How to contact me

I've been away from the blog for a while simply because I've been busy with the web site.  My feedback page in the web site got hacked and was being used to send spam email.  Then I tried to make a feedback page with a captcha (sorry to anyone who doesn't understand all this - I wish I didn't have to learn it all, but I do).  Anyway after learning about captchas and making a feedback page with one and getting it to work (not easy for someone as useless as me) I read that the bots are now able to spam captchas too!  So, new idea.  If anyone wants to contact me about the bumblebee.org website they can do it through the blog.  I trust Google will be able to stop the spammers better than I can and this will mean I don't get scary emails from my web host threatening to remove my site forever and ever and ever (I exaggerate slightly).

So post any questions you have in the comments box below and I'll post them and answer them as best I can.  For me to answer your question it helps if you can let me know as much as poss., location, time, plant the animal was on, etc.

Male mine, male carpenter, female miner, menage a trois

The photograph above was sent in to the site by Allen H. in Tennessee in the USA.  To find out what's going on you'll just have to visit the Other bees page.

Happy New Year

Happy new year to everyone who reads this blog.  We are currently overweight from all the eating and drinking done over Christmas and New Year, so I skipped lunch today.  My dog refuses to skip lunch.   She is just 2 kilos overweight (I'm not letting on how much I am overweight, so don't ask) according to the vet, and assures me she is big boned, so there!

Last night I read a fascinating paper by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and George A Martin (not the Beatles George Martin, but you never know) called How to prevent other financial crises.  It is really good, and I was amazed that I understood it.  I found it while trying to get the correct title to Taleb's book Black Swan which I have just started.  Who'd have thought a few years ago I'd be reading such stuff?  Who'd have thought I'd care.  But I feel I have no choice.  I am terrified of ending up a bag lady after years of being careful and never getting into debt, and always saving so I'd have enough to retire on.  Now I sit and watch my hard earned savings dwindle in purchasing power because the government is debasing the currency, and not allowing failed businesses to fail, but giving them shedloads of money.  Why don't they give me shedloads of money?  I wouldn't hoard it up against the day when my bad debts do go bad (I don't have any) - which is what I believe the banks are doing.  I'd spread it around by buying good stuff from good businesses who employ tax-paying workers, who would have a huge chunk of it taken back by the govt.

Oh well, rant over. I'm off for a walk in the lanes.  It's fairly mild for the time of year, but cloudy, and the woods are still ankle deep in mud in places, so I don't venture far in, just far enough to watch the squirrels who torment my dog with fir cones.  She cannot understand why they don't want to come down and be chased, or chase her - she doesn't mind.  They see her teeth, and do not know that with my dog the worst that can happen is she will stand over you and bark until I come and tell her she's good.  I think all the hedgehogs in our woods must be deaf by now.  They just ignore her, but she has to tell me they are there, and I have to come and have a look.  I don't mind as a few years ago she found a young one that would never have made it through winter.  It lived in my greenhouse, under the staging, through the winter, and we let it out the following spring.  When we found it it was just 450 g, but it was over 750 g when we let it go.  It feasted on slugs and anything else it could catch between long naps.  I also gave it some dog food, berries, oatmeal and honey and mealworms.  I would have liked to have found out what sex it was, but didn't want it to get too used to me, so it always rolled up or scuttled away when it heard me.  The sun has just poked through a grey blanket of cloud so I'm off.

The coffee bean spider, Steatoda bipunctata

I have just added these photographs on the web site of Steatoda bipunctata, the Coffee bean spider.

I found it on a log that I had actually put into the stove.  I saw something move and hauled it out again, just in time.  I don't know how many times I've done this even though I do brush everything off the logs before I bring them in.  The spider was OK, and I recognised it immediately.  I've seen this one or another of the same species many times when I've gone to bring in logs from the wood pile.  I've tried to catch it, but as I always have on gloves, by the time I get them off it had disappeared.  So finally got one to photograph.  She's a female, and was very friendly.  She walked all over my hand and never attempted to bite, but she wouldn't stay still enough for me to photograph, so I put her in a jar, and went out for a walk.  When I came back she had settled down to make a small web, so I was able to take this photograph.  

