Next day I walked a few blocks and found one of the gates to the Copenhagen University Horticultural Gardens.
I spent a happy four hours ambling along the paths and walks looking for insects and spiders and beautiful plants, and taking photos. It was quite dry but I saw lots of
Apis melifera (honey bees) as there were hives in one corner.*
Once or twice I looked up and extended my focal distance to greater than half a metre and noticed there were children, young couples, older people, and birds. Many of them were looking at me curiously, and they were usually smiling. I suppose I was so intent that I was an object of interest.
Then I went back to my accommodation and slept and slept and slept again.
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| I was so excited to see my first non-buff-bottomed bumblebee. |
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| Spent poppy seed-case. |
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| Flower beetles of some sort |
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| anyone know? |
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| Euphorbia sp. |
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| Scabiosa |
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| A. Melifera, the honey bee. |
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| Hives |
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| ? |
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| Aquilegia var. |
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Aphids and a male Chironomidae fly.
(You can tell it's male because it has feathery antennae.)
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There were large numbers of harlequin beetles.
(You can tell it's a harlequin and not the ladybird
because they are bigger and also have a 'W" or 'M' just behind the head.) |
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| Bug. |
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| One of the Opiliones. Also known as harvestman or Daddy Long-legs. |
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Pica pica, the Eurasian magpie. Quite unlike our downunder one.
(Oh, did you know this is considered to be the most intelligent non-human animal?) |
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| The 'Malkepigen' Statue (The Milkmaid) |
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| helebore var |
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| ? |
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| The Science department ... no, I didn't go in. |
* I saw very few A. Melifera in the rest of Europe and the UK.
I'm no good with insects but we have plenty of magpies around here - including magpie nests in two trees I see from my kitchen window. I also sometimes see them fighting with crows and seagulls over garbage bags etc left behind by careless humans. Actually, if you so much as forget to shut the lid/door on the bins properly, I suspect they may sometimes get them out of there themselves. And in the cemetery nearby, there is a memorial area where people often put flowers in vases on the ground. Sometimes you see these flowers having been picked out of the vases and strewn about on the ground. I used to wonder what kind of people DO that... until I caught them at it, and they weren't people at all but magpies (perhaps crows too). The vases are perfect drinking glasses to them, just the right hight. And who wants a rose with sharp thornes in their drink...
ReplyDeleteThey sound very good at using the resources around them!
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