Palm Tree Trunk: detail of cross-section. What’s missing? There are no annual growth rings! Palms do not have that kind of secondary thickening. Instead, they have masses of tough bundles of fibres (dark brown spots) scattered throughout the trunk.Same trunk, showing a wider view. Outside is on left. City park, LecceWell this really is one of those images one captures once in a lifetime. Swift, at dusk, feeding its young, in a crack in the facade of the church of San Matteo, Lecce. The flash has revealed the eye of both the parent and the young bird. Swifts hardly ever land, even sleeping in the air, and they spend as little time as possible at the nest.Screaming group of swifts over Matera in the evening. In the early morning, many hundreds of swifts are scattered high in the sky above the town.
Lesser Kestrel, one of dozens in the sky over the 6000-year-old town of Matera. They live socially. The small thumb-winglets (in aeronautics they’d be called leading edge flaps, ornithologists call them alulae) are deployed to increase lift. They appear dark as they are in shadow. The belly is reddish, the wings pale and almost unmarked.
Social group of Lesser Kestrels in the air over Matera. (There are 16 birds in the image; you should be able to right-click and select something like ‘View image’ to see it enlarged)Lesser Kestrel on TV Aerial, Lecce. This species too spends all day in the air, so it was a treat to see one perched. They catch insects in the air or on the ground.
Lesser Kestrel with insect prey in its claws
Aestivating Snails, MateraSwallow atop farm cart inside cave-dwelling, MateraSwallow on nest with young
Ancient Olive Grove near Ostuni, Puglia. One tree here was measured at 1,400 years old. Mating Flower Beetles on Greater Pignut. The species has brown elytra, unlike the iridescent green elytra of the thick-kneed flower beetle familiar in northern Europe.The Olive Groves harbour an attractive flora of herbs and grasses, and a rich fauna of butterflies (here, Common Blue), grasshoppers, bugs and beetles. Birdlife includes Hoopoe, Serin, Swift, and Swallow and the occasional Kestrel, and plenty of Italian Sparrows.Scabious in Olive GroveMulleinStone Grasshopper: this marvellously camouflaged insect is practically invisible unless it moves. Its bold disruptive coloration effectively breaks up its outline and misleads the eye about its shape and shadow. Fallen fruits of grasses and vetchSpirit of the Olive Tree? A gnarled olive trunk resembling an ancient faceAnt-lion (Myrmeleontidae), another well-camouflaged insect. This is the adult; the larva lives in a burrow, where it traps ants in a conical pit by digging the sand away beneath them.Olive Grove pruning: neat rows of brash, and the occasional stack of logs. Ant Road across Olive Grove trackLarge Grasshopper rescued from swimming pool. I also saved a brown lizard but didn’t have the camera with me to record it. Painted Lady
Scarlet Darter
Limestone boulder handsomely lichened in orange, grey, black, and white
Passenger moth, Dysgonia algira. It was easy to see when it moved but not at all badly camouflaged among the limestone blocks of the field wall.
Spider-hunting wasp (Anoplius: Pompilidae) with much larger prey, which she dragged off to her burrow, paralysed but alive, for her young to live on until they pupateHouse Gecko on wall of old farmhouse (a Masseria)Italian Sparrow with food for nestlings, waiting for a moment to fly unobserved to the nest hole in the Masseria
Thick-kneed flower beetle (metallic iridescent green and gold) on Poppy (red, pink, orange, there are plenty of colours in there!, with violet stigmas)Crab Spider scarily camouflaged on Hogweed: whitish-green and bright red, curiouslyCaterpillar of Angle Shades moth, magnificent in bright green and turquoise. Its food plants include Bramble, Hazel, Hops, Birch, and Oak, all of which are found here.
The English seem unemotional … except for their passion for nature
