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5/Mar/25 - Week 9 of 52
Alright, starting off with a bit of an apology. Once again, I've managed to completely fuck myself over a bit and close the blog tab just before I was about to push this week's entry. From now on I'll probably start backing up these entries while I write them, but that's just how these things go.
That aside, fool's spring is now upon us, and all sorts of insect life is beginning to come out of diapause - not that I'm seeing much of it. Things are warming up though, and just yesterday, I saw my first bee of the year, beaten by a three day margin by my first wasp of the year, more to come on that one. Speaking of that bee, in my first draft I ended up using it as a segue into a bit of a rant about honeybees, which then led me down a rabbithole of weird agricultural and propaganda efforts from Nazi Germany. If you wanna hear about that, or why I get so ranty about honeybees, let me know in the comments, because I:
- Can't be bothered to rewrite this introduction any further after the trauma it put me through
and
- Am not sure how interaction and pushing blogs works on here, esp. with the mobile app
Notable Observations
Total Observations: 100
Most numerous species: Dunnock (3 observations)
Individual Interesting Observations
???
Monday (Feb 24th)
First things first, I have no clue what this is! I believe it to be some sort of fungal infection, all over a cultivated Birch tree. Hopefully I'll have an ID on it eventually, I'll have to leave an update if I do...
False Flat Backed Millipede (Nanogona polydesmoides)
Tuesday (Feb 25th)
Baby!!!!! Quite uncommon for an early juvenile millipede to get a species level ID, thanks iNat nerds
Common Whitlowgrass (Draba verna)
Saturday (Mar 1st)
Very fun common name to say! Can't wait to see these tiny flowers in full bloom, they absolutely blanket this patch.
Phaonia signata
Saturday (Mar 1st)
Okay, run of the mill muscoid fly, sure we've all seen one before... I do love this guy though! Check out that leg posture, like a backswimmer! Also a prime example of the worst part of fly and springtail ID, chaetotaxy. I leave that stuff to the nerds on iNat usually...
Oak Gall Wasp (Tribe Cynipini)
Saturday (Mar 1st)
And just across from that fly, was this guy! I've only ever seen them in their galls
Lophocolea sp.
Saturday (Mar 1st)
This might look like some weird alien antenna thing, but it's actually the fruiting body of the liverwort below it. Liverworts are like the weird child of lichens and flowering plants, which ended up being adopted by the moss nerds for some reason.
Pink-Footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus), a.k.a Francis
Saturday (Mar 1st)
Now this is a funny one! Francis here, as we've dubbed him, has been tagging along with this flock of Canada Geese since December now. A few people I've talked to have theorised that they might've gotten mixed up with the thousands of migratory geese of this Winter, and ended up with these permanently stationed geese for the time being. Can't wait to see what happens as the other's of the species make their way back to Greenland... Will Francis go with them?
Saturday (Mar 1st)
And here she is, wasp No. 1 for 2025. I'm sure I'll get at least a genus level ID for this one eventually, will leave a note in the comments when I do.
Liancalus virens
Saturday (Mar 1st)
Very colourful fly to finish off Saturday's walk. Long-Legged Flies are always quite pretty
Western Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus)
Sunday (Mar 2nd)
Beautiful velvet antler on this deer spotted through the shadows of the forest, spring is definitely here!!!
Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
Sunday (Mar 2nd)
Very pretty bird in the morning sun, a slightly more dull female just out of frame. Unfortunately, it's another introduced species, released en masse for grouse hunting. They seem to be a year-round fixture here now, established as a permanent resident for the time being.
Long-Tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
Sunday (Mar 2nd)
And to close off the week, one of the prettiest garden birds of this country. What a classic, very long tailed, very titty.
Breakdown
Goal Progress
All Spp. (189/1000) ▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱
Bird Spp. (48/100) ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱
Quite a pleasant week overall, even if it wasn't super busy. I was hoping to have some more trailcam footage of the young Badgers, but no luck! I might have something from another den site soon, so keep watch. To see all my observations for this week logged on iNaturalist, click here.
To see all of my observations for the year to date, click here.
What did you see this week? Let me know in the comments!
Comments
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Erah Mar
Yay, new roundup!! I really loved the "???" category to start things off. Great chuckle.
And the goose! Please let us know if he leaves with the flock.
Nothing special for observations this week, but *PLEASE* bend my ear about the honeybees.
I know you're american, so its a little more clearcut here for you, as honeybees are an introduced species kept almost entirely in captive, and as such are moreso free-roaming lifestock rather than wild animals. Honey often ends up being the face of the wider "Save The Bees" mantra, and keeping beehives appears to the untrained eye to be doing just that. But really, all that introduced honeybees do is take over resources that are already dwindling for actual endangered bee species, many of which are solitary and don't even live in colonies
Long story short, they're largely either a greenwashing marketing tactic, or a farm animal.
As for the nazi bees, the UK at one point did - and debatably still does - have native honeybee colonies. However, over the years they've been outcompeted by captive bees and hybridised with other subspecies of honeybee, in a similar way to how our remaining wildcats have hybridised with domestic cats to render the species practically extinct here. Now Germany faced a similar situation around the wartime period, with the native subspecies being replaced by beekeepers who opted for the more efficient eastern european subspecies. Seeing this, the nazi agriculture department began a push to revitalise the western european subspecies, as some grand way to push the "preservation of native german blood" and such other racist tropes. The nazis were even racist towards bees. Bit of a case of the means not even coming close to justifying the ends, and the policy was a failure anyway as the western european bees were subsequently largely killed off by disease, while their more resistant counterparts succeeded them as the dominant subspecies.
by Jaiii; ; Report
Damn! I never realized the honeybee rabbit hole of Western Europe was quite so intense!
Yeah, "save the bees" even over here feature honeybees as the agriculture saving golden child, and a lot of people don't really recognize or know that they are an introduced species. Hell, I didn't really, either until my 20s, and I certainly didn't realize how laughably inefficient they are in comparison to the native bees until my 30s.
If I ever end up owning land (we'll see, thank you USA govt) I want to populate it with as many native bees as I can possibly get. They're even safer to have around my people with allergies, because the ones around here are less likely to get irritated and sting.
I love honey, and bees, but not at such a steep expense to the balance of local environs.
by Erah Mar; ; Report
Check out this guy if you get chance, founder of the Bee Santuary of Ireland, effectively a giant probately owned nature reserve designated for just that purpose!
https://bsky.app/profile/thebeeguy.bsky.social
by Jaiii; ; Report
I'll check it out!! I love ecological restoration projects.
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by Erah Mar; ; Report
picmiz
what an awesome week!!! I really like that Lophocolea thingy
i like that deer thing too!
deer thing
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by Jaiii; ; Report