Plume de Ville
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From day to day.
October 2008
October 2
Not yet
ripe, nor bountiful the sunflower; but it pleases and the great tit
which tried
it with pleasure. It is not very well positioned for the photo but hey,
I've
let it grown where it planted itself.
3 October
It
is grey,
cold, rainy, windy, just autumn for short.
And then, voila the sun, a Sympetrum (striped) big smile before you can
see a
new one next June.
We
can
still meet them until late October, but wait for sunshine. (September
26, Vincennes)
6 October
Springy!
Autumn works
on the balcony.
In my passage beside the impatiens, the mature impatiens capsule snaps
at the
slightest contact, projecting its seeds far from the plant.
I like to see snap the capsules when I pass.
The result? This strange twist, the capsule wrapped on itself.
The impatiens will reseed everywhere and particularly likes the
substrate
orchids. Seed stayed in pots, always germinate during the winter.
Winter flowers
granted. Attention to cut and remove them from time to time because the
feet
can become very big and bulky in the small pots of orchids. But the
result is
nice.
The sun on this
Saturday prompted me to gardening. I removed most of the annuals, yet
in bloom,
but cool and even cold weather made me turn already the page of the
summer.
Cleaning, pruning, preparation pots for bulbs and pots that shall be
protected
this winter, as the newcomer of the year, leadwort. Rearrangement of
pots. The
sedums are still in bloom, and skimmias and small holly installed last
fall and
have provided a little colour in winter, are full of buds. It remains
for me to
visit the garden centres in search for additional plants that I will
host this
year for the autumn. I like to spend a lot of time choosing bulbs and
plants.
Disturbed
by the bustle a Harlequin ladybird
flies off.
At this time of year they look for a sheltered place to winter.
I've seen this year that some Harlequins
on the balcony, no indigenous ones.
They continue their progression: repartition chart of
the Observatoire
Permanent,
About feathers.
Just now, a
dozen greenfinches flew in group in the garden. This is the time of
gatherings.
They come often to drink on the balcony.
Yesterday evening around 18:30, return of great starlings flocks flying
from
one terrace to another. They were quite a lot last night.
The sunflower head is still not finished and blue and great tits visit
it regularly.
8 October
The bugs spot.
This agile
dancer? The hoverfly (Sphaerophoria
scripta).
Called porte-plume
(pen-holder) in French. The long male abdomen and drawing at the tip of
its
abdomen gave his name. The female has a wider abdomen. This Hoverfly is
very
common but this is the first time we see it.
051008
A visitor
in red livery.
At
first, I
took it for a firebug but its colour is duller its spots are different.
After search it is, perhaps, a Arocatus roeselii?
(Lygéidé).
It is a bug that lives under the bark or alder tree or plane tree.
(No, I haven't planted any of them on my balcony!)
240908
In the series ... What happened to them?
In
early
July I was interested in those spiral
galls on our
poplar.
A few days ago I picked up on the balcony, a yellow leaf of our poplar
with its
gall on the petiole and I returned inside to watch closely. I did not
have the
time to do it and I somehow forgot the leaf on the desk. 24 hours later
it recalled
itself to my attention! Sortie of the entire family of "Pemphigus
spirothecae" in its autumn winged version ... and therefore visiting
without
concern their new (and warm) territory!
The body of aphids is 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm in full (including the wings).
The
picture is not very good, the lighting is poor.
13 October
Beautiful
and sunny the last recent days.
Small
and beautiful blue tits.
They
were six of them together on Saturday morning! Hard to count all those
jittering
little yellow balls.
A
gang of six, busily exploring the poplar (looking for aphids?) and
chasing
each other.
I thought
the sunflower stripped of all its seeds, and that the rest will not
ripe, then
I supplied the sunflower seeds feeder.
But a new
round of seeds has matured, quickly found by the great tit which seems
to like to reap them on the flower.
And when I
say reap... it detaches each seed, look at it and drops it! Wasteful!
Are the
seeds too small for its liking? But it is not lost for the entire
world: attentive
sparrows wait below their lunch to be served. Curiously they never
tried to help
themselves.
This
is the
mushrooms time.
Like
last year, I have my little "harvest" under the tree. Well, just
photographic harvest.
I
still do not know which they are. I do not know enough about mushrooms,
they
are hard to identify.
[Talking about
mushrooms, every year, I attend at this season the mushrooms
exhibitions. They
are numerous at this time. This week, in Paris, from 15 to 19 October
2008,
there is an exhibition of fresh mushrooms at the Parc Floral de Paris. You can take, touch, smell and
even
taste (well that's for you to decide) the samples gathered and
identified by competent
amateurs.]
