A hot day on the coast of the Baltic Sea: tansies, purple loose-strifes, white wagtails and a great cormorant taking a nap. I think cormorants are in need of a PR campaign. People don't like them here. After I had taken a few photos of the big black bird, a passerby even said to me that they hoped no more cormorants would arrive there.

It's frustrating.

*Start rant*
Sure, cormorants eat fish but their impact on the fish population is negligible. Sure, their colonies kill a few trees but how many trees does the Finnish logging industry cut down each year? Yeah, cormorants are not the issue. Besides, their droppings are fertilizers for other plants. They are not an invasive species – they lived here earlier until we hunted them to extinction. They have natural predators: white-tailed eagles. Yep, we killed almost all of them too. Sure, cormorants might be "ugly" and "annoying" