Poisonous and related to black widow, but according to Frans, fear is not necessary

Every Sunday there is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast. Listen to it here:

This spider was in the attic, is it dangerous?
Gerben van de Louw sent me a photo of a spider he saw in the attic. He wondered if this spider was dangerous. The name of this spider is large steatoda. This is a relative of the black widow. By the way, leave out the ‘big’, because this spider is no bigger than a centimeter. The spider is poisonous, but not as poisonous as the black widow. It is clear that this spider did not originally occur in our region. It is not clear exactly when they entered Europe. You generally don’t see these spiders. They basically stick to their webs. In winter they naturally look for shelters. That could be at houses. In themselves these are excellent animals that catch many animals that are difficult for humans. In addition, the large steatoda is not aggressive in nature. This spider will therefore never actively attack a human. If you come across this spider, it is best to carefully put it outside.

Squirrel scratches the ground
Floor de Laat regularly sees a squirrel scratching the ground in her garden. She wonders if that squirrel is looking for hidden food. The answer is yes. For the winter, squirrels hide all kinds of food. They then stockpile walnuts or other nuts, pine cones and seeds. They do this in various places, on a lawn (preferably in places with moss or fallen leaves), at the base of trees in the ground, but they also hide that food in tree hollows or in empty bird nests. In the winter they go looking for those supplies, but they often don’t find everything. They search for food with their nose, because they rely on the smell. Often they find it, but not always. What squirrels cannot find often grows into a new tree or shrub.

Tree with different hard balls
Pieter Relou is a dairy farmer in Rijkevoort. He saw a tree with many balls along the meadow where his cows are. He is curious whether these are plant galls. What he saw are indeed galls. These galls, which grow in an oak tree, are called marble galls. Most people are familiar with the gall apples – which hang from the underside of an oak leaf – but not the marble galls. Yet these are just like gall apples galls. However, marble galls are hard and are found on the leaf axils of young oak trees. A marble gall is caused by a marble gall wasp laying eggs in the leaf axils of oak trees. These trees are therefore stimulated and form marble galls. Towards the end of summer – late August, early September – the young marble gall wasp bores a hole in the marble gall and then heads out into the wide world. After that, the marble galls generally remain on the oak trees. So you only find them on oak trees, both on the common or pedunculate oak and on the sessile oak.

Is this a bird from here?
Lilian Goethals and her friend saw a beautiful red bird in her garden. They discovered that this bird is the red cardinal. She wonders if I have any idea how that bird got into her garden and whether there are several red cardinals in the Netherlands. I believe that red cardinals are birds that escaped from aviaries, as they are native to the United States and Mexico. If you look at Waarneming.nl, you will occasionally see a report of red cardinals. For example, one was seen on September 12, 2023 in Groessen, Gelderland. In Tiel, someone saw a female red cardinal on February 23, 2023. And in Breda someone saw a young one on December 22, 2022. It would be nice if Lilian Goethals also reports her spotted red cardinal on Waarneming.nl, including a photo. It would be even better if her friend did this too. A male and female red cardinal together have never been reported. Would you like to know more about the aviary bird red cardinal, then look at the Vogelweetjes link.

Figure in a sawn fallen tree, what is this?
Albert van der Steen sawed a fallen birch tree into small pieces and a figure came into view near one of the sawn trunks. Now he wants to know how that figure got there. Well, trees have mechanisms within them that ensure that they protect themselves against damage or damage. They do this of course to prevent a rotting process. That can finally lead to the death of a tree. Both of Albert’s photos beautifully show how his birch has overgrown the attack. It is also clearly visible that the rot had already grown inwards to the core. But the birch has quickly overgrown the wound. With a quick action, the birch has shielded the area from the outside air by creating a closed bark surface. Of course, these types of damage spots remain a weak location in the trunk or branch structure. Mainly because the heartwood is damaged. Heartwood basically provides stability to the tree. By the way, it is clearly visible on the right trunk that there was a side branch there.

From empty nest to first egg – Live Nest Box Camera 2023 – Loughborough, UK
This video above is a montage of a blue tit preparing an empty nest box for the first egg. Blue tits take about thirteen to fifteen days to build a nest. The British Trust for Ornithology has one BlueTit Diary page showing their nesting and breeding habits describes and states that blue tits usually spend between one and two weeks building their nests. But some build their nests in just a few days. “It took our female between six and seven weeks! Such a perfectionist! It could be a way to explain why this nest was so deep!”

Long churned corridors on a lawn
Jaap Buinink came across an elongated system of corridors on a lawn. He wonders if this could possibly be the work of a water vole. I think so, because water voles make shallow snake-like tunnel systems that are very visible on lawns and grasslands. You often see corridors that have a width of about five centimeters. What is striking is that they are very close to the surface.

The voles are in those corridors looking for food. This mainly consists of stems of herbs, grasses, sedges and roots of herbs and trees. If you are unlucky, you will have a system of corridors up to a hundred meters long. These tunnel systems contain storerooms, but also nests. These nests are mainly decorated with grasses. Very occasionally you have ‘lazy’ voles, which use, for example, old mole tunnel systems.

Blue egg found in a ditch in Nijnsel, who owns it?
Thea Willems found a fairly large blue egg during a walk. She wonders if this might be a great blue heron’s egg. I think so. Blue herons have pale blue-green eggs, which are about six centimeters in size.

Thea also wondered whether it wasn’t too early to lay such an egg now? I don’t think so, because blue herons have been breeding since February. By the way, old bird books state that the breeding period of blue herons takes place from March to June. But that was true, because new bird books state that they breed from February to May. They have already started to take climate change into account.

Saw a hummingbird butterfly on February 17, isn’t that very early?
Marga Vijfhuizen sent me a photo of a hummingbird butterfly that she spotted on February 17 on flowers of the scented daffodil ‘paperwhite’. She wondered if this wasn’t too early? I don’t think so, because hummingbird butterflies can be observed as early as February. But that only concerns a few copies. They are migratory butterflies, which can be seen throughout the country in varying numbers each year. The flying period is from February to November, but you don’t see them most often in the spring but in the autumn. Especially in August and September. In recent years, hummingbird butterflies have been seen more and more often in early spring. The Butterfly Foundation has already reported that at least one overwintering specimen has been observed.

Beautiful photos section
In the beautiful photos section, this time a photo taken by Yvonne Rommelaars. She captured the male of the great spotted woodpecker.

Nature tip
On Sunday, March 3, a walk will take place over the hilltops of the Loonse and Drunense Duinen from ten in the morning to twelve in the afternoon. The excursion leader takes the participants over the tops of the ramparts, so you quickly walk at a height of about ten meters. The history of these ramparts is told while you enjoy the beautiful view over forests, sand plains and heathlands. Discover the oaks, which are covered by drifting sand and are called oak forts. Learn everything about the shifting sand recovery and the plants and animals that occur here.

More information:
• Registration is required, this is possible through this link.

• Departure point is the parking lot Bosch en Duin at Schoorstraat 50 in Udenhout.

• The costs are ten euros, members of Natuurmonumenten pay seven euros.

• The walk is approximately four to five kilometers long. The stretches through the loose sand are not too bad on this walk. Nevertheless, it is a walk for the fit walker.

• This excursion is aimed at adults. Older children are also welcome if accompanied by an adult.

• Wear sturdy walking shoes.

• Wear clothes that suit the weather.

• Always check yourself for ticks afterwards!

• Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on this excursion.