Monday 14 December 2015

Orange ladybirds and other things

I counted a total of 613 orange ladybirds hibernating in fence posts in Colinton Dell today. Before this week I'd only ever seen them in the metal fence posts by the steps up to Colinton Village, but Edinburgh Natural History Society (members of which are also counting the ladybirds when they see them!) had let me know there were also some in the wooden fence posts near the old railway tunnel, which is where I took these photos. I love how some of the ladybirds have found small cracks and indentations to hide in.




 The really odd thing is that I never see these ladybirds other when they're all gathered together like this!

I'm delighted to recently have had three four line poems published on Quatrain Fish : here, here and here!

and to have one of my robin photos included in the British Birdlovers Seasonal robin gallery (my robin is number 137 out of 138). 

Following on from yesterday's blog post about the Paris Climate Talks, here's an excellent paper from Local Futures about how localisation and system change could combat climate change. (I've now added this link to yesterday's post too).

7 comments:

Jenn Jilks said...

I love our lady beetles, except when they come indoors! They bite, too!

eileeninmd said...

Wow, it is neat to see the ladybirds all grouped together. Cool sight and photos. Happy Monday, enjoy your new week!

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Never seen anything like that ever! I might just have a sneaky look at likely spots however, in every sense!

sage said...

Congratulations on your published poems and photos. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the Michigan DNR (Dept of Natural Resources) about using some of the winter x-country ski scenes of mine from the Yankee Springs area. It was an honor to be selected.

Lowcarb team member said...

I've never seen so many of those yellow ladybirds ...
I went and had a look at the robin photo's.
Well done on both the photo and the poems.

All the best Jan

Caroline Gill said...

Those ladybirds are amazing! So unusual; I wonder if this variety is more common in the north ... Lovely photos, Juliet. And congratulations on your publication successes.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Hi Caroline, I just checked their distribution map http://www.ladybird-survey.org/species_desc.aspx?species=6455+60301 and it looks like they're less common up here! It's so odd, as I never see them except when they're grouped together like this! But they must go somewhere in the summer!