AUTUMN WILDLIFE AND SCENERY FROM NOVEMBER 2007

[Anthony Darby]

Young stick insects are often differently coloured from the adults and sometimes the colour is dependent on the type of vegetation. I know that European mantids (no mantids in the UK) can be apple green or light brown to match lush or parched vegetation. The colour will only change at a moult as I have tested it by changing the cage decorations from brown sticks to living plants. That stick looks quite young.

[David Nicholson]

Cliff, just caught up with your pictures of Cowm, lovely-it's yonks since I was last there. Shows that the North of England is much more than cloth caps and whippets!

[ranunculus]

Aye David....we 'ave cough drops, mufflers, pigeons and sooty snow. Thanks for the kind words sir.

[TC]

A few pictures from a trip to Loch Ken today

[Maggi Young]

You've had a better day than here, Tom... wet cold and very windy... this evening it is snowing. Yuck!
Super pictures.... Ian tells me he was very disappointed that all he got to see of your new guitar last week was a photo, though... bad show, that!

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely pictures Tom. Nice to see red squirrels instead of the more common greys - not that I see ANY squirrels of course.

[Paul T]

Aw, aren't they so CUTE!! (of course I likely wouldn't be saying that if they were in my garden and making off with my Crocus bulbs when I wasn't looking!!)

[mark smyth]

those are very dark reds

[Maggi Young]

The red squirrels tend to get very dark in the winter. I just wish I had some red squirrles to eat our bulbs.... it would be worth it ! We have a couple of visiting greys, which are, admittedly cute to watch, but they are furry vermin!

[TC]

The winter coat of Red Squirrels is mainly darker than the red summer coat.  The last time I was at Benmore , there were Red Squirrels everywhere with predominantly black backs.  According to one of the foresters, these are juveniles and will attain their red colouring by summer.  There are also colour variations amongst the various population groups throughout the country.
I believe that there is a population around Formby, in Lancashire which are quite dark.  These were reintroduced from a German source.
The darker colour, in winter, may be a form of camouflage as it matches the bark of the trees.  In our recent spell of mild winters, the Red Squirrels have been seen in every winter month.  Years ago, they would hibernate in their dreys from November until March with an occasional foray in milder spells.
After Loch Ken yesterday, we went on a Wildgoose chase.  The difference being I knew where to find them.  We found a flock of 160 Greenland White Fronted Geese and 400 Greylags.  Leaving Castle Douglas there were 64 Whooper Swans in a field outside of town.
At Mersehead, on the Solway, there were thousands of Barnacle Geese.  We got within 15 yards of them, from behind a hedge and they did not spook.  Other highlights were a male Hen Harrier quartering the fields and a female Merlin sitting up a tree 15 feet from the visitor centre window.  This is where the bird feeders hang.  The small birds stopped feeding and just sat further into the tree keeping an eye out.  It was status quo until a female chaffinch flew off - bad move.  As soon as it was in the clear, the Merlin gave chase and it was a race to the hedgerow 50 yards away.  I don't know who won.  Just as we were leaving for home, a flock of about 5,000 Starlings went through an aerial ballet before diving into the reed beds.
Today, we went north up the coast to look at some Snow Buntings on the beach.  Farther up, at Portencross, we watched a pair of Peregrines scaring the life out of the local bird population.  The weather today was beautiful with blue sky, windless and sunshine.  The temperature varied from -1c to + 2c

[annew]

That sounds like quite a day!

[Anthony Darby]

My daughter's violin teacher and her husband were on a trek to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania earlier this year and sent me this pic taken at 700m by a friend. It looks very like Danaus formosa (a poisonous species), but on closer inspection I think it is an imposter: Papilio rex. This is a mimic of the danaid and comes in various guises in different parts of Africa, depending on which 'model' it mimics.

http://home.att.net/~bret72/P_rex.htm