Roses are Red, Greenfly are Pink?...

The recent warm weather has brought out clouds of Greenfly. It seems that most of them have taken to living on my roses.

It's always confused me that although you see loads of Greenfly swarming about, when you look on the plants, very often the don't appear to have wings.

It turns out that not all Aphids have wings. When food is short or conditions dictate, the females give birth to winged individuals that can go in search of new feeding areas. As well as laying eggs in autumn to overwinter, females can produce several offspring per day without mating. No wonder there's so many!

The local birds do their best picking them off but the Aphids have their own defence. The two little tubes sticking up from their back are called Cornicles, and they use them to expel an unpleasant waxy substance to put off their attackers.

Greenfly aren't always green. They range from green to pink as some have the ability to synthetically produce carotenoids (a plant pigment). They have acquired this adaption through a process of horizontal gene transfer (genetic splicing) from ingesting fungi which protect themselves from sunlight using artificially created carotenoids.



Aphids love to suck the sugary sap out of plants. Although they can get all the energy they need from the sap, they need to drink even more in order to obtain the 'building blocks' of life. The excess sap is pooed out as Honeydew. Ants take advantage of this ready food supply and even 'farm' the Aphids. The ants will actively defend the aphids, and even move them about to new feeding areas to maximise output. They milk the little chaps by rubbing their backs with their antennae to make them exude honeydew which they then carry off.

Very often simply viewed as a pest, Greenfly are quite fascinating little creatures. They mean no harm, and I think look rather cute. My roses however are suffering. I don't want to poison the chappys so I'm going to use a kinder method. Simply spray them with soapy water. It won't kill them, but it does get in their eyes. Naturally they will try and rub their eyes, and when they lift their legs to do so, they fall off the plant...

Not much done, in the winter sun....

There's not much been going on lately. Hardly enough daylight to have any adventures, but the sun being so low in the sky does have its bonuses..... beautiful sunsets. Although this scene appears idyllic with the oak and hay stack on a lonely hill, it was in fact masked by the roar of cars hurtling past on the M6 motorway.... a picture tells a thousand words but not necessarily the truth!

Competing with the noise of the road, this passenger jet rumbled as it streaked across the sky, its vapour trail illuminating in the sunlight like a comets tail.

The birds flew West, heading to the sanctuary of the local lakes.

They always seem to head out East in the morning and return to the West come evening. I don't know the reason for this, maybe having the sun in front makes navigation simpler, or perhaps they appreciate the sun rise/ set too.

You really feel the temperature plummet as the sun retreats this time of year....roll on spring.

Personally I'd be tucking those feet into my feathers!

When it's cold and crisp like this, the vapour trails from the airliners linger for hours.

I'm hoping it's going to be clear the next few nights as there is a meteor shower due. Eyes to the skies, especially on Friday.

I've noticed an awful lot of military jets lately. These were unusually coming from the direction of the local city civilian airport.

Normally they stay well away from passenger jet flight paths. They were in an almighty hurry and I had next to no time to snatch a quick photo. Makes you wonder what they're up to.

The day came to an end as the ribs of multi coloured cloud painted their fading scene in the dimming sky....

Cat Burglars!....

All was quiet in the garden...too quiet! The mice were hiding in the ivy, the birds were nowhere to be seen.... "You found it?", "Yeah, there's loads!"

"Shift over, I'm coming down."

"It's not very big is it? It looks huge from the ground." "You're on my tail!"

"You get what you can, I'll keep look out."

"Well who's that then, down there?" "It's just one of the 'uprights' from the big house, you know, the one thats always got that goggly eye thing all the while!" "Oh, he's alright, he won't tell, I'll smarm up to him later, he's a succer for that."

"Come here, there's some more, I can smell it!"

"I don't get it, if it's meant for us why put it in this cage thingy?"

"What ARE you two up to?!" "Nuffing......"