Wildlife 2007

[Lesley Cox]

Whatever, it's rather cute don't you think? especially if he's on a pollination binge.

Last night's episode of "Bite Club" (just so you don't get too comfortable Maggi), was about what Ruud Kleinpaste called Housemates, in the USA. They included the daddy long legs spider, centipedes, lady bugs (birds), stable flies - appalling things - and cockroaches. He proved - by having all of them put onto his body, that they all bite, sometimes viciously. The ladybirds don't like cold so winter over in a particular sheltered valley in the southwest and are present in enormous numbers clustering together to generate warmth. Collectors come with buckets and scoop them up by hand or with shovels and sell them, a thousand or so in a small bag, to gardeners for aphis control. I also learned that aphis give birth to live young which already have the next generation of young inside them, as they themselves are born. This is terrifying! Then he went onto killer bees. He was well protected from these but still got over 30 stings through very thick socks and had swollen and stiff ankles as a result, and expected the pain to last literally for months. I kept feeling "things" crawling through my hair for ages afterwards.

[Maggi Young]

Gee, Lesley, how can I thank you enough for this summary of the Bug programme?

[mark smyth]

sounds great hopefully it will come to a Sky channel soon. The stable fly must be different to out stable fly. Ours fly in triangular patterns under lights, dash off to chase a potential mate and come back again.

In Cork I was bitten twice by the same type of beetle that got me in the Czech Republic and yesterday in my own garden another got me.

[Lesley Cox]

The stable flies Mark, were blood suckers. Ruud put his hands through those cloth tubes into a glass box with about 200 flies. The guy with him counted at least 50 at a time on his hands all sucking furiously. They put down a thick, hollow spike into the flesh and we could see their bodies swelling and becoming red as the sucked. As they withdrew, the blood came up leaving a puddle on the skin and more flies came along and sucked up these. Utterly disgusting. How he could do it..... But this is a guy who is happy with tarantulas crawling over his face and any other creepy you can think of.

Sorry about all that Maggi but we all need a little spice in our lives lest we get too comfortable

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, I'm all for spice in my life.... coriander, cumin, garam massala, ginger... none of which have legs!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

No pictures available, but I heard on the news that approx 100 vultures from the Spanish Pyrenees have been spotted in different locations in Belgium - specialists say they left their home area looking for food.  Due to mad cow disease, spanish farmers seem to have been forbidden to leave any dead cattle out in the mountains as they used to do in the past...
I'm very sorry for the birds, but I don't think they'll find anything that suits their diet out here. 

[Maggi Young]

Interesting news, Luc and I agree with you, I don't think that vultures will enjoy or thrive on a diet of chocolate, chips and beer!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

 

[Maggi Young]

I see there are increasing reports of the vultures attacking newborn calves and foals and accused even of killng the mothers, also, as a result of their desperation... also the situation is worse because the number of vultures has risen so much in recent years.
I wonder if the vultures could be re-trained to eat slugs and snails? Since huge  sea creatures like the basking shark have evloved to eat plankton, you'd think a vulture could adapt to smaller snacks ??

[Carlo]

Just yesterday I wrote a bit for the blog on my website (see below) about rattlesnakes coming down out of the hills and into the gardens of suburban Los Angeles because drought is driving their prey to search out the comfy irrigated gardens of their human neighbors...

[Lesley Cox]

Lesley, I'm all for spice in my life.... coriander, cumin, garam massala, ginger... none of which have legs!

But some have a really vicious bite though Maggi :

[Lesley Cox]

Above, Carlo mentioned his website, and gives a link. I hope all Forumists will look at it. There's so much of interest there, not just alpines, all sorts of things. I enjoy it very much. The only thing is, Carlo, do you still have time for gardening?

[Carlo]

Lesley is too kind. The website is (as most are) a labor of love...and I don't always have the time to do IT justice, but I DO have time for gardening...it is how I make my living after all (doing it for someone else, that is) and it's where the inspiration for most of my blatherings comes from.

I'm pleased to hear that it is being enjoyed and invite everyone to dip a toe in,

Carlo

[Hans J]

Before few minutes I could make a picture of a "Taubenschwänzchen" (Macroglossum stellatarum) in our garden ,this little animals comes every evening in this time -they visit Centranthus ,Lavendula and similar flowers .
It was very difficould to make a pic because they fly like hummingbirds .

Greetings Hans

[Mick McLoughlin]

Looks like a humming bird hawk moth Hans
http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=2198