I AM hoping that readers will look and think about the photograph first before reading any more of this Country Diary.
The idea is a sort of quiz to see if you can identify just what the two strange looking objects are before there are any of the clues as to their origin.
Just imagine coming across these for the first time, particularly as they are in such superb condition so that every detail can be looked at. There is only one colour, brown in various shades, so that in the wild it would camouflage very well and so much so that normally they can be very difficult to see.
The photograph was taken last week using a macro lens on a digital Canon EOS 1000D camera. I took them home to take a long time in setting up the photograph with a suitable background. The background was difficult to choose as it had to be in contrast with the brown colouring but not overwhelming. In the end I chose a rough piece of wood that is the faded remains of an old Scots pine root I found in a peat bog.
As for the clues, I will start with the less obvious ones. I found one on an old towel and the other on a wooden beam just above it. They are each just over 4cm long and 3cm high.
The first real clue is that they were both in an old boathouse on the side of hill loch. Normally they would be hanging from the stem of a plant or even the trunk of a tree, so by the time we see them they have, more often than not, been affected by the wind and rain and would have easily disintegrated.
The one that was on a towel was hanging on the side of boathouse about five feet off the ground. The other was on a roof beam about a foot higher. I brought them both back safely in an old 35mm film cassette holder that I happened by chance to have in my old-fashioned creel.
The last and most telling clue is that when we were out in the boat we saw large numbers of dragonflies and damselflies flying around. Some of the much smaller damselflies were flying low over the water. In contrast, the much larger dragonflies, particularly the golden ringed dragonfly, were mainly over the edge of the loch. They were also further away from the water and in particular along the woodland rides through the birch trees. Wherever there was a sunny sheltered area there would be these huge and very impressive dragonflies.
They are often found well away from suitable breeding sites and I have even photographed them in the garden. Sometimes I have even seen them quartering the roads when they are searching for insects. They are very powerful flyers and to some people they can be a little frightening, as there is an old-fashioned belief that such large insects can bite.
So the objects in the photograph are the larva case, called the exuvia, of one of the large dragonflies. It could well be that they were from the very golden ringed dragonflies that we were seeing over the edge of the loch. The exuvia are what is left after the dragonfly has walked out of its watery breeding site and emerged to sit and transform itself into what to many is the most beautiful of insects.
The exuvia are witness to the extraordinary lives that dragonflies and damselflies have. The adults lay their eggs, sometimes at random over the water and other times they cut small incisions in the stem of an aquatic plants and lay their eggs there.
The golden ringed dragonfly can spend an amazing three years or more in its aquatic world. This is even more remarkable when one considers that after it has emerged it may live for several weeks and then it is over.
During this underworld "jungle" they may well prey on a number of aquatic animals, but they also have predators, including fish and birds.
A remarkable life history by any standards.
Absolutely no doubts about this bird's identity
THE record of the week came from a reader and by coincidence was the same species of bird, the starling, that I mentioned in this column a few weeks ago.
Readers may recall that young starlings, just changing from juvenile to adult plumage, had caused two readers confusion as they thought they might be the rare nutcracker.
This time it was easier as the starling seen by the reader was a pure white starling.
She took some photographs that she emailed to me but unfortunately they were not suitable for reproduction here.
One clue on the identity of the white bird was the fortunate fact that it was feeding with a normal starling, so there was no doubt as to its identity.
White birds of whatever species are unusual. I can recall seeing white pheasants and once, albeit in a zoo, a white magpie. I have also seen a pure white swallow with a couple of hundred normal ones that were roosting in a reed bed in the autumn.
To many people it may seem that such white birds are picked on by the others, but this does not seem to be the case.
However, there is the disadvantage that predators can see white bird much easier.
Not all such birds are true albinos, but one clue is that albinos normally have pink eyes.
