wildlife

[Véronique Macrelle]

Arnold : these photos are superb, I love it!

you are certainly right Tristan, this is much more likely, especially also because of the appendage towards the rear of the carapace.
but when I turned it over, the body was all under a slug, hence my questioning .. I did not manage to see any  foot.

my photo below is unfortunately not clear enough, it is taken when the beast was stuck to a jar.



 there are some freshwater chitons all the same, aren't there? tiny but present in the ditches. my husband, a biology teacher, sometimes takes water samples from the ditches to determine the very small animals with his pupils, and we observed a chiton there of a few millimeters.

[Leena]

European hare in the garden last week. It tries to dig something to eat from under snow, but there is so much snow, it is difficult for it. Lucky I have protected my apple trees and roses, otherwise it would eat them.

[Tristan_He]

Hi Veronique, there are no freshwater chitons either. I'd be interested to see what you find in freshwaters.

Those appendages look like honeydew secreting organs to attract ants. Maybe it's a scale insect of some kind? These lose their legs as adults so don't look very insectlike.

Best wishes, Tristan

[Tristan_He]

Leena, love the hare! We get them around here too, though I have never seen one in the garden (fortunately).

[cohan]

That's a lot of snow, Leena! We've had snow on the ground since mid-Oct, in places, but it has never got very deep, yet, this year... lots of snowshoe hares here, but luckily they are not usually interested in my garden! Sometimes they just hop past, or sit beside to eat dandelions...lol here is one from May 2015, it has not fully changed back to brown from winter white-- I have never photographed one fully white

[Leena]

Leena, love the hare! We get them around here too, though I have never seen one in the garden (fortunately).

Here we have them in the garden also, very common, but usually they do very little harm, except in winters and early spring when there is nothing else to eat. Then they eat crocuses and other early flowers, but they are not as bad as deer which do more harm to plants.

That's a lot of snow, Leena! We've had snow on the ground since mid-Oct, in places, but it has never got very deep, yet, this year... lots of snowshoe hares here, but luckily they are not usually interested in my garden! Sometimes they just hop past, or sit beside to eat dandelions...lol here is one from May 2015, it has not fully changed back to brown from winter white-- I have never photographed one fully white

Cohan, there is a lot of snow right now:(.
Your showshoe hare looks cuter than european hare:). There are also mountain hares (Lepus timidus) here, and they turn white in winter, but they are more rare, and never come to the garden. European hare is bigger and it has taken over our original mountain hare in many places and mountain hare is now more in northern Finland than here is south.

[Karaba]

Hi Veronique,
After some research on the web, I found ! It's a Syrphidae larva, genus Epistrophe. The two spikes are the posterior spiracles for respiration. It should pupate soon. The larva is usually eating aphids, so, a good ally in the garden.

[Tristan_He]

Definitely Yvain! Well done, didn't think of hoverflies.

[brianw]

Not sure what it is about-- I have a feeder normally used only in winter, but left out, so I expect the low temperatures and UV to keep it sanitary generally, but the 'clear' part is certainly cloudy, I think I've even had some that had opaque reservoir areas, so I don't see visibility being important-- mind you mine are the sort where the seed spills out of the reservoir at the bottom, and that is where the birds access it...

I eventually found out what most of the problem was/is. The internal spring that closes the feeder to squirrels weakens after a time, and the opening partially closes. Small birds easily give up and use the other feeder. I made a temporary eternal spring wire fix, but then acquired a new insert. It now behaves itself and although the birds now get choosy some days it is more random.. It is a good design but not ecologically sound if you have to replace the whole insert when it weakens. Just replacing (or adjusting) the spring would be better.

[cohan]

I eventually found out what most of the problem was/is. The internal spring that closes the feeder to squirrels weakens after a time, and the opening partially closes. Small birds easily give up and use the other feeder. I made a temporary eternal spring wire fix, but then acquired a new insert. It now behaves itself and although the birds now get choosy some days it is more random.. It is a good design but not ecologically sound if you have to replace the whole insert when it weakens. Just replacing (or adjusting) the spring would be better.

Ah, that makes more sense

[Hoy]

I have hares in the garden but these came by broad daylight and browsed crocus leaves and rhododendron buds!

[Leena]

Hoy, those are beautiful animals but so bad for plants here. Luckily we got a fence around the garden which helps keep the deer away but hares still come through it.

[brianw]

I protect all my shrubs and trees from debarking. They seem to like the scilla leaves at present and some cyclamen. One of the pair of Roe deer last week, as we went to bed, was very fat or pregnant ;-) A flock of 10 Red legged partridges most days recently are entertaining, but a bit twitchy if they see me. Did our best for the RSPB birdwatch today.

[Hoy]

Hoy, those are beautiful animals but so bad for plants here. Luckily we got a fence around the garden which helps keep the deer away but hares still come through it.

Leena, it is impractical and would also be expensive to build a fence around our garden. It is easier to protect some of the most valuable plants.

[Hoy]

I protect all my shrubs and trees from debarking. They seem to like the scilla leaves at present and some cyclamen. One of the pair of Roe deer last week, as we went to bed, was very fat or pregnant ;-) A flock of 10 Red legged partridges most days recently are entertaining, but a bit twitchy if they see me. Did our best for the RSPB birdwatch today.

I also protect some of the most valuable plants. A couple years ago the deer damaged a redwood that I hadn't protected. Fortunately the lower parts of the stem survived.