I wanted to put her back in the wood pile, but the weather was so horrible that I kept her for another day before putting her back in another stack that will not be disturbed until at least the end of this year.  We are having a mild winter this year, so she should be OK, and who knows perhaps I'll disturb her or her young next year.

Bush cricket, Tettidoniidae

This is the Great green bush cricket, Tettigonia viridissima.  When we were in the Dordogne last month the grass was full of crickets, and this was the easiest one to catch.  They tended not to fly away, just to walk all over you and jump in short hops.  I could quite understand people making pets of them.  The smaller crickets were another matter; they were hard to catch, and did try to escape as soon as you opened your hands.

Back in Scotland we are having a dreadful summer, thank goodness we have had the Jubilee and the Olympics to cheer us up.  And didn't the olympics go well?  I think we all expected it to be a disaster, as we always do.  So it was wonderful that it was such a success, not just in wining so much, but more as the whole event itself.  I think we are all still a little bemused by it all, and wondering where we went right.  If only we could do other things just as well. Perhaps the Queen to take to parachuting a bit more often.  She's up here now, so she missed the closing ceremony.  It is a comforting feeling to know we have a queen who would rather be out in the rain and mud of the moors with her dogs than down in the lights and glory of London with the posh folk. 

Anyway no strawberry jam this year as the strawberries are either not ripening or going to a mouldy mush.  The potatoes so far have been good, and the lettuces too, but everything else has been a disaster.  In the Middle Ages we would be facing a famine.  

On a brighter note we will definitely not be cold this winter.  The old man who used to deliver our logs has retired, so we ordered some from another source.  Now the unit in which logs are delivered is a "load".  So we ordered 4 loads, as we still had a lot left over from last year.  We were a little surprised at the price of a "load", but had been warned by our old supplier that we might have to pay more.  So anyway the first load turned up and it was twice the size of the "load" of the previous supplier.  Consequently we have filled all our log storage and have some under tarpaulins.  What's the betting we are in for another mild winter?   

Well my dog is telling me in no uncertain terms that it is time to go out into the mist and wander round the muddy woods. This morning when we got to the top of the hill the mist was all around and it felt like we were on an island with vague shapes of land in the distance - a bit like a Chinese painting.  Mist feels lovely on the skin, but makes a right mess of your hair, and it turns my black dog into silver till she shakes it off.

Male scorpion fly

This is a male scorpion fly.  Apart from the genital capsule at the rear end (which gives it the common name of scorpion fly) it looks pretty much like the female scorpion fly.

This is a close up of the genital capsule.

Males are much more difficult to find than females.  I'm not sure why this is.  It could be that there are just fewer, or perhaps they are more wary, or maybe they do not live long after mating.  They are also more difficult to catch.

Octolasium cyaneum - an earthworm

This is Octolasium cyaneum, an earthworm that prefers wetter conditions.  Previously I had hardly ever seen this worm, but this summer I see loads of them on the road trying to find higher ground as they've been flooded out from the lower side of the road.  We have had more, and more constant rain than I can remember.  The worm normally lives on the side of the road that has a ditch running down it, but although the ditch has overflowed in some parts for a just few hours, it is just too wet for too long in other parts for this worm.  So it crosses the road to reach the higher, south facing bank.

Well it is summer, though you wouldn't know it by the temperature.  The birch leaves have stiffened up and are now a dark leathery green.  The bracken is knee high, and is trying to take over every edge it can making some paths impassable until the winter.  I step on the fronds that come up on the paths, but this is not nearly enough to keep them open.

Today I saw two male scorpion flies, but I didn't have my camera or a net, so all I could do was look at them.  I must make an effort to catch one and take a photograph for the web site.

