The Posing Coachman

Well, second week of lockdown, and I'm trying to keep active - I'm just not seeing very much.

The exception to this was coming across this mad beetle on the cycle path at work. It was gadding about with its bum in the air like a scorpion, a behaviour I've never come across in my admittedly limited experience of beetles.

It was clearly rather emotional about something though. Maybe it didn't like the slug that was crossing the cycle path at the same time?

A bit of research on google ("Which beetles stick their bum in the air?") revealed it to be a devil's coach horse beetle, a common species with a flexible abdomen that allows it to display like that. Common yes, but a new one to me.

Another interesting sighting was three skeins of about 300 pink footed geese flying over work - such a distinctive sight, cruising high in their shall v-echelons. The local kestrel is very busy hunting, and the juvenile buzzard would be too if he didn't get chased out of the sky all the time by the local carrion crows. 

Anyway, hopefully the rain stays away tomorrow, I want to go for a bike ride.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.11.20