Wildlife August 2013

[Diane Whitehead]

I regularly have deer in the garden, but haven't had a fawn in the yard before
It is surprising how she is able to get into places that adults never have, like
my supposedly deer-proof vegetable garden.  And because she has wriggled in
in an unexpected place, she can't remember where to get out.

Today I had the greenhouse door open just wide enough for the cat, so was
surprised when the fawn came in.  She tried to get out the far door, which
was closed, then threw herself at a window which didn't let her out either.
I was able to get around behind her so she moved towards the open door and
left before doing any damage to herself or the plants.

[Hoy]

I thought that before the month ends, I'd post a few wildlife pictures from a couple of weeks ago - trying out the new bridge camera bought for bird photography. No birds this time though!

Firstly a couple of photos of a Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus in Mallaig harbour - it would seem that this specimen has seen a few fights in his time, judging by the scars.
Then a male Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyanthigerum busy eating 'something' (hence the odd appearance around its mouth), and a Four-Spotted Chaser Libellua quadrimaculata both taken in the Trossachs on the next day.

Seals are nice to look at but I am not particularly fond of them, especially Phoca vitulina which takes all the fish at our summerhouse! The population has exploded the last years.

This one had to warm up a bit before it could take off! Aeschna caerula female.

edit by maggi to show relevance to comment on a July post

[Maggi Young]

More than the usual number of helicopters flying over here this Tuesday morning...... not I see where they are coming from.......

[Hillview croconut]

Hi,

I have posted this in another thread but thought some of the northern forumists might like to see a true Aussie animal.
He is a visitor who is not welcome inside the block but nice to see outside. He got stuck in my next door neighbour's chook pen and did a lot of bouncing around trying to work out how to get out! Its a Bennett's Wallaby or Red Necked Wallaby, one of only 3 large macropods that live in Tasmania.

Cheers, Marcus

[Hillview croconut]

PS I thought I'd share this little gem. I sell hellebores here in Tasmania and beyond. I had a call yesterday from a customer re-ordering some of the plants that she had already purchased only a few weeks before. When I asked her if everything was OK she replied, "Oh fine, except they were stolen by a Tasmanian Devil". To which I replied, the two-legged or the four legged kind? "The latter", she said, "a female has dug a den under our house and she nicked the hellebores, which were soaking in a bucket, for nesting material."

I don't know any more novel use for hellebores!

BTW for those who don't know, the Tasmanian Devil is the largest of the marsupial carnivores still extant and is endemic to Tasmania. It is now critically endangered due to a transmissible parasitic facial cancer decimating its ranks - another weird and rare disease almost as rare as the Devil itself.

Cheers, M

[Lori S.]

Ha, love the beady eyes on that criitter!  Thank you for sharing pix of the wildlife.

[Anthony Darby]

Isn't it August?

[Peter Maguire]

It can't be August in the UK, the sun's still shining here. 

[Roma]

I spotted this handsome caterpillar in the garden this evening.  Does anyone recognise it.

[Anthony Darby]

Looks like a buff tip (Phalera bucephala) caterpillar. Moth at rest looks like a birch twig - or a cigarette end.

[Roma]

Thanks, Anthony.  The only pictures I can find show the caterpillar from the top so the orange 'eyes' on the sides aren't visible.  It is still munching away on the little birch tree.

[Anthony Darby]

I think yours shows the best view of the caterpillar Roma. The "eyes" show the black breathing spiracles, which connect to a network of fine tracheae throughout the caterpillar.

[David Nicholson]

Aye right!

[Roma]

Didn't you study biology at school, David?

[David Nicholson]

Yes Roma, did a great deal of research round the back of the bike sheds, but none in the classroom