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A CINNAMON-WASHED Crane Fly rests on the garage door. Another is not so fortunate and is caught in a spider's web at the edge of the window.
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Nature Diary Rocks History Gallery Links Home Page
A CINNAMON-WASHED Crane Fly rests on the garage door. Another is not so fortunate and is caught in a spider's web at the edge of the window.
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After a few minutes sitting by the pond I realise that I'm not alone. A Frog rests motionless, camouflaged amongst the water plants. Seen from in front it has a pointed, almost bird-like face.
An Orb Spider waits at the centre of its web at the side of a lane, near a last flower of Field Scabious. As I lean over to try and see if it has the cross on its back which marks it as the Garden Spider Araneus diadematus I jostle the web slightly. The spider twangs its web, presumably to check where the disturbance is coming from, by jumping on the spot.
The marshy area in Thornhill Park is blooming with towers of Purple Loosestrife.
Under an Oak on Millbank Knopper Galls lie scattered. These hard knobbly galls provide a home for the larva of the gall wasp Andricus quercuscalcis. The wasp lays its egg in the developing acorn.
Half a Giant Puff-ball lies on the grass by the towpath. This one is the size of soup bowl, but they have been recorded as growing to five feet across. I haven't come across giant puff-balls in the valley for some years, and then they were growing amongst the grasses by a river-side path a mile or two downstream.