This time in Stuifmail, the ravens fly above the nature cemetery. Could that have anything to do with each other, one wonders. Frans Kapteijns answers. But also: intelligent crows, something beautiful under the waste container and a large beetle next to the front door.
Every Sunday there is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast. Listen to it here:
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Raven above Nature Cemetery de Utrecht, does that have anything to do with each other?
Kees van Limpt has been visiting nature cemetery Landgoed de Utrecht near Esbeek more often lately and saw ravens flying around there a few times. He wondered if that had anything to do with that nature cemetery.
I don’t think so, because the deceased are at a considerable depth in the ground. Ravens should be spotted much earlier than normal cemeteries, because I think the deceased are less deep there. What is true is that the raven is on the rise again in Brabant. After an absence of 90 years we see more and more ravens and that is very nice. It is a bird that definitely belongs in our province. Ravens are therefore very important within the ecosystem. They not only eat carcasses but also the food that people carelessly throw away.
Crow hits swan mussel against the road surface, is that normal?
Joop van Riet heard something fall on the asphalt behind him and when he looked back he saw that a crow was busy with a swan mussel. To his surprise, he saw the crow smash the swan mussel against the road surface, breaking it. The bird then ate the contents. Joop had expected this from the oystercatcher, a mussel eater par excellence, but not from a crow. He wondered if that happened more often. The answer is yes. Corvids are intelligent birds that use tools to grab food.
In this week’s podcast I take a closer look at the intelligent crows.
Street in Eindhoven is littered with remains of mussels, do they come from the sea?
Karin Reimann-Haan sent me a photo where you can see a crow eating a mussel. She sees crows drop mussels from rooftops and they break open. Then the crows eat the contents. She lives in the middle of Eindhoven and wonders how those crows get mussels, because Eindhoven is not by the sea. Many people think the same as Karin, that mussel can only be found in the sea, but that is not the case. There are also freshwater mussels that live in streams, rivers and ponds. The most famous is the swan mussel in the photo above.
In this week’s podcast I take a closer look at the freshwater mussels.
Under the dumpster was a cocoon, but whose?
Piet van Wijnen thought he had taken a picture of a larva, but I think it is a cocoon with a butterfly pupa in it. If you look very closely, you can already see some parts of the pupa/butterfly in some of those butterfly cocoons. You can then see, for example, where the eyes (facet eyes) are, but also the wings, legs and antennae are visible in the cocoon. Research has shown that the development from pupa to butterfly takes about 8 to 16 days. Such a development from pupa to butterfly is of course different for each butterfly. In addition, light and heat also play a role in this development. The more light and heat, the sooner the cocoon bursts open and the butterfly crawls out. On the site of Jan van Holten you can see a number of butterfly cocoons through this link
There are a number of fungi under the wisteria, but which ones and are they poisonous?
Hans van Hooijdonk sent me a photo showing the hats of the beautiful brown cup fungus. His question, however, is how do I get rid of it, because the brown cup fungus may be poisonous. First of all, the brown cup fungus is not poisonous, but even edible, so you can just leave it. In addition, it does not help to remove the hats / cups, because the real fungus is in the ground between the leaf and needle litter. The cups/hats are the fruiting bodies that eventually spread the spores. If you don’t want to have beautiful brown cup fungi in your garden, you have to work the soil and maybe even remove the wisteria. My advice is to leave them nice, because they help break down dead wood, fallen leaves and dead plants and animals.
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Queen’s page from caterpillar to butterfly – ©Ton Vranken
Publication: Oct 17, 2018
In this fantastically beautiful and short film you can see how the queen page caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Have fun watching Ton Vranken.
What did Tara and Tara’s grandfather find in the nature reserve?
René Molenschot, Tara’s grandfather, sent me a picture of something that they first thought was a lot of faeces, but later they saw that it was moving so it must be an animal. My question is what animal is it?
They have seen something beautiful, namely a three-horned dung beetle in front of the nest entrance with a rabbit droppings. These species of dung beetles are mainly found in heathland areas and open spaces in pine forests. They roll all kinds of manure, such as sheep and cow manure, into beautiful balls. If they come across rabbit droppings, they prefer those, because they are already prefab. After mating, male and female three-horned dung beetles dig a long tunnel vertically into the ground. Such a corridor can go as deep as 60 centimeters and they make a few side corridors in it. The balls of dung are placed in these corridors and the eggs are laid a few centimeters from there. So when the larvae hatch from the egg, they have to make some effort to get to their food, balls of dung. After having eaten enough, the larvae become pupae and in late summer the new three-horned dung beetles emerge from the large central corridor.
Nice big beetle next to the front door, but which one is it?
Judy Reyes sent me a picture of a large beetle, which she estimates to be about 4 to 5 centimeters in size. That size is certainly correct for the species, because we are dealing with a May beetle, but then the female. Males of the May beetle have feelers with large tassels at the end, see second photo, and females have smaller tassels. Sometimes don’t even fall on those tassels with the women. In principle, the May beetles have a length of up to 3 centimeters, but then we are talking about the male May beetles. Female May beetle is larger and can therefore grow to about 4 to 5 centimeters. This is also very logical, because she has to carry the eggs and has a larger fat supply, hence. The menu of May beetles includes leaves from all kinds of deciduous trees. They prefer the leaves of pedunculate oak, beech and hornbeam, but also of fruit trees.
Which beautiful butterfly has landed on the grape hyacinths?
Liesbeth van Hees-Linders saw a very beautiful butterfly on her blue grapes and when she flew away she saw an orange color with the white. As a result, she has already described the butterfly well, because on her blue grapes was a butterfly called the orange tip. In this case the male, because only males have 2 orange spots / tips on the end of the forewing. The females are completely white and therefore look very much like cabbage whites. Liesbeth saw the butterfly on April 15 and that is very good, because they can usually be seen in April and May. Incidentally, this year they were a little later than in previous years. After developing into a butterfly, they live for three weeks. The females even die immediately after egg deposition. Orange tips do not eat, but do drink some nectar.
Beautiful photos section
Michel Felten had a beautiful strange duck, which looked quite exotic with bright colors, spotted at Surae, in Dorst and the name is mandarin duck.
Nature tip: Herbal walks from the Wilhelmietenmuseum
Sunday 28 May from 1.30 pm to 2.30 pm and from 3 pm to 4 pm
Join a herbal walk and get acquainted with folk medicine and folklore. Discover how many plants you will find in nature and in the garden that are edible or medicinal.
Wilhelmine Museum
This museum is located in the gatehouse from 1610 of the former abbey of the Wilhelmites, the Mariaklooster. From 1854 the Broeders van Huijbergen were also established here. The museum was opened in 1977.
More information:
- Departure and registration; Wilhelmietenmuseum Staartsestraat 2 4635 BB Huijbergen
- Telephone 06-81924344 or 0164-642650
- Opening hours, Sunday from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm
- Children up to 12 years are free and from 12 to 18 years 2 euros. From the age of 18, the entrance fee is 4.50 euros.