Thursday, June 05, 2008

biodiversity along the riverrim

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biodiversity (now that is a word to ponder the meaning of!) is important...over the past few days, these (and many other) different species have been noted along the riverrim.

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some are considered beautiful, others are not.

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there are good creatures, and oh, shall we say, undesirable creatures...and just like in the real world, they duke it out in the garden. Right now there is a battle going on between the Lovage and a red Astillbee...I try to look the other way and let them settle it peacefully if they can. Sometimes, I need to step in and protect the underdog....

This year, the flea beetles have been doing a number on the potatoes...

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but I have noticed that several small toads have moved into the patch, feasting on the flea beetles...I am reminded to take the good as well as the bad.

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Anyone care to take a guess at the names of the species in the photo's above?

To read more about biodiversity and what it means...here is a good link.

10 comments:

cindy said...

Looks like we both posted pics of red birds this am!!! I love the spinning shot of the yarn on the niddy on top of the pineapple crochet doily. It's lovely...............

Lisa at Greenbow said...

the only thing I know for sure is the Scarlet Tananger. It is a male. CAn't miss him. The snake is beautiful the wya you have pictured it. That bug in the ground...hmmmm, I just don't know. That is a beautiful picture of the flying insect too.

Kath said...

Being in the UK I've never seen any of your creatures but the flying insect looks sort of like a Lacewing - not sure if that's just a UK beastie or not!! Great shots none the less!

Anonymous said...

Surely you didn't stand that close to a live snake...? Hope that was a zoom lend shot. ;-)

Is the last one a mayfly? Caddis fly? It looks like something my father would fish with. ;-) Actually, so does the ugly one in the dirt... I think that's a helgrammite. (sp?)

Anonymous said...

er, zoom lens.

Sue said...

Nice pictures! Scarlet tanager, redbelly snake(?), hellgrammite, and mayfly.

vanessa said...

in florida we call them mayflies.

Judy said...

Scarlet tanager, earthsnake, hellgrammite and lacewing would be my guess. We have noticed different things down here too...don't know if this is good or bad....but yes some are beautiful.

Kristi aka Fiber Fool said...

I heard about mulching around the potatoes with salt marsh straw. I'm not sure if the salt is the main thing or if really thick straw mulch would work. We have the same trouble on our eggplant. They are so little I've lost at least one of the transplants to the damage. We'll see if any get big enough to survive and produce.

DeanB said...

Is that a northern water snake? There's a big pond right behind the building I work in, and I see them sometimes when I walk around it. Beautiful detail on the scales. I was looking at the UMass snake site www.umass.edu/nrec/snake_pit/index.html and it talks about scales being keeled or not; that picture shows what it means.

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