Wildlife September 2010

[Maggi Young]

Great picture, Mike - if they would stick to eating bugs and insects they'd be on a winner!

Hard to tell what exactly he is, Myodes glareolus (formerly Clethrionomys glareolus) or Microtus agrestis    but Josef Hlasek has some super shots of both.....

http://www.hlasek.com/ccsavcihlodavci1an.html

[TheOnionMan]

Walking near Wells Next The Sea we came across this charming fellow.  Appeared to be munching away on the remains of a grasshopper.  He didn't move, even when the camera was only 6 inches away.  A bank vole, maybe.  Could anyone confirm the I/D.

Mike

Certainly cute little things, but oooHHHHH, the stuff they can do around the garden %$#^&!  The voles, moles, and shrews are incredibly active this year, moreso now that cool weather (mostly at night) has arrived.  I'm off to war, C..H...A....R.....G...E!!!!!!!

[Maggi Young]

These assorted small furries can certainly do a lot of damage...... often times, I believe  (luckily I  have not experienced this myself) under the cover of snow.... where crops ( think Janis R's bulbs) and lawns ( or whole golf greens) can disappear while the little chompers are at work while we can see nothing other than the soft undisturbed blanket of snow.....

[TheOnionMan]

These assorted small furries can certainly do a lot of damage...... often times, I believe  (luckily I  have not experienced this myself) under the cover of snow.... where crops ( think Janis R's bulbs) and lawns ( or whole golf greens) can disappear while the little chompers are at work while we can see nothing other than the soft undisturbed blanket of snow.....

Yes, each spring as the snow/ice recedes it's disheartening to see the network of a bazillion zig-zagging tunnels working through the sod and garden areas.  However, you should see the earth they're pushing up now, amazing how quickly they can move into an area and the amount of soil they lift up in just a few days.  The quick advance on lawn areas is an annual event each autumn as the temperatures cool.

[TheOnionMan]

Ant-lions, or antlions, do you get them?  I was reminded on this picture perfect (but still VERY DRY) day, that the ant-lions are out in force, with our drier-than-dust soil pitted with small circular funnel-shaped depressions, ant-lion mini death-traps.  These creatures have an amazing metamorphosis, but at the current larvae stage they are most insidious hunters.

Inspecting the soil for any sign of fall blooming bulbs (yeah right.... need some rain first) I spied an ant struggling at the bottom of the pit, held by the emerging pincers of an ant-lion.  There's no escape, as the sides of the bone dry funnel depression collapses in on itself if an insect tries to crawl up and out... every movement leads inevitably to the center point and the pincers, surely the inspiration for the Star Wars movie scene and the sand-pit monster, where Luke Skywalker and Jabba the Hutt have their final showdown. 

Just for fun, I gently poked little twigs at the center of the pits, and the ant-lions jump out to grab what they perceive as prey. Some links:

Antlion traps:
http://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Antlion_trap.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ant_lion_8785.JPG

Antlion images:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&expIds=17259,17315,23628,23670,25834,25856,25900,26328,26425,26446,26515,26569&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=antlion&cp=5&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=n1KSTJaDIoOBlAfCuKmpCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQsAQwAA&biw=1272&bih=828

Antlion sites in Australia, shows eggs and lacewing phase as well. Talk about camouflage, even in the lacewing phase!
http://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Antlion/Myrmeleontidae%20family/.html
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_lacewings/Myrmeleontidae.htm

Book, The Mighty Ant-lion
http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2006/08/the_mighty_antlion.php

[Anthony Darby]

No ant-lions in the UK Mark. I think central France would be our nearest.

[Maggi Young]

No ant-lions in the UK Mark. I think central France would be our nearest.

That is quite near enough, thank you! 

[Arykana]

[Gerdk]

Here are some examples for ' Bees- and Birdhotels ' (especially for Armin)found today at the 'Naturschutzhof Nettetal ' near the Dutch border.
Especially the sparrows were enthusiastic about the tower!

Gerd

[Armin]

Hi Gerd,
thank you for showing this excellent samples of how every forumist easily and with only few effort can support endangered populations of wild solitary bees and birds.

[Gerdk]

Armin, you´re welcome - I'm glad you like the samples!

Gerd

[Maggi Young]

Some Forumists have commented to me about an email they have seen about this dolphin  pilot whale slaughter.... I was sent this video link too:
   .... horrible, brutal, deeply distressing.

[Anthony Darby]

These aren't dolphins but pilot whales that are being slaughtered in the Faeroe Islands. I'm afraid there are still some very primitive peoples out there. There is some poetic justice though, as the earthfirst website says: "Ironically, this practice, called grindadráp, is diminishing the population of 5,000 islanders.  Many of them get sick and die from high mercury levels in the whales.  Mentally retarded children are reportedly being born at alarmingly high rates".

[Maggi Young]

Thanks for the correction, Anthony.... I found it so horrible I wasn't looking closely enough to make sensible ID, but I realised as I read what you said that you are right.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for this Maggi. Asked to forward it to friends I felt maybe the Forum could reach the most people in the shortest time. Whether we, away from the scene can do anything, any more than we can about the slaughter "for scientific purposes" of whales in the Southern Ocean is problematical. But we certainly can't if we don't know about it.

Under the circumstances I can't feel sorry that the islanders involved are suffering.