Hi blog.
March started off cold and wet, and it was well into the second week of the month before things picked up.
March is an extremely busy month for me, with the academic year winding down, I am often tasked with helping grade student performance in speaking tests or presentations, and then with devising games and activities to fill in a couple of lessons after the final assessments are in. This is in addition to preparation for the third-year students’ send off and graduation, plus messages for teachers who are being moved or retiring. Plush cleaning up.
At least I am not changing schools, which means I have been spared all that packing up and moving.
At any rate, once the weather improved I was hit with a feeling of dread: the month was almost halfway through and I still had no idea what to write a post about.
That all changed one evening. I arrived home after school to find that someone (i.e. SWMBO) had suddenly decided to trim back the persimmon and mandarin trees. Why now? I did them back in December, and if she had any dissatisfaction with what I had done, she should have said so.
However, it turns out that we had once again been “visited” by a civet during the night, who had left its “calling card” on the roof. The sudden trimming had been to prevent civets from accessing the roof.
One concern I had when I saw the cuttings from the mandarin tree was the fate of a praying mantis ootheca that I had found in the early winter. It had been too high up to photograph, and so never made it into this blog. Luckily, she appeared to have found it, and, recognising what it was, put the branch it was attached to aside.
I suspected that the ootheca belonged to the giant Asian mantis (Hierodula patellifera), having found what appeared to be a large female last autumn. An internet search suggests my supposition is correct – the shape and pattern is a key factor in identifiying this species’ oothecas.
As with last time I “rescued” an ootheca, I have put this in a plastic case outside and expect it to hatch in about six weeks. (See here and here)
I hope I can give you some good news in a few weeks.
Wild in Japan 