A roving report from Pam

Pam has recently returned from a weeks in Tunisia (it should have been two weeks but the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano delayed the holiday by a week) with her friend Marilyn.

Although she wasn't birding Pam did get a nice picture of a Laughing Dove taken in the hotel.

One of the interesting place they visited was El Djem or the Roman town of Thysdrus, which is home to some of the most impressive Roman remains in Africa. El Djem is famous for its amphitheatre, capable of seating 35,000 spectators. Only Rome's Colosseum (about 45,000 spectators) and the ruined theatre of Capua are larger.

I was fascinated by the pictures of the mosaics that are displayed in the museum. These were used to decorate luxury “villas” of the Roman city of Thysdrus, and are regarded as some of the most awe-inspiring relics of all Roman antiques. I like this stylised Owl, but it is the other birds round it that provide an identification quiz. Send your answers on a postcard (or in the comments below).

There are quite a number of different birds on the piece as well, I can recognise a Heron and I think there's a Bustard and a Partridge but what else?

Did they make a Maltese Cross?

Using the back roads to get from Samphire Hoe to Lydden I came across a building I had either not noticed or not passed before. I looked interesting but unfortunately I was only able to look from the out side because it is all locked up. St John's Commandery is an English Heritage site and it is possible to view by prior arrangement.

Their WEB site gives the following information:

"The flint-walled 13th-century chapel and hall of a 'Commandery' of Knights Hospitallers, later converted into a farmhouse. It has a remarkable medieval crown post roof and 16th-century ceilings with moulded beams."

The Order of the Knights Hospitaller (or the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem or the Knights of Rhodes, or latter, the Knights of Malta) has its origins in Jerusalem.

The Knights Hospitaller Order was founded by Italian merchants from Amalfi. In the second half of the 11th Century, Jerusalem was in the hands of the Sultan of Egypt. Through their business and influence, the Amalfitans obtained the permission to build a house near the Holy Sepulchre. The house was to serve as a shelter for the Western pilgrims. They also built a convent for the Benedictine monks, and a church dedicated to Saint Mary.

The History of the Knights Hospitaller is fascinating and a google book by Dr Helen Nicholson of Cardiff University fills in much of the history, and may be helps give an insight into the current political divide in the middle east.

I am always excited to get a new book, and the Dragonflies of Kent by John and Gill Brooks is no exception. This is a follow up to their original Kent Field Club publication and now has added a mass of new information and some wonderful illustrations. Kent has some forty species on the County List and this is an invaluable guide to their distribution and natural history. A wonderful piece of work by two dedicated naturalists.

Choose your neighbours carefully

As Pam has been away on holiday and was due to return today I thought that it would be a good idea to put a few things in the cupboard, so it was off to Tesco's.

As I parked I watch this herring Gull pull a bag of rubbish out of a bin. I got out and put it back in the bin, as deep and pushed down as well as I could.

Within seconds the Gull was back on the bin and tugging at the bag. I was amazed at how strong the gull was, as the bin contained a couple of quite heavy bits and pieces.

It had a couple of goes at lifting it out, but showed a great deal of determination, it wasn't about to be beaten.

With a last effort it took off still holding onto the bag and it was out and clear of the bin once again.

How many times have you seen rubbish scattered about the place and wondered why people can't be bothered to put it in a bin? Well perhaps they did!

Yesterday I said the Early Spider Orchids weren't out on the cliff top. In the last twenty four hours four or five have put their heads over the parapet and I think that the one above was the largest, standing a magnificent 5cm.

I also mentioned that the natural pollinator was the Early Mining Bee, Andrena haemorrhoa, and I was lucky enough to see one of them doing it's duty. Even "spikes" where the flowers were not out properly and virtually touching the ground seemed to be irresistible to this little bee.

Just below this point on the cliffs a pair of Herring Gulls have built a nest. I must have missed the arrival of the egg or eggs as today was the first time I've noticed one of them sitting on the nest.

Just below and to their left there is a hole in the cliff and while I was watching the owner arrived.

I'm not sure how wise this pair of jackdaws have been. I know that they are normally capable of looking after themselves, but Herring Gulls are formidable predators. I will be unwise, when the time comes for a young Jackdaw to sit around near the entrance to it's cave or it will became a tasty snack for a young Herring Gull!

