People and Cats in Skiathos

Here a few pictorial shots from Skiathos. The streets and cafes are full of cats of every shape and colour, which add to the attractive architecture and the occasional dog. 

From Grey Rainy Stansted to Grey Skies in Skiathos

On the 12th May we left Stansted at 7.30 am for Skiathos in Greece. We had a few hours to spend in Skiathos before taking the ferry to Alonnisos, where we were to photograph flowers and insects. There sky was grey there but the light bright and the temperature warm. The streets are narrow and mopeds and motor bikes travel up and down them so conversation are often had at a distance. Next blog introduces some of the people and cats

Problems with Blogger

I am not able to upload images to my Blog at the moment (away in Greece for a week). Not sure if this is a Blogger problem or one with the Greek network but wanted folk to know that I am ok and you will get lots of images - especially cats and bugs when normal service is resumed.
Solved - for future reference need to direct ipv-4 connection to set server ip address 8.8.8.8

Southerly Winds and Hobbies etc Move On

Beautiful morning so a trip to Wicken Fen hoping for another feast of Hobbies and Terns to photograph. Just one Common Tern and a single Hobby were present but plenty of warblers including this glimpse of a Reed Warbler and lots of Whitethroats. Wondered if  pair of images are Lesser Whitethroat rather than the previous common Whitethroat.

Aphids - Advantages of Cloning versus Sex

The Blackfly and Greenfly (Aphids) are abundant in the garden at the moment. I attempted focus stacking (first photo) some on a red campion stalk. The stacked photo is not that successful photographically as they are very shiny and moving and so the stacking has accentuated the reflections. However, it has shown their amazing biology well. In most colonies, all the aphids are female. Without males, no energy is expended finding mates, courting, and the laying and incubation of eggs. Parthenogenesis, the development of unfertilised eggs, enables female aphids to give birth to live young as soon as they are adult - you can see one emerging in the first photo. Some of the females in these clones will have wings to disperse the colony.
 Parthenogenesis  produces clones of individuals very rapidly and this is obviously an advantage but aphid colonies do not go on reproducing themselves indefinitely. At a certain time clonal reproduction ceases and  males and egg-laying females appear, mate and produce fertilised eggs. You can see a male (winged) on the rose bud greenfly colony

The last two days were very cold and overcast in Cambridgeshire and this Four-spotted Chaser emerged on Monday morning and was still in the same position on Tuesday until mid afternoon when the wind turned more southerly giving a bit of warmth. The irises are full of exuvia -6 or 7 so far this year. 

Paxton Pits - Cute and Not so Cute subjects - Part One

At last a respite from the cold overcast days with some sunshine that brought out a cute baby rabbit and lots of insects. First the 'Flies'. Not seen quite so many Scorpion flies in a habitat - a lot of them females, also Dance fly and Lacewings. The Empis flies preferred a certain hedge to settle, the males having presented the female with her dinner to occupy her while mating. ending with a couple of Hovers

Macro in the Garden - Spiderlings and other Inhabitants

Garden Spiders spin a cocoon around their eggs in the autumn and after a few days guarding the nest the female dies and the spiderlings hatch in the spring. They spend their time till the first moult huddled together though they disperse rapidly if touched. The Cucumber spider was the same size -around 2 mm. This week we have had Broad-bodied and Four-spot Chasers hatch out from the pond.