Wildlife on Fuerteventura

[Can the Man]

A word of warning, I had a meeting with a specialist on Lyme disease on Thursday and we were tracing different place we have been. When we mentioned the Canary Islands he said that all the rabbits in the Canary Islands are Lyme carriers and other wildlife could also be carriers. Just be warned and keep away from the rabbits so you don’t risk the bite from an infected tick, if you do get bitten there is typically a red bullseye rash so this is a red ring with a red spot in the centre, seek medical help immediately it is treatable with antibiotics and the sooner the better.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Came across this little fella today doing an impression of a Norwegian Blue, is it a Stag Beetle?



and if you look closely here you'll see Shrek has caught one of my lizards 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Along with the recent Monarch butterflies that are breeding here we have an influx of Painted Ladies feeding while on migration. They seem to love the false pepper tree bloom:




The last few days have seen an increase in the number of lovely little black and white striped bees, this one was laden with pollen off the jasmin:

[Gone Fishing]

Came across this little fella today doing an impression of a Norwegian Blue, is it a Stag Beetle?

Not a stag beetle Tamara - no antlers, which even the females have to a lesser extent.

It could be a type of leaf beetle of which there are lots of species

Definitely not a Norwegian Blue either ;-)

[Gone Fishing]

The last few days have seen an increase in the number of lovely little black and white striped bees, this one was laden with pollen off the jasmin:

What a lovely photo of your white banded digger bee going about its business Tamara.

While you have a few in your garden they are actually solitary bees and as their name suggests, dig burrows in the ground in which the females raise their young.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Thanks GF.

The Painted Ladies actually stopped to feed today and later to sip on water when the irrigation started up!

 

While this little fella (baby gecko) had cleverly found a life-raft and clung on until I rescued him:

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

the Painted Ladies were feeding again today, mainly on Basil and Lavender.



while Shrek was hiding out in the palm tree at the bottom of the fronds. There are lethal spikes at the bottom of these fronds so he might have been spearing and storing food!

[windermeregolfer]

I am never quick enough to get a picture of the butterflies, we were at Happy Plants last week and there were hundreds of them, Paul said he was thinking of wearing a mask so as to not swallow any whilst working 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Today I spotted some Hawkmoth caterpillars. 2 green ones about the size of my little finger and 1 enormous mottled brown one that was twice as long and twice as fat! They were feeding on the Guaydil (see post #5 in this thread).

 

[windermeregolfer]

We had this little fellow decorating one our back wall pillars last evening, one of the bigger ones I have seen around here about 6 inches long -