AUTUMN WILDLIFE AND SCENERY FROM NOVEMBER 2007

[mark smyth]

I had stick insects when I was pre teens

[Anthony Darby]

Curiously, some stick insect eggs have evolved similar mechanisms to seeds by having a tasty 'titbit' attached to the operculum so ants drag them into their nests. Young tiaratum behave and look like demented ants when they hatch. I usually keep eggs as you would narcissus seed - on dry sand. They usually take several months to hatch. The species that Mark (probably) kept would be the Indian or laboratory Stick Insect (Carausius morosus). Males are as scarce as hen's teeth. One of the few species that is not usually fed on Bramble in the UK (preferring Privet or Ivy). It was new to Science about 100 years ago.

[Lesley Cox]

I had stick insects when I was pre teens

So - I'm a late developer.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

21 isn't far past your teens, so you're not that late!! 

[Lesley Cox]

Well Paul, that's certainly true. But I'm really 39. Have been, for years.

[Lesley Cox]

I've had a short email conversation with a nice gentleman in Landcare Research, name of Thomas Buckley. I sent him a picture of Sticky, whose name, he tells me, is Niveaphasma annulata. Certainly the bands around her body are very prominent and obvious. I shall now call her Nivea for short, after the hand cream I use daily.

[David Shaw]

Greylag geese are a pretty common sight for us but this, perhaps, is a pretty impressive skyfull one morning during the week. If I had  wider angle lense then I would have shown at least three times as many. The geese overnight in the neighbouring Findhorn Bay where the hunting 'gentlemen' shoot the hell out of them.

[ranunculus]

Another day, another set of autumnal images.
These photographs were captured (yesterday) much nearer to home than some of my previous essays.
Cowm reservoir is only ¾ of a mile from our house in Whitworth, Lancashire, but could be many miles away from the urban sprawl that is Rochdale (which is actually less than three miles away to the south west).
Cowm is now being used as the base for a water-ski centre for the disabled, but it’s past is steeped in an industrial history of mining and quarrying that has littered the surrounding moors with tunnels, screes, ruins and bogs.
This was my first foray (this year) onto the moors (beyond the dog and grandson walking circuit around the reservoir) and I was thrilled to find a host of fungi and other photo opportunities less than a mile from the parking area at the head of the lake.
There was a tree that had taken a lightning strike in the past couple of years; the jawbone of  a sheep enveloped in fungi; an infinity pool created many years before such an idea had even been conceived and reflections in the reservoir that I had never witnessed before.
I hope you enjoy these three batches of images and that you may be inspired to seek out similar photo opportunities in your own neck of the woods?

[ranunculus]

Batch two from Cowm reservoir....

[ranunculus]

Batch three from Cowm reservoir.......  Please enjoy the reflections if nothing else.

[Maggi Young]

What a lovely place, Cliff. Fabulous images, as ever..... a reflection is a wonderful thing, is it not?
Glad you had such a good day of weather to capture these vibrant photos and share them with us 

[Casalima]

Heavens, Cliff. Enjoy ain't in it!!

  

[annew]

I enjoyed every one Cliff, you have an artist's eye and the photographic skill to go with it.

[Lesley Cox]

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou. Stunning pictures and I endorse the others' comments. I especially like the way all the colours blend beautifully; the glorious browns in particular, of beech leaves, fungi and the little brown duck; the tree trunks and the stone trough with the ruined buildings and fences.

[Paul T]

Stunning pics as always Cliff...... but these are even better than normal.     Excellent!!