What Ed brought in

Alert! Ed says this post may not be for the squeamish. Kaye doesn't think we have any really squeamish friends, do we? If you think you might be, close your eyes now.

Yesterday, Ed brought Kaye some flowers cut from a garden. Wasn't that nice? :-)

Today, this is what he brought ... a male stag beetle, Lucanus cervus.

We were pretty impressed with his size, around 4 centimeters, excluding the "antlers." The antlers are for show, used for wrestling with other males, and don't have enough power to pinch you.

Looks pretty impressive, doesn't he? When Ed put him back in the tree, he discovered a rival. The guy pictured above is the shrimp on the right.

Ed's been tending a big grub that he found in the woodpile, and we suspect it might be one of these guys. It's been getting pretty skinny, but this afternoon, we gave it a bit of rotting bark, since that's what they live on, and hope it will fatten up now. The larvae take several years to turn into pupae, then spend a few months pupating before emerging as adults. And the adults, in turn, live only a few months.

While your eyes are averted and we're doing nature stuff, here's a picture Ed snapped while photographing the water leaks on the day our furniture was delivered. Standing just outside our front door, he pointed the camera up at the beam and flashed:

These guys, big and little, are crowded into a small gap in the beam over the front door. They seem not to be permanent residents, but come for several days, then go elsewhere. We thought they were common pipestrelles, but now we think they might be some kind of long-eared bat. Have a look at these photos. What do you think?

OK, you can open your eyes now.