Whole lot of shaking going on

The Early Spider Orchids on the cliff top at St Margaret's are just about above ground. There are small flower heads forming, but so far they have been reluctant to come out and face the world, and with the weather as it is who can blame them.

Even at Samphire Hoe, which hosts one of the largest colonies, of this little gem, in the country they are struggling to look their best. It is still quite early, but so far the numbers look a bit lower than I've seen before and I failed to find one that was truely magnificent, that is one with six or seven flowers.

Early Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes)

Individual flowers are pollinated by a solitary bee, Andrena nigroaenea, the pollinia attaching to the head of the bee as it attempts "pseudo-copulation". It seems that only a small proportion (up to 25%) are pollinated in this way and that self pollination may be the most successful method.

The Early Spider Orchids will continue to flower throughout May, providing the weather is OK and hopefully there are a lot more to come. According to Anne and Simon Harrap in "Orchids of Britain and Ireland" individual plants rarely live longer than three years, so self seeding is an important method of propagation.

The downs above Lydden may not have Early Spider Orchids but at this time of year another early Orchid can be found.

Much of the chalk grassland has a healthy covering off Cowslips at the moment. This has become an iconic symbol of British flora in the last few years.

Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula)

This is a much more widespread orchid and is found throughout the UK, and here on the downs the spikes of purple flowers, popping up among the Cowslips are a common sight.

In Harrap and Harrap it is said that they are pollinated by Bumblebees, and I was pleased to find a demonstration of this as I was looking at them today. The wind made flower photography a bit of a lottery today. It is worth taking a perspex wind shield to help mitigate the movement the wind causes, but of course I forgot to put it in the car. Well to be honest I hadn't realised how windy it was until I was trying to get a picture without too much shaking, on this windswept hill side!

Pond Life

I suppose that being a bank holiday it shouldn't have been a shock that today's weather was dreadful. The garden needed the rain anyway.

I did had a look at the pond and as well as the Common Newts that featured a couple of days ago I was pleased to find this Great Diving Beetle(Dytiscus marginalis). The wing cases, elytra, are ridged in this beetle, which means that it is a female. The elytra of the male beetle are smooth.

The adults and larvae of this beetle are voracious predators, their prey can include fish and tadpoles. They periodically swim to the surface in order to take in air. Adults often fly at night, and this is the way they populate new ponds and gravel pits.

There are still some tadpoles in the pond, in the cool weather it is difficult to know how many as they stay deeper in the pond. It will be interesting to see how many small frogs emerge from the pond later.

Don't Touch - you have been warned!

A walk along the cliffs to Fan Bay started in bright sunshine and at times it was really quite warm, which made me wonder why most of the bank holiday visitors were dressed in layer upon layer of winter clothing?

I did get a quick glimpse of a Raven flying away from me, towards Dover, but once it had disappeared from view that was the last I saw of it today.

At Fan Bay two things were apparent. First, despite their somewhat slow arrival there are now loads of Whitethroats about. I could hear three singing within about fifty yards as I sat watching the Gulls and Fulmars from the top of the hollow. The second thing that I noticed was the large number of Brown-tail moth caterpillars there are, covering the hawthorn bushes as their leaves emerge. I'm sure we will be reading in the papers, again this year, that there is a plague of these caterpillars. They are to be avoided as they can cause quite nasty skin rashes. Dover District Council even has a WEB page about the control of this "pest".

Although the nearest Whitethroat was feeding in a bush full of these caterpillars it didn't go near them, instead finding rather more palatable caterpillars or grubs on the leaves.

While I was watching the Whitethroats this attractive little moth landed in front of me. I didn't have to move to get it's photograph. It is a male Common Heath Moth and is one of a group of day flying moths that can be found alongside the grassland butterflies, such as Skippers that can be found on the cliff top.

On the 7th May last year I lifted up and old metal notice and found a fantastic male Slow Worm. This year I was a week earlier, but lifting the same lump of metal there was an reasonably large Slow Worm underneath, warming up in the radiated heat. This one was much duller and may be it was a younger one or a female. Slow Worms are legless lizards and their main food is slugs and worms. In gardens they are often found in compost heaps. Although they look like snakes there are several differences. Unlike snakes they have eyelids, and if handled they can shed their tails as a defence mechanism, so they should either be left alone or handled with great care if you need to move one when digging out your compost.