Wildlife March 2012

[annew]

Strangely, we had a moorhen in our garden last week. It spent some time trying to balance with its huge feet on top of the greenhouse. The following morning there was an oil slick on the pond.

[mark smyth]

Anne are you calling the moorhen greasy? Does anyone call them water hens?

Great Crested grebes and moorhens nesting already! This is early I would have thought

[mark smyth]

Has everyone with ponds got frog spawn by now?

[Jonny_SE]

Maybe.....just need to drill thru 40cm of ice first to check............

[annew]

Dozens of frogs last Thursday, none this weekend and no spawn yet.

[Anthony Darby]

I got some tags this week.

[mark smyth]

Tags for what, Anthony?

[ronm]

For butterflies Mark.

[Maggi Young]

Our friend Isobel found a strange clump.... about a tennis ball sized mass..... of an unknown "beast" in her garden yesterday. (Aberdeen N.E. Scotland)
The creatures are tiny, white wrigglers.... approx. 7mm long by  1mm wide.
Can anyone ID them? Look like some sort of maggot, I suppose...

We thought it unusual to find such a large mass of them.
 
Click on the pictures to see the full ( horrible !)  detail......

 No ideas on what these things are?

[ronm]

Where in the garden were they Maggi? Compost heap, lawn, flower bed? They must be in a very moist place I would think, or some sort of decaying organic matter,!

[Maggi Young]

Isobel found them in some loose, mossy soil, near a hedge base.  She was tidying... found a tennis ball sized  "clump" of wrigglers..... 

[ronm]

I'm thinking Fungus Gnats or a close relative. Certainly some sort of midge or gnat for my money,

[ronm]

https://sharepoint.cahnrs.wsu.edu/blogs/urbanhort/archive/2011/01/04/bounce-%E2%80%93-it%E2%80%99s-not-just-a-fabric-softening-sheet-.aspx

[Maggi Young]

Thanks Ron... .think you've nailed that.

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/12/21/aggregation-of-fungus-gnat-larvae/
Yuck!

[Anthony Darby]

They seem to be about three times as big as fungus gnat larvae?

Yes, tags for monarch butterflies.