Greetings

Welcome to another edition of Whispers, the newsletter of the Dereila Nature Inn - your cyber nature centre where we celebrate nature and photography every month with trivia, tips and site updates. 

We've had several new subscribers since our last issue and want to say a warm hello.  Many thanks to everyone for supporting our project!  We hope that as we move into longer and warmer days that you are able to enjoy the natural world around you wherever you may be.

Trivia Time

Here's this month's trivia question: Besides the hummingbird, which other bird cannot walk?

You'll find the answer at the end of the newsletter.

Here are the latest features at the Inn which we hope you'll enjoy.

Clicking on the images will take you straight to the page.

 

Birds of North American Crossword - Shorebirds

How well can you identify these birds? 

Contributed by...

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We invite you to submit nature photographs to this part of our newsletter.

  

 

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This Black Pheasant was photgraphed in Scotland by Eileen of West Lothian
who is becomng one of our regular contributors.

 

 

 This Red-breasted Woodpecker image was sent in to us by
Gail Freiherr of Knoxville, Tennessee. 

Many thanks for taking the time and sending in your photographs.

 
   If you would like to see your nature images in our members' section,
simply send us an e-mail. We'd love to hear from you!

    

 
Simply click on the images to visit the pages.
You can also check out the archives as they're just a click away:

This month we learn a bit about Mining or Digger Bees. 

Unlike the Honey Bee, Mining bees are solitary bees and nest in burrows in the ground. Each mining bee female usually digs her own individual burrow to rear her own young.
This is an female Andrenid Mining Bee digging her nest.

 

You can learn more about bees, wasps and their relative by clicking here.

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We'll give you a couple of ideas to get you going:
 

If you have any suggestions for additional funny captions, please, send us an e-mail.
We'd love to hear from you and add your caption to our collection.

You can visit the rest of the collections at the Inn:
The Mammals| The Birds | The Insects
 

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In this section we examine the meanings behind scientific names.

Be sure to drop by the Inn every week to see the latest Picture of the Week. You can also do so by clicking on the image to the left or by clicking here.

Past Issues
We upload past issues of Whispers as new ones are issued.  You can view them all with a simple click here.  

 

  Did you know that many of the sea weeds that you see floating in the shallow waters on the coast are not always held in place with roots like our garden plants? They are held in place by a holdfast, which is a small root-like structure that clings to rocks and even shells of other forms of marine life. Here we have Sugar Wrack, Saccharina latissima, a member of the brown algae group of seaweeds with its holdfast on a boulder.

  

Hummingbirds aside, which other bird cannot walk?
The kingfisher.