Wildlife June 2010

[Anthony Darby]

How many tortoises do you have Chris? Do you keep your babies?

[christian pfalz]

anthony, i have four female and three male....no anthony, i gave them to good friends...
cheers
chris

[Ragged Robin]

The River is teaming with life and in the early evening everyone is out and about looking for a bite to eat under a watchful eye - as I watch too 

[Maggi Young]

My word, that's a large family of cygnets, isn't it?  The little cygnets are very sweet, but in our local parks the swans tend to kill all the ducklings, so not so nice....

[Ragged Robin]

There's plenty of space on the river here Maggi and although there are scuffles over territory I haven't seen fights to the death.  It really is exceptionally beautiful, the English countryside is such a relaxing contrast to living in the mountains where everything is so concentrated in the seasons 

[angie]

Robin, they are so lovely.. you just feel that you need to pick them up and give them a cuddle.

Angie

[Ragged Robin]

They really are, Angie, and yesterday we saw newly hatched balls of fluff hitching a ride on their mother's back as they swam up stream - the current can be very strong and they run across the top of the water to catch up  

[Ragged Robin]

Today on the river an iridescent flash of blue outlined in the shadows and metallic in the sun - damselflies are flitting from leaf to leaf

[Tony Willis]

a couple of pictures from Greece.

The first is of a beetle which was sat in the centre of a type of daisy. There were hundreds of these plants and each had a beetle or on some the happy occupant had been joined by a friend for the usual reasons.

Second one is of ants collecting fallen seeds and taking them back to their heap.

[Gail]

Ragged Robin - lovely picture of the damselflies.  We visited a garden with an old mill pond once that had dozens of those ones - a really enchanting species, I'm sure someone here will know which!

Tony - are you sure that is a beetle? It looks like a miniature muppet that someone has made up from fur fabric! 

[Anthony Darby]

Tony, your furry scarab has me stumped, but your ant looks like Messor barbara, which feeds almost exclusively on seeds. They can create bare trails for many metres radiating from their nest entrances.

[Maggi Young]

Could the interesting critter with a fur coat who looks like a cross between a beetle and a bumble bee be  a Hairy Flower Chafer Beetle - Trichiotinus pigeror similar?

I was looking for info on another 'bug' and came upon this page, which even has pix of the beastie on another daisy!!

http://www.cirrusimage.com/beetle_chafer_trichiotinus.htm

[Anthony Darby]

I would have said Tropinota sp., but the elytra are unmarked and the 'hair' is black.

[Tony Willis]

Anthony thanks for the information,I thought you would be interested. I have no knowledge of insects but still find them fascinating and seeing them brightened up a very hot afternoon.

[Peter Maguire]

The damselflies are Calopteryx splendens, the Banded Demoiselle