Thursday 30 July 2009

Home Thoughts from Abroad?

A short holiday in the south of Italy gives time for reflection, but I am glad to be able to see my email so that I don't have to wade through masses on return home.

The summer number of 'Beaversprite' is out and there is a scathing commentary in it on Daryl Guignon's report about salmon fisheries in Prince Edward Island: the one that has been taken up by the Tweed Foundation and other salmon fishing organizations in Scotland as evidence for their case that beavers' dams damage the prospects for the breeding success of Atlantic salmon.

I have asked Owen and Sharon Brown if they would put this piece on the BWW website as a stand alone file, so that it gets read by more than the membership of Beavers, Wetlands and Wildlife.






To the left is a spider I photographed on the table where we eat, read and draw. It rushes about and suddenly jumps across gaps. At the front of the spider are what look like arrays of sensors.

Who will tell me the name of this beast?













This ant was inspecting something that looks like the cast skin of some creature with a view to taking it away to its nest.













And these ants are trying to manoeuvre a breadcrumb to a more useful place from their pint of view.

1 comment:

  1. Regarding the spider, it's obviously a jumping spider, which narrows it down to only about 5000 possible suspects. #8D)

    Because of the white-haired pedipalps, my guess is that it's one of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menemerus (which has only six European variants that can only be found in the Mediterranean countries).

    Then again, maybe it isn't.

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