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dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 20 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    



more eyes than yeeer average bear

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 20 3:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

up close can be fun if nowt bites

gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8577
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 20 8:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

buzzy wrote:
gz wrote:
I found a bumble bee on the brick path in front of the polytunnel a couple of days ago.
I am wondering what killed it. Lack of food or water?


Could be starvation. Or cold. Or parasites.
I assume you have no bombocidal humans roaming you premises?

Henry

Definitely not!

buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Wed May 20, 20 10:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

dpack, you have this photography business well and truly sussed. I'm pretty certain your charming spider is the Zebra Spider (Salticus scenicus). Supposedly usually found on walls - is there one close to your mint?

It is alleged to be possible to get them to take aphids from a pair of fine forceps. Their eyes, as well as numerous, are very sharp. Somebody is watching you.

Henry

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu May 21, 20 7:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

A number of things might have killed your bumble bee, as Henry suggests. I would think most likely to be lack of food or cold. At the moment there will mainly be queens working until they get the colony established and the workers ready to get on with it, leaving the queen in the colony, so could be an early worker that has just come to the end of its life. Honey bee workers only have a life of a few weeks in summer, so would expect bumble bees to be perhaps a little longer but not much. The workers all die at the end of the season and leave the mated queen to overwinter in some warm nook somewhere to set up the nest again next year.

Dpack, your pictures of the spider are very good, but I must say I prefer spiders the right size. I am not scared of them in the normal way, but don't really like them that big.

buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 20 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

buzzy wrote:
dpack, you have this photography business well and truly sussed. I'm pretty certain your charming spider is the Zebra Spider (Salticus scenicus). Supposedly usually found on walls - is there one close to your mint?

It is alleged to be possible to get them to take aphids from a pair of fine forceps. Their eyes, as well as numerous, are very sharp. Somebody is watching you.

Henry


Best not try feeding them these chaps

https://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Stomaphis_wojciechowskii_Pale_giant_oak_aphid.htm

and take note, peeps. There are scary things out there. If you go down to the woods today...……….

Henry

wishus



Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 777
Location: Northampton, East Midlands
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 20 9:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Saw a lovely egret on my walk today!

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 20 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

buzzy wrote:
buzzy wrote:
dpack, you have this photography business well and truly sussed. I'm pretty certain your charming spider is the Zebra Spider (Salticus scenicus). Supposedly usually found on walls - is there one close to your mint?

It is alleged to be possible to get them to take aphids from a pair of fine forceps. Their eyes, as well as numerous, are very sharp. Somebody is watching you.

Henry


Best not try feeding them these chaps

https://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Stomaphis_wojciechowskii_Pale_giant_oak_aphid.htm

and take note, peeps. There are scary things out there. If you go down to the woods today...……….

Henry


gulp those aphids are huge and a bit different.

the zebras do live on/in the walls(the mint is on a window sill) , i am quite fond of them, no bother, fun to watch and they eat the mint aphids which only the most deranged sparrows do
(mind aphids are ok in a mint sauce but as an entrée they are a bit toothpasty)

re snaps , not yet but i try to improve as i go along

papping inverts is sort of ok, but for good snaps with ones that move a lot, i recon "hold the area, bait n wait for them" might give better images
a bit like fishing with a string

the big spiders that live in the woodshed are next on the list, this years have 3 homes i know of, 2 of which are ripe for snapping
i have an electro bat to catch flies to use as payment for the photoshoot, tweezers they would pull me in and wrap me up:lol:

fierce but relatively harmless as sheet web things go

the ones that live in the cracks of the shiplap on the big shed are a little more worrying, i am pretty sure i saw false widows last year
i am also pretty convinced it must have been one of those that bit me on the ings a few years ago, well up on the Schmidt sting pain index plus a few days of serious swelling etc from 2 tiny holes.
it stung briefly but not for long when it happened but nowt to see and it eased rapidly, a few hours later it was not unlike nasty but not dead rattlesnake bite snaps and was pretty unpleasant for nearly a week.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 20 3:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

wishus wrote:
Saw a lovely egret on my walk today!

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri May 22, 20 6:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We occasionally see egrets on one of our local rivers, and they are rather lovely.

I did some more flora surveying yesterday, and have now pretty well finished the compartment where we work. I will keep an eye out for some late developers that usually turn up, but not a bad haul for a plantation. I am hoping to manage one of the nearby subcompartments over a few charcoal firing days. Found more twayblade than I expected, which is good, and some of the open areas adjacent to the ride are making rather nice 'flower gardens' with the native flowers changing with the seasons.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 20 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

fledgling sparrows being brought out for their first restaurant meal are fun

re the woodshed spiders, this seems a bit harsh but waste not want not

i tazered mr chompsky's fly in the kitchen, took it outside and popped it into a well-placed sheet of web

less than ten seconds and a partly grown beast scampered out , subdued it further and took it inside for dinner

very promising for good snaps if i set up, hunt and feed with decent light

over a few months until her children eat her i might manage to get everything together at one time

buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 20 9:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Look what the cat brought in! Or at least was patting it on the floor in front of me yesterday afternoon.



The Giant (or Sabre) Ichneumon (Rhyssa persuasoria), an ectoparasite on larvae of the Giant Woodwasp (Urocerus gigas).

Don't have many pine trees around (only one Scots Pine in fact) so I'm guessing it is connected with the timber used to build our catio and fence.

This one is a mere five centimetres long - I have seen larger!

Henry

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 20 10:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

wow beasty

one of those surprised me while i was mending the back bedroom window box

the pine thing makes sense, i was making a stink with late victorian pine when it turned up and looked scarey

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 20 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    



this wee thing was having a snooze when i noticed it, it vogued very professionally.

and it did not bite or squirt me which is always a bonus with beetles

when it flew off it seemed to have a scarlet cape edging under its carapaces

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 20 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

ps what is it? is not as important as is it pretty? or doing something interesting? with the minibeasts what they do is the interesting bit

will it harm me? is also a consideration
i am curious, some of them are fierce
blind for a few days was interesting as a wildlife challenge

birdtown is a mix of childcare and diy at the mo
mr, mrs B and young bracket are all doing well, the sparrows have started bringing the kids to the restaurant
clarice pops in , sometimes with a chum

there was a small fancy thingy but i have no idea what it was

the bluetits pop in now and again

grin was about 2 days ago but passed by rather than worked the patch

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