Bombus pascuorum workers were busy in the field and woodland edge, but I haven't seen many in the garden, although all the other common bumblebees are out in force.  I am so glad to have a lot of Bombus hortorum on my viper's bugloss.  it is such a wonderful plant for them, and the flowers go on and on.  They will last at least until the lavender is in bloom, so hortorum will have plenty of nectar from my garden all through summer and until it gets colder.

Oh, my timer is pinging at me, that means by bread must be ready, so I'm off.

Pheasant nest

This is a photograph I took this morning of a pheasant's nest.  My dog found it about a week ago.  It is right next to the road behind a tussock of grass.  At first my dog wouldn't move from the spot, so I went to see what she'd found.  I couldn't see anything, so tried to drag her away, but she wouldn't budge, so I returned.  When I put my head over the tussock - it's on a bank about shoulder high - I got the fright of my life.  The pheasant gave out a screech and flew off into my face.  I saw some eggs, and knew what my dog was so interested in.

Anyway, for the next 3 days we walked past the nest.  My dog stops to have a sniff, but can't reach the nest, well she could, but doesn't.  She's very good at things like this.  Now that I know where it is I could just make out the tail of the pheasant, so we'd walk on.  However yesterday she wasn't on the nest.  I didn't think anything of it at the time, after all she has to feed herself.  But this morning she wasn't there again, so I decided to have a look.  It was full of eggs, but they were cold as I touched the top one.  So I imagine she has been killed.  The road is not busy, but it is just a few yards from a fairly busy road where drivers regularly drive at 60 mph, so no pheasant would stand a chance.  Pity about the eggs, but I don't know anything about pheasants.

I've been feeding a robin in the wood.  Again my dog found her nest on the ground - I was amazed where she's nested, but so far no-one else has found the nest.  We had about 10 days of solid rain and cold weather, so every day I'd drop off 6 mealworms for her.  Now we are back to having nice weather, and there are plenty of insects around, so she probably doesn't need my mealworms, but I'll carry on.  I usually get mealworms at this time of year for the insectivorous birds as we always have a bad patch of weather, and this just helps out a bit.

Direction of coiling (torsion) in snails

Just recently I've been getting a load of emails from students in the US using my snail page, I'm sure there are loads better pages around, so I don't know why they like mine. Perhaps it's the mating pics. Anyway I decided to clear something up, and that is how to tell the difference between dextral and sinistral coiling.  So I drew a diagram showing the difference as my written explanation wasn't very good.  And here it is.

I don't like the word sinistral as it comes from the same old word as sinister, and has negative meanings.  But is used for left-handed people, of which I am one.

Long absence

Sorry to anyone who has been following the drivel I write here.  I've just been so busy since Christmas that I haven't written anything here, but lots has been happening.
Santa brought me an iPad - lovely.

I discovered just why everyone is raving about Steig Larson's - don't know about the spelling there - Millenium Trilogy, and I've read the lot and seen one film.  They are definitely not the kind of books I normally read, but I found them riveting, and read them one after another.  They are so good that I imagine I will read them again sometime.

I also found out that it is poss. to download books from the local library on to the ipad - got the Millenium Trilogy that way.  Here in the UK they do not let you do this on to the Kindle, which is a shame as the Kindle is lighter and easier on the eye than a backlit screen.  Also the great boon of the Kindle is the battery life - the ipad cannot come anywhere near to competing with this.

However the ipad has apps galore.  I downloaded a really useful one recently called Slideshark.  It is great for giving talks when you need to show slides or short videos.  You can use it with Powerpoint presentations too.  So I didn't need to lug the vintage laptop along when I did a talk recently.

The bumblebees around here have been having a hard time with the weather.  We had an amazingly warm March, with temperatures over 20, then a foot of snow overnight and below zero.  So one afternoon it was over 20 and that very night we had a blizzard and woke up to frozen ponds and dead tomatoes in the greenhouse.  Luckily for the bumblebee queens that have survived - and there are many - the good weather made the fruit trees bloom early, so there is a lot of nectar and pollen around.

