Wildlife January 2012

[Lesley Cox]

I had a piece of Brie from the market last week, which literally dripped between my fingers as I ate it. Scrumptious. And I've found a new fetta (cow's milk though) made by Fonterra, our big dairy company, marketed in little packets and called "Creamy Fetta." I've been cutting off chunks and scoffing them any time through the day. It really is delicious.

[SueStephens]

 Well...I guess a really rip Brie can be classified as wildlife?

[Hoy]

Well...I guess a really rip Brie can be classified as wildlife?

Once in France I bought a really ripe cheese - cant remember which one but it was somewhat fluid) - and put it in my suitcase. When I got home I had to wash all my clothes several times. We had to throw he suitcase.

And the cheese? It was hung outside on the clothesline. I had it for myself but ate all of it! Very tasty

The wildlife here was my family when they smelled the cheese

[Lesley Cox]

I have a piece of a well developed blue veined cheese (a NZ var just sold, and for many, many years as "Blue Vein") which could walk out of the fridge any day soon.

[Roma]

I see woodpeckers here all the time but this is the first time I've photographed one.  It flew away when I raised the camera but came back with a cone in its beak and as far as I could see stuck it in the dead tree to peck out the seeds.

[fermi de Sousa]

Portuguese "Mountain Cheese" is my new favourite after having it last May at my aunt's in Coimbra! A round cheese with a thick rind which you peel off the top to scoop out the soft, almost molten centre with chunks of bread!

Getting back to wildlife!- here's a little critter which was hiding in a rose bush

Some sort of brown preying mantis but not easy to photograph amongst the foliage.
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Hard to tell what's mantis and what's rose bush.

[mark smyth]

I've been looking at Fermi's photo and thought the subject was the mantis' head it then suddenly dawned on me the subject included the brown twigs

[PDJ]

I've been looking at Fermi's photo and thought the subject was the mantis' head it then suddenly dawned on me the subject included the brown twigs

The brown twigs? surely there the rest of its body?

[fermi de Sousa]

Hard to tell what's mantis and what's rose bush.

The mantis is brown and in focus! Also, I should've mentioned it was hanging upside down
cheers
fermi

[mark smyth]

Yes PDJ I should have worded it better. I was thinking the twigs, the mantis' body and legs, didnt look like very much like rose stems

[Maggi Young]

Hard to tell what's mantis and what's rose bush.

The mantis is brown and in focus! Also, I should've mentioned it was hanging upside down
cheers
fermi

I'm trying not to think about any of it........

[jomowi]

Well...I guess a really rip Brie can be classified as wildlife?

Why not? Cheesemaking depends on a bacterial process, even if the inoculation is a "cultured" one.  Many years ago, my boss told a story about her cleaning lady (whose husband had spent time in the army in N. Africa).  On being asked to clean out the fridge which contained a rather ripe cheese whose variety I can't remember, she came out with: "What on earth have you got in your fridge that smells like a mixture of camel s**t and army socks!"

[mark smyth]

Last Sunday I was out on a gull chase and saw only Glaucous, Iceland and Ring-billed among the local population. A stunning little gull was found today - Ross's Gull
http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?mode=search&sp=61044&rty=0&r=1&v=0&off=171497

[Lesley Cox]

"What on earth have you got in your fridge that smells like a mixture of camel s**t and army socks!"

When I stayed with someone in Australia, he gave me a chunk of cheese to sniff at. I sniffed, we looked at each other and together, said "dirty socks." .