A Walk to Divonne
pale tussock caterpillar (Calliteara pudibunda)
Summer has gone, Autumn is here. Trees are shedding leaves, flowers are fading fast, and the house-martins left a while ago. But as Jane points out in Urban Extension, sometimes there are new things to see in Autumn. I haven’t seen her special bee yet, though I’m keeping an eye on the ivy near my home. However, I have seen lots of other interesting things recently. Here’s a selection taken from a walk through the country lanes near Divonne two weeks ago.
At the top is a Pale Tussock moth caterpillar (Calliteara pudibunda). This guy was crossing the road, intent on going somewhere. I’ve never seen one of these before, but this must be the season for them, because we found another further on. They’re rather striking, the tufts make them look like a toothbrush!
There are still some flowers around, and yes, there are insects keen to visit them. This bee and the fly were just two of the more co-operative characters we encountered.
bee on purple flower
fly on flower
Autumn is, of course, a good time for fungi. I don’t know the names of any of these, maybe Winter Woman knows, she’s keen on fungi.
fungus among leaf-litter
fungus at base of tree
fungus on dead branch
Further on, there were plenty of other insects crossing the road. On the left is a forest bug (Pentatoma rufipes). On the right is a dragonfly, a ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum), who very obligingly stayed still long enough for me to take his photograph. That doesn’t happen often.
forest bug (Pentatoma rufipes)
ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)
great green bush cricket (Tettigonia viridissima)
Rhopalus subrufus
It’s not just insects out and about in the Autumn sunshine. I was rather lucky to get a shot of the lizard before he dived under cover. The frog did dive for cover, but then drifted out to take a look, and stayed still for the photos. Very kind of him!
lizard
frog
There’s still plenty of action on the plant front too. There are many flowers to be seen, even if they are mostly small and unspectacular by comparison with the competition in summer. These blue flowers are some of the largest still around. But even without flowers, there are some very pretty plants, like the Verbascum rosette. Elsewhere in our contryside, there are verbascum plants in their second year which still have some flowers left on them, bright against the brown of dying vegetation. Meanwhile, these first-year rosettes look very pretty in their own right.
blue flowers
verbascum rosette
Then there’s this old apple tree, which has sufferred badly in the late summer storms. Despite this, it’s still doing a good job of maturing its fruit, you can see there’s no shortage of them still on the tree. It’s clearly not giving up without a fight.
fallen apple tree
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Tags: Dweezeljazz, Pays de Gex, Verbascum Thapsus, Caterpillar, Cricket, Dragonfly, Frog, Fungi, Insects, Lizard, Moth, Wild flowers
October 18th, 2009 at 10:05
One of the children found one of the moth caterpillars in the garden at school the other day.
Now I shall be able to tell them what its called!
October 12th, 2010 at 12:25
What a great array of wildlife you have in your garden. I love your apple tree that isn’t giving up. I guess it has made collecting the apples easier – what a wonderful tree. Did it survive the winter? Your bee on purple flower looks like Bombus pascuorum (common carder bee). They are everywhere in my garden at the moment. Worth looking out for the Ivy Bees again this year… lots in Dorset this year.
October 12th, 2010 at 13:50
Hi Jane,
these photos weren’t taken in my garden, they’re on a walk from where I live to a nearby town. My ‘garden’ is just a patio, but with a few large pots and a lot of work I’ve had a great deal of wildlife there too, which is nice. The apple tree didn’t get the chance to survive, I suspect it ended up as firewood. There’s no trace of it left now.
I’ve been thinking about your Ivy bee again this autumn as the ivy starts to flower again. If I find any, I’ll be sure to post photos. I don’t know if they live near me, I guess I’ll find out! I didn’t know just how many varieties of bee there are until this year, I need to get myself a good guide and learn about them!
October 12th, 2010 at 14:35
What a shame that the apple tree wasn’t left. It looked wonderful. Look forward to seeing any pics of the ivy bee nr you. If you need a good book for bees (UK one I’m afraid) Bees of Surrey is good http://www.bwars.com/bees_of_surrey_book.htm (wasps of surrey has just come out – equally good http://www.surreywildlifegifts.org.uk/collections/frontpage/products/wasps-of-surrey ) Not sure about the European solitary bees I’m afraid – although I do know that you get a lot more than we get in the UK. I had a field day in France this year on holiday http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=37204824%40N05&q=france+bee&m=text saw some absolutely stunning bees! Jane
October 14th, 2010 at 20:51
Bees and Wasps of Surrey? Wow, those are niche books! I’ll have to do some homework and find out if they are valid for my neck of the woods.
Thanks for the link to your holiday photos. I now know that the huge SUV of a bee I saw a couple of months ago is probably a violet carpenter bee. You’re right, those things are big!
October 15th, 2010 at 11:26
It does sound very niche – but actually it’s a really good book for bees in general. We’re lucky because in Dorset we get very similar bees to Surrey! A good “all round” bee book (although only for UK Bumbles) is the little book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Field-Guide-Bumblebees-Britain-Ireland/dp/0954971310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287138233&sr=1-1 again… this won’t cover all the european bees. Just thought of a great place you can look for “european” bees. Nico lives in Belgium and is a bee expert http://www.flickr.com/photos/90408805@N00/ Happy hunting! Jane
October 16th, 2010 at 22:02
thanks again for the pointers, Jane, I shall certainly follow them up!