stevedaniels's Journal

Do you want the good news or the bad news? The good news is that we’ve made it safely through the Milonas Gorge. The bad news is that we have a flipping great waterfall ahead of us which means we’ll have to find a way around and down and there are no paths to follow.

No matter, the sun is shining and there’s a flying circus in the sky. In case that seems a bit odd, forget the tents, clowns and performing seals and think of the origin of the word. Circus comes from the Greek kirkos meaning a circle or ring and was applied to a place of entertainment where the seats were arranged in a circle around the performing area. It is also the generic name of the birds that circle as they hunt which we know as Harriers. There have been four species recorded on Crete: the Marsh; Hen (or Northern); Pallid; and Montagu’s. The last three are rare and the Marsh, although a frequent passage migrant in the spring, only overwinters here in small numbers. It’s a bit too high to make out details but it’s still an exciting start to the day as it’s the first Harrier of any type that I’ve seen in these parts.

Read on at https://niume.com/post/243926

We seem to have taken quite a detour last week to get down to this level and the waterfall should be over there somewhere. We’ll follow our ears and get there somehow but first, that looks interesting. There’s probably a correct technical term for these shallow erosions but I just call them cavelets. Let’s climb up and take a look. As you can see from the staining of the rock face, water is leaching minerals from the rocks and if you look up there you can see small stalactites forming. There are also white deposits blooming on the walls which my geologist friends tell me is probably gypsum/selenite. They contain calcium and sulphur so, along with the limestone rocks which contain calcium and carbon, and the water, we have carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen (the basic elements of life) plus at least a couple of others to add to the recipe. We’ll push our way up through these bushes using this tumbling water course as our stairs and see what’s going on.

Read more at http://cretenature.blogspot.gr/2017/02/a-recipe-for-life.html

The Lassithi Project aims to group together all Research Grade observations from the Department of Lassithi, Crete, Greece (and anyone is welcome to contribute).

To accompany this I have just launched an interactive nature map on Google Maps. Each green hiker icon links to a specific Crete Nature blog post (http://cretenature.blogspot.gr/) which shows some of the flora and flora to be found in that particular area. An abstract from each post can be read by going to my journal (http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/stevedaniels). The blog also contains a search engine if you wish to look for a particular category (eg birds, spiders) or item (eg mandrake).

The interactive map can be found at
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=193AcX9djw_d6cOOqhw8xMSXt87E&ll=35.051096005233%2C25.84160325000005&z=13