Much
as it grieves me to leave Nikki's kafenion in Schinokapsala and all
those delicious grapes we shall press onwards and upwards to the
village of Orino. As we leave the village, heading east, we are at
about 1300 feet (400m). Where we are heading is over 2000 feet up in
the Thriptis mountains and there is some pretty spectacular scenery
upon the way.
Ah,
there's the turning for Mavros Kolimbos and just past here on the
left is a little reservoir that's always worth a visit. No birds
today, although a pair of ravens have just cronked overhead, but we
have a couple of little friends taking a drink at the water's edge.
Firstly we have a Keeled Skimmer of the Orthetrum
genus. The males of this genus are easy to recognise by their powder
blue colour (as opposed to the metallic blue of the much larger
Emperors of the Anax genus).
The other fellow taking advantage of the algal mat as a landing
stage is an Oriental Hornet. This is an east Asian/north African
species that appears to be spreading into southern Europe which is
not good news for bee keepers as bee hives appear to be one of it's
favourite food sources with the bees and their larvae providing
protein and the honey providing carbohydrates. On the other hand,
they're great pollinators and they are not aggressive (you can get up
close and photograph them) although the sting is painful if you
happen to sit on one.
As
I promised there are lovely views up through the mountains. This is
the top of Red
Butterfly Gorge, the
lower end of which we visited a few years back and just around the
bend is Orino itself with its lovely pergolaed village square. And
now I should like to introduce you to my wife Christina who will be
my nose and ears for our excursions. I've been virtually anosmic for
years and I'm pretty near deaf in one ear so I can never pinpoint
where anything is. Christina, on the other hand, is virtually blind
but between the two of us we can muster up a good set of senses.
Anyhow, we'll leave Christina here chatting to a Chaffinch that she
assures me is in that tree to my left and go and investigate the top
end of the village square.
A
nice little pool before the stream dips under the square with some
Maidenhair Fern and what looks to be a little patch of Fleabane
growing over there on the left. And right over there at the back, a
Marmalade Hoverfly has just landed. Not the most spectacular of
insects you may think but hoverflies are important biological control
agents (this one's larvae eat aphids) as well as being great
pollinators. They also migrate long distances and have their own
monitoring scheme at
Exeter University in the UK as we try to find out more about these
little guys and how they help our agricultural efforts (before we
destroy them all with insecticides). What I don't see here are any
frogs. Maybe we'll have more luck on the other side of the square
where the stream re-emerges.
Now,
just across the road I see a little alleyway and with luck it will
lead us down to the water's edge. Hmm, a lovely old tree and a lot of
concrete. I think that we'll have to try and get further down. Tricky
but 'do-able'.
And worth the effort, no less than five Cretan Frogs
taking the morning sun. Yes, I did say Cretan Frogs, you'll find them
nowhere else in the world and they have a certificate to prove it. To
whit: “The
species status of Pelophylax
cretensis is
"confirmed" by short mtDNA sequences and a large number of
private allozyme alleles not found in any other water frog.” so the IUCN Red List tells us. Unfortunately it also
tells us that it is an endangered species. Like any species endemic
to a particular island it is vulnerable to a major disaster such as
Santorini blowing its top but in addition habitats like this are
declining. Not only is this part of the island getting drier as the
climate warms but what water there is gets forced down these
ubiquitous plastic pipes for agricultural use downhill. And there's
the rub; the human population of Crete needs agriculture to survive
economically, the burgeoning world human population needs more and
more agriculture to feed itself and the cost is biodiversity. What is
particularly galling is the amount of water that gets wasted through
leaky pipes and inefficient watering. The technology exists to
ameliorate these problems but agricultural water is still cheap on
Crete and technology is expensive. Back to simple economics again.
The problem will undoubtedly solve itself. As water becomes scarcer
it will necessarily become more expensive and better water control
will become a viable option. But why wait until then? Better watering
practices now will keep the water prices low as well as saving money
in the meantime (water is cheap but not free). Meanwhile we'll enjoy
the frogs while we still can and in case anyone is thinking “who
needs frogs anyway?” guess who eats the cockroaches that invade the
greenhouses, to say nothing of mosquito larvae. If you don't want
Crete to be insect heaven then save water and save a frog I say.
The
Extra Bit
There's
a nice little kafenion in the village but unfortunately it is closed
today so we'll mosey on back to Schinokapsala. Meanwhile lets see how
Christina is getting on with her chaffinch.
“What
have you got there?”
“A
sweet lady came and gave me this bag of apples and walnuts to have
with my coffee.”
(Cretans
are very thoughtful and generous like that).
“How
lovely. I wonder what would happen if I sat you outside Lidl's with a
hat?”
(Time
to go I think).
Photographic
Bit
Many
of you have asked
me what
photographic equipment I use so here's a quick rundown on the cameras
used for each picture. For details of aperture settings, shutter
speeds etc. my pictures will be on Flickr
within
a few days and that has all the geeky stuff.
Picture
1 Nikon Coolpix S33
Insets Canon
EOS 1300D
Picture
2 Nikon Coolpix S33
Insets Canon
EOS 1300D
Picture
3 Canon EOS 1300D
Insets Canon
EOS 1300D
Picture
4 Canon EOS 1300D
Picture
5 Nikon Coolpix S33
Insets Canon
EOS 1300D
Picture
6 Canon EOS 1300D
Pictures
were edited with FastStone Image Viewer and combined with Microsoft
Paint.
*********************************************************************
LINKS:
Share
your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the
facebook page that accompanies this blog)
See
detailed pictures on Flickr
Read
more about the flora and flora of the island in The
Nature of Crete (Flipboard
Magazine)
Explore
the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking
and Nature Map
Gorgeous!
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