Autumn's Joy

An Autumn Poem:

This poem was inspired by a walk to my parents earlier this month.

Autumn returns, with rustling leaves,
birdsong drifts where summer left.
A jay glides past with nuts in its crop,
Caching food for colder weather.

Junk Bug

Is it an egg?……..Is it gall?........Is it a pupa?
No, it’s a Junk Bug.

As its Halloween tonight I thought we would delve into the eerie story of the Junk Bug.... 🎃 💀 🦇

 

It was early October, not a month to go looking for insects, the days are drawing shorter and the nights colder. But if you look carefully, you might find something eating aphids on an autumn afternoon. This was one such afternoon. I saw what looked like a speck of dirt on a leaf which needed closer inspection. My first thoughts were it was going to be a micro moth pupa, a gall, or an egg - it turned out to be none of them.

Strange Jelly Discovered!!!

Tree Snot – the intricate and often overlooked wonders of woodland life.

Sometimes when you go for a nature walk you go with a specific subject matter in mind such as listening to birds in spring, to catch insects on a warm summer day, particularly hoverflies; or as autumn draws-in search for galls and leaf miners, before the trees shed their leaves and the first frosts appear. During such a ramble I always keep an eye out for anything unusual, a natural history curiosity, something either observed behaviourally, or on this occasion a new species to add to my records.