Also read a hilarious book by Dawn French called A Little bit Marvellous.  It is a very light book, and can be read in one sitting, but it is a really great way to pass what would otherwise be a few dull hours.  There are 2 very different teenagers in the book, and she has got them down to a T.  I am so glad I don't have to go through those agonies again.  When I look back on those years I was so influenced by fashion and fads, and what my peers thought of me.  I did and wore things that I really didn't like, but just went along with the herd.  I wish I'd had the strength of character to stick to what I liked.  Oh well, I suppose this is one of the few benefits of growing old.

Metellina segmentata or Meta segmentata, the Lesser garden spider, the Autumn spider

There is some confusion about the name of this spider, but that doesn't make it any less pretty.  It is supposed to be abundant, but this is the only one I have seen, although I imagine it is fairly well camouflaged, and it's web look a bit like the ordinary garden spider, so perhaps I have just missed it.

The photograph above is a close up of its eyes.  As spiders go it has fairly boring eyes as they are all pretty much the same size.

Lacewing larva and Ben Elton's Stark

Above and below are photographs of a green lacewing larva.  The white bits on its back are the sucked out husks of its prey - aphids or their close relatives the scale insect!  In the photograph above you can see one of its fearsome jaws.  The photograph below shows its rear end.  It was climbing up a clematis stem.  I didn't see any aphids on the clematis, but there is also a rose climbing up there too, and my roses do get their fair share of aphids.

I've become a great fan of Ben Elton's books after reading the First Casualty.  So I'm working my way back through his stuff.  I'm about half way through Stark.  The part I'm reading tells of a plot by some super-rich individuals operating as a cartel to sell off stocks, spook the market into crashing, to further spook the commodities market, and the sovereign wealth of countries.  The end result making everything cheaper for them to buy, and countries desperate for the money, so turning a blind eye into the cartel's purchase of some restricted materials - uranium for one.

This is just a part of the whole story, and I haven't finished the book yet, and dunno what the uranium is for.  It was written way back in 1989, but could have been written just a few years ago.  Scary stuff.

In the boom years of banking deals there were huge commissions made every time something was sold, and stuff was sliced and diced and resold again and again, as that became the most lucrative thing a banker could do - sell dodgy stuff to people who were using other people's money to buy the dodgy stuff.  With both seller and buyer creaming off a huge commission it was not in their best interests to enquire too deeply into just what they were buying/selling, and hey - they only hold it long enough to mix it with other dodgy stuff and resell it and rake in another whopping commission.

They must have known it couldn't go on forever, but the commission was paid as every deal was done, so why should they rock the boat?  And now the various governments who cannot possibly pay off the debt they've taken on on our behalf have decided the best way out is to debase the currencies thereby debasing the debt and inflating their way out of the hole.  In the process the industrious middle and working classes who have saved and worked all their life are watching - as yet passively - as their savings dwindle away to nothing, their pensions are chipped away at, taxes rise, services are cut or discontinued, and their very jobs and prospects of earning disappear. Revolutions have occurred for less.

Rant over.  I'm off to the snowy woods with a dog who doesn't care a fig for all this.  As long as food followed by a comfortable sleep, then a nice walk follow one another then all is right with the world.

Sweat bee Halictus rubicundus

 This is the sweat bee Halictus rubicundus.  I've just added these images to the Other bees pages.  When I first saw one I though it was a hoverfly, then a wasp.  It was only when I found one in the garden and caught it in my net and saw the legs that I knew she must be a bee.  Those back legs are just fantastic for carrying pollen.  I realise now that the ones I'd seen when out with my dog had been heavily laden with pollen, and it was that that made them so visible.

The weather is getting colder and windier by the day.  I have to light the log fire every day now, but it is nice to come home from a long walk in the woods to sit and doze by the fire.

