Autumn is coming

Now is the time for cobwebs and Crane flies. Go out early on a bright morning and look at the sunlight turning the dew on the cobwebs into rainbow colours. 

I was amazed to find so many active insects in the grass despite the morning chill. Crane flies (Daddy-long-legs) were out in their hundreds. They are around for a brief time, living for only two weeks, then die.

Autumn is coming. I'm looking forward to the first thick fog.

Caz and Spike get blown away

Hello. Posts have been a bit sporadic lately - flu hasn't helped this week. Spike (Andrea) and I are in the process of overhauling of our website and blog but will try to continue to talk to my loyal followers as we do it.

We had a stand at Wimbledon Common Autumn open day last Sunday. It was a bit of a disaster. We managed to assemble the gazebo on the mud and get our table up with all our stuff on it just as the wind started to pick up. Spike went off to get a much needed coffee. I kept pushing gazebo poles back into sockets as they popped out. Spike's delicately placed hop decorations started thrashing about and the sides of the tent started to balloon. I took the sides off in an effort to stop the whole thing ending up on the log pile behind us.

About 10 minutes later and before the event had even opened a massive gust of wind buckled the orange stand next to us and started throwing all our books onto the mud. We tried to weight everything down but we had to dismantle the tent as the poles kept coming unplugged and waving about. Then it started to rain. We sold two Spotter guides at a knock down price. We made £3. 

But the stand did look nice, had to show you that.

Owl Pellets and mouse bones

If you are sharp-eyed enough to find an owl pellet it's worth taking the time to prize open the furry mass and see what is inside. Quite often there are beetle wing cases. But if you're very lucky you might find the tiny jaw bone of a mouse like this one, which is only 15mm long. 

Spider season

This time of year is great for looking at spiders. They're all over the place, spinning webs and getting large and fat on flies. If you can watch one building a web it really is fascinating. Or, if you have a magnifying glass you can take a really good look. They are remarkable creatures.

The Feathered Gothic

Birch sawfly caterpillar

A very handsome caterpillar which feeds on Birch leaves in the summer. I'm going to keep an eye out for the actual sawfly which is apparently quite large and has yellow antennae and a white stripe across it's abdomen. They're not particularly common though so I may have trouble. 

Metallic beetle

I found this splendid beetle in the grass. It was quite large, about 2cm long, and its shiny body had a warm coppery sheen. My indispensable Collins guide to Insects tells me that it is a Calosoma inquisitor (I think). And they like to live in oak woods where they 

feed on caterpillars.