16 October
Un matin au Parc Floral.
October
and
its fresh mists of early morning.
The owner must
be still under the quilt, leaving us admire its iridescent
canvas.
Him, well
awake, sangs.
Robin sings, sings ... (well, it is normally the nightingale, but this one sang with all his heart...).
5 grams!
Chasing each other,
never at rest, hidden in a large bush, just the time to see them
crossing a
lane from a bush to another. This one posed a split second.
The picture is very bad but this is the first time that I can have a
semblance
of its silhouette.
Many
blue
tits, great tits and 6 goldfinches to complete the picture of sparrows
this morning.
20 October
He
walked quietly
this afternoon, undisturbed by the biped, bicycles and dogs that
enjoyed the
autumnal sun in the Bois de Vincennes.
Common pheasant. It
is also called ... "faisan
de chasse" (hunting
pheasant) in France!
I hope that it will just keep its other lovely name of "faisan
des bois" (Wood Pheasant)!
Common pheasant. [Phasianus colchicus -
Galliformes Phasianidés-]
21 October
Autumn dress
for the balcony.
Last
Thursday, a new race of sparrows. I could not see what species was the
attacker
because he stopped short before reaching the balcony. I saw him get
away
quickly.
Saturday while gardening, just above me perched what I take first for great tit because of its large black bib.
Less vivid colours, below more beige than yellow and smaller. For the first time, it is a coal tit visit. This is the time of migration and are more numerous at this time. It is, in any event, his first appearance on the terrace.
Small blue regularly, often as a pair.
Sheltered
in a pot of orchids that I take indoors, a bug, perhaps of the family
of Anthocoridae
(?), "flowers bugs" (and I stop here).
She
had companions!
Predators,
they prey on aphids, mealy bugs, thrips, and acarids.
They are about 4-5mm long.
23 October
You must
explain everything!
This great tit showed us very successfully what she wanted and what we should
do. She perched on a tree branch nearby, began to flutter above our heads, perched
again, turning its head right and left looking at us. Then other grazing flights
and it's done.
OK, they eventually understood! Ha! It's hazelnut, I like also sunflower seeds,
you know ... promised for the next stroll.
101008
This nice
meeting happened during a stroll in the Parc de Sceaux.
[Near Paris
(10km), park from late seventeenth century designed by Le Nôtre, is a large
park of 1,8 km². Castle (from 19th, the castle of origin no longer exists),
ponds and a beautiful wooded area (trees replanted since 1923, about fifty
species are present) with protected natural areas and a very nice flora and
fauna.]
27 October
Rain and coolness.
Nest box: for
the first time a blue tit hang on the door for a first glance.
No picture,
I was just besides to move the Masdevallia indoors! Decidedly, the tits seem to
like gardening.
This beautiful miniature from tropical American is a good undergrowth orchid;
it likes moisture and a fairly constant (12-18 °) cool temperature. For two
months, as the weather is cooler, it was continuously covered with flowers and
buttons. But few degrees over freezing expected for this week may be not enough
for her and better enjoy it indoors.
Several
starlings flights at the day's end.
29 October
This morning mist, greyness, cold (3°C), then a little warm colour...
Red squirrel.
[Sciurus
vulgaris. -Sciuridae-]
"sciurus",
(scūriolus) derived from two Greek words: "skia" which means shade, and "Oura" meaning tail.
A little nibbling
and the remaining is quickly hidden.
Most often without much research for a suitable site, usually a few paces away.
Some minutes later, as if it had forgotten something, it returns to the hiding
place, digs out the hazelnut and bury it a few steps further. The hole is not
deep, it covers all with leaves.
This is the
Siberian Chipmunk. It
also participates to the feast. But I suspect it of stealing already hidden
goods. Curiously it is more shy, it doesn't approaches people.
Appreciated
as a small pet, it has become almost common in suburban France forests.
Released into the wild (again!), it adapted well and we see populations around
large cities.
The
squirrel is a loner on its territory. And meetings are often lively. Dressed
tails, acute whinings,
the two protagonists gauge the other, and then return quickly to their own business.
In alert, the squirrel flattens against the tree trunk as it stands, hung by its hind legs returned, it may flee at high speed in any direction, right and the left, up or down.
Still a last one.
In England it is rare, it is rivaled by the American grey squirrel.
[Ph. le 101008]
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cureuil_roux
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamias_sibiricus
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Sciurus_vulgaris.ht
