Close focus

So, another year has begun. I'd been pondering going on another new Year Plant Hunt, but eventually decided to stay at home and enter some of the backlog of plant data for 2018. I probably have over 25,000 records to enter before the new field season gets seriously underway, so this is becoming a priority!

The weather was grey again (with a short spell of sunshine that I missed) so I didn't feel very inspired to get the camera out. In the evening I went to my studio to identify a few mosses and lichens that I'd collected before Christmas. I was staring at a twig and spotted these brilliantly iridescent springtails which I think are Vertagopus arboreus. I spent some time just watching them wandering around in their miniature landscape, grazing algal lawns like miniature cows, and weaving between the moss bushes. Capturing a photograph was challenging but I was pleased with this one which shows two of them interacting. The one on the left is covered with minute nematode worms. 

I so enjoyed my foray into this hidden world that my one New Year resolution is to spend more time exploring the hidden worlds that are all around us. More environmental (and cheaper) than going on safaris to exotic climes, and, for me, probably just as satisfying!