The purple cow

I never saw a purple cow

I never hope to see one;

But I can tell you, anyhow,

I'd rather see than be one.

G Burgess.

Hoverfly that looks like Bombus pascuorum

This hoverfly was foraging in the woods along with Bombus pascuorum, and at first glance could easily be mistaken for it.  I'd seen it many times before, but had never managed to get a good photograph of it.  This is the best I could do.  However when I got home and tried to identify it I realised I hadn't taken a very good photograph of the vital parts that distinguish this species - it has orange antennae - most other hoverflies have black or dark brown antennae.  Anyway at least I've got a photograph of it.  I set the camera to zoom and stood well back.  Before I was setting it to close up, as I do for bumblebees.  Bumblebees are so tolerant and will let you get within a cm before showing any signs of anger.

Welsh wave Venusia cambrica

Just added this image to the Geometridae page.  I spotted this moth in a next to a woodland path one morning.  Luckily I was able to photograph it before it moved off.

I've finally managed to get my onion sets planted, and we've even had a few minutes of watery sunshine.  I have yet to succeed in growing onions to anything bigger than the size of a marble, so we'll see what these winter onions will do.  There would be nothing in that bed at this time of year anyway, so even if they are not so big, it will be a bonus.

Mesembrina meridiana, large fly with yellow markings on face

 This is Mesembrina meridiana, a large fly in the Muscidae (house flies) family.  It has very distinctive yellow markings on is face.

 The photograph below shows the sticky pads on its feet, and the two claws that will help it cling to almost any surface.

Eudonia mercurella - obscure but common moth

 I photographed this moth months ago - way back in the spring, but I couldn't identify it.  Finally I now know what it is.  I'd seen a few on the walls of the house early in the morning.  I like its striped legs.

I was going to plant garlic today, but didn't have the time and the weather was bad anyway.  I must get it in soon though.  Apparently garlic must have a cold spell if it is to do well.  Last year I put mine in in the spring, and it was pathetic.  Now I know why.

Tetrix denticulata

This is Tetrix denticulata.  I think it's a female, but I'm not sure.  I'd been trying to photograph this spider for ages.  She lives in the wall at the base of which I've been digging a border and planting.  I saw her many times, but never got a proper look as she scuttled back into the web as soon as there was any movement.  So I got the camera and tripod all set up, and them got on with some gardening.  Later, when I came back there she was sitting at the entrance to her web.  I think I have quite a few of this species in the wall.  I've seen bumblebees touch the edges of the web as they bask in the sun.  They are big enough to escape, though.

I'm going to plant up some pots of Freesia bulbs/corms tomorrow.  I know some say they can survive outside, but I'm not taking the chance.  This year I had them in a pot, but they were very disapointing as they flopped over everywhere.  However this time I am going to put a wire support or something around them to hold them up.  I do love the smell of Freesias.

I am still picking sweet peas, but only enough for a very small vase.  They took absolutely ages to get going this year, and only the ones facing south came to anything.  The ones facing east fizzled out very early on.

The cucumber spider

This stunning spider is a mature male Araniella curcubitina, commonly known as the cucumber spider.  I almost squashed him as he was crawling over the handle of my trowel when I went to pick it up.

His palps are swollen, so that means he is mature and on the hunt for a female to mate with.  I took him in and photographed him, then put him back in the greenhouse and left him to it.

I haven't seen any female cucumber spiders in there, however they do have small, untidy webs, so they could be at the back of the shelves.

I cannot get over how attractive this spider looks.  I got out the x10 lens to have an even better look, and he was very good and stayed still for a while.

I've just finished Kipling's The man who would be king.  I'd seen the film, but never read it before.  It was really good.  I might go back and read some more Kipling.  I used to devour his stuff when I was a kid, but I think it was all in the children's versions, and so probably cut and abridged.

Well Downton Abbey has finished.  I watched them all, and though I did thoroughly enjoy it I do think it was less good than the first series - but then that was a hard act to follow.