Jump to content

Nature notes

These nature notes pages feature wildlife seen on Honeyguide holidays. We hope they give insights into some favourites.

Keep an eye out for new 'nature notes' pages. Naturally, there is lots of information about nature everywhere on www.honeyguide.co.uk!


Mystery lily, Extremadura

It's a mystery. Can anyone identify this bug (below) and this flower (left)? More here.

Amazing armoured beetle or weevil in Extremadura, March 2010

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Crown daisies: for three years, a Mediterranean flower thrived in Norfolk.
How come? >

 

 

 

Crown daisy with 7-spot ladybird

crown daisy var. discolor

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

sombre bee orchid

Orchids are often centre stage on our Dordogne holiday, not least at our holiday base at Castang. Read more >

 

 

 

Sombre bee orchid Ophrys fusca

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A cuckoo's song in spring is a minor third. But this musical interval crops up elsewhere in nature too. Can you shed light on this mystery? Read more >

cuckoo
Cuckoo

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

brebis sheep

Brebis sheep. Our nature notes feature, for the first time, livestock. Rachel and Robin Hamilton look at how brebis sheep shape the landscape, wildlife and cuisine of the Cévennes. Read more >

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wallcreepers in Bulgaria.
How September has proved – perhaps surprisingly – good for this sometimes tricky-to-find bird.
Read more >

 

Right: wallcreeper in Trigrad gorge

wallcreeper

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Monarch on pride-of-Madeira

Monarch butterflies in Europe and South Africa Read more >

African monarch

Above: African monarch.
Left: Monarch on pride-of Madeira

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Beavers created this wonderful habitat in the celebrated primeval forest at Białowieża, Poland. Read more >

gnawed by beavers

flooded forest

 

Left: Evidence of beavers!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

froghopper

Red and black bugs often feature on holidays, and here's a selection.
Read more >

 

Left: Froghopper Cercopis vulnerata

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Painted ladies: 2009 was a bumper year for this gorgeous migrant butterfly.
Read more >

 

Right: painted lady on marguerite at home in Thunder Lane

painted lady

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lusitanian mirror orchid

Iberian orchids: trips in Spain and Portugal reminded me that the names of orchids change overtime and it can get quite confusing.

We hope this web page will help. Read more >.

 

 

Left: Lusitanian mirror orchid Ophrys vernixia

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Glanville fritillaries have fascinated me since I read in the Mitchell Beazley pocket guide that the species is named after Mrs Eleanor Glanville, a butterfly enthusiast of the late 17th/early 18th century "whose Will was contested on the grounds that nobody of sound mind would have such a hobby!"

Glanville fritillary

Read more >

Above: Glanville fritillary in the Dordogne

 

Index to Nature Notes pages. Scroll down to read a summary of what's on each page.

Wildlife mysteries

Crown daisies

Dordogne orchids

Minor third

Brebis sheep

Wallcreepers

Monarch butterflies

Beavers

Red and black bugs

Painted ladies

Iberian orchids

Glanville fritillary

 

Other special web pages:

Your South Africa

Lesvos bird books

Backing singers (not wildlife!)

Crete Bird Reports

More birds from Kruger National Park

Mammals at Addo Elephant National Park

Ten reasons to visit Menorca with Honeyguide

Białowieża National Park in Poland

Honeyguide moments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

woodcock orchid

Woodcock orchid in the Dordogne. More Dordogne orchids here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

which dragonfly?

Check out this dragonfly on our beavers page

Helping you enjoy wildlife – Helping you protect wildlife