Wildlife early 2009

[Anthony Darby]

The crows robbed one of our wood pigeon nests today. I saw one with a pigeon egg in its beak, so I suppose they'll start again somewhere else?

[cohan]

here are a few from my mother's day walk, i didn't do very well with these shots, will have to do better!-- first a 'something or other' dont even know where to look it up--sitting on a petasites flower, lens very close, didnt budge...
then several of the same type of caterpillar, they were spread out in the remains and beginning of the tall grass in one of the wet areaa where the petasites were..

[Mick McLoughlin]

Cohan
First one looks like a Crane fly ,or 'Daddy-long-legs' common name over here.

[Anthony Darby]

Yep, female crane fly - bad news as the larvae are the 'leather jackets' found in lawns and elsewhere in the garden.

[Lori S.]

We don't seem to experience any significant crane fly larvae damage to lawns in this area (the Canadian prairies, I mean)... at least, I have never heard of it occurring here...  Birds - crows, magpies, grackles, even starlings - seem to work over lawns; I assume they feed on cranefly larvae, among other things.

[Anthony Darby]

Nice to see the European starling is of some use to you Lori.

[Lori S.]

Well, what can I say?  I hope "our" Canada geese are of some use to you over there, keeping the lawns cropped down???

[cohan]

Cohan
First one looks like a Crane fly ,or 'Daddy-long-legs' common name over here.

thanks all for the id--anything long legged is called daddy long legs here, though especially the spider relatives more so than the fliers; this seemed larger to me than other long legged fliers i usually see...

this is not near my yard, its in a pasture/half wild area... never heard of leather jackets, so i guess its not a problem here... i dont really have a lawn, just some areas that are sort of mowed meadow, forest etc...lol..so i doubt a little damage would be noticed, but, per lori's answer--we have lots of birds all over the yard every day, not often starlings out here in the country;  crows we have lots of , though not often on the ground; fewer magpies than in the old days when the ravens were not around here; lots of robins and lots of smaller birds..
of course, its also very possible that the craneflies have insect predators here as well!!

[Ragged Robin]

Yep, female crane fly - bad news as the larvae are the 'leather jackets' found in lawns and elsewhere in the garden.

Woodpeckers are partial to leather jackets and they help to improve drainage in the lawn at the same time!

[Lesley Cox]

The Canada goose is a major crop pest in NZ and there is, I think, open season on them. They make good eating. I remember a friend who worked at Kew saying there was bad damage there too, and disgusting messes as well on the Kew lawns. Beautiful in flight yes, but we do lot love the Canada goose.

[cohan]

Yep, female crane fly - bad news as the larvae are the 'leather jackets' found in lawns and elsewhere in the garden.

Woodpeckers are partial to leather jackets and they help to improve drainage in the lawn at the same time!

we do have lots of woodpeckers, though i dont see them on the ground, and their cousins, flickers, which i do see on the ground occasionally..

[Ragged Robin]

Breathtaking in it's freshly hatched colours, this Swallowtail butterfly was attracted by the phlox in my rockery and stayed for long enough to capture it on camera in different positions...

The photo of the Swallowtail lava is from the web and happens to be from Valais 

[ranunculus]

Beautiful, Robin.

[Paul T]

Wow, what a striking butterfly (and caterpillar for that matter).  Thank.

[Lesley Cox]

Quite magnificent, and doesn't it know how to display itself.