. I left it in the sunshine, drying out. Whilst I was beside the water, I saw this froggie just chillin'...

Or possibly sunbathing?

Under a nearby oak tree, I found a number of these bees. I imagine they are some kind of mason bee? Beyond that I am sorry to say I have no clue. I find bees exceptionally hard to differentiate. They probably have the same problem with humans?

Some of them seemed to be digging into the clay soil, presumably to nest? Again I could be wrong about that. I really need to gen-up on bees per se.

Changing the subject yet again, I discovered a couple of nice fungi recently...

Again, this is only a phone picci and so not great, but still, I think this is Sarcoscypha austriaca- or Scarlet Elfcup? It could also be S.coccinea as they are practically identical. The habitat seems a perfect fit; that being, on dead twigs in a damp, shady place.

Another shot, with the DSLR this time.

This was the other fungi I found...

I am no expert, or even amateur regarding fungi but I wonder if this might be Piptoporus betulinus? Commonly known as the birch polypore, or razor strop. As you may have guessed from the second part of the scientific name, it grows almost exclusively on birch.

A few of the critters I have uncovered now. Starting with this fab beetle...

It's one of the Carabidae beetles but there are around 350 species in the UK. I bet you are now thinking that I am just dodging having to identify this striking beetle? Well, actually no, I shall stick out my neck and plump for Poecilus cupreus. That may be a tad presumptuous as there are a few other Poecilus beetles that it could equally be. Then again, it might not even be Poecilus? I really think it is though! There...that should do it!

And another ground beetle...

Badister bullatus-A Ground Beetle

Quite a common but colourful ground beetle, often found in moss, as this one was. Something to do with the old saying about it not being the Beatles that gather no moss, but the Rolling Stones no doubt?

(Do I need to explain that this is a joke? Probably would be my guess)

Then came my first shieldbug of 2016, a turtle bug...

Shortly after, another shieldbug...

Palomena prasina- A Green Shieldbug

 A juvenile centipede was next...

A daffodil provided me with my first true bug of the year ...

Probably Lygus species.

And another first for 2016, a Grassbug...

The Butterflies? Ah yes...the butterflies...

Nothing that was in a good place to get a decent photograph but at this stage I am just happy to see them re-appearing. There's plenty of time for arty-farty shots.

And that's about it. I know this update has been about what I have seen. Just a selection of recent finds, rather than any in depth analysis, but I wanted to share and also demonstrate  just how fast things are moving now. I am also about to overhaul the blog and perhaps re-style it and so this will probably be the last update in this current format.

One last picture, a hoverfly sitting on a daffodil...

Postscript: If anyone finds my missing avatar photo from the comments on the right of this blog update, could they please hand it in to teacher. Thank-you.

Froggy went a courtin'...

Hmmm.....

I just thought I'd start with a 'Hmm'...hmmm really translates as, 'there's so much I could blog about now that the bug season is well underway, but, what to choose?'

I guess I'll try and cover as much as possible without meaning to skip around too much. Let's go back to a day when the sun was shining and the Military Canal in Appledore was where I spent a couple of happy hours.

I wasn't sure what I'd see on the day but I was hoping that I might encounter the fabulous marsh frogs that are well known residents of this area. They are quite a bit bigger than our indigenous species and the males can be quite vocal at this time of year.

What I didn't expect to see in the water were grass snakes...

(The usual reminder about being able to view videos only via the blog direct as they don't show in the e.mailed version)

I was lucky enough to find some frogs and took a few photos...

And here's the noise they make...

Moving along then, I seem to be finding unusually high numbers of green tortoise beetles this year... 

There are at least two different species here but even so, quite a difference in colour and vibrancy between them.

There also seem to be plenty of acorn weevils locally this year...

Now that the weather has improved and most of the trees are looking splendid in their spring/summer foliage, the egg-laying has started in earnest for lots of our native insects and bugs-here are a few recent sightings I've had...

An Orange-tip butterfly egg

Shield-bug eggs

Hoverfly ova (Syrphidae)

A single Hazel leaf-roller weevil egg

Wasp eggs?

Something I found whilst looking at nettle, a great place for lots of creepy-crawlies, was this odd looking growth. I wondered if it was some kind of gall?

A bit of research was called for and this is what I discovered; I think it might be an answer, unless anyone knows better?

The common stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) can be affected by the small Cecid fly-Dasineura urtica. It lays its eggs at the base of the leaf or in the main leaf veins. The larvae then consume the inner tissues of the leaf. But....other predatory flies will often lay their eggs in these leaf pouches that the original grubs created, then on hatching, these larvae predate on the original occupants. 
I think maybe that's what is happening here as the original grubs would be white/pale but the second are pink, orange or red.

Oh! Another oddity I discovered whilst out walking was this tiny fungi. It was on some fallen branches in a mostly pine forest...

Well my promise to try and prevent this blog update from becoming too disjointed is already failing miserably and added to that, it's becoming something of an epic already and so I guess I should think about wrapping it up fairly soon-I have a couple more photos to share first though, starting with this rather nice and aptly named lace-bug; apologies for the black and white image, sometimes I get all artistic! Actually, I think it does show the detail well in mono in this instance.

An optimistic glow-worm?

I know that these glow-worm larvae live on a diet of snails, but surely this is quite a size to tackle? I didn't have time to hang about and see who triumphed here but my money is on the snail surviving.

Although I have lots more that I would love to add to this update, it's perfectly possible that should I continue, I would be in danger of making this three times as long as it ought to be, rather than as it is now, twice as long and so I will squeeze in one last photo if I may and then hightail it outta here and hope that you'll be back here to share the next (more concise) update....please?

A yellow-tail moth larva

Until the next time then...

"And finally"...if you were wondering at all about the title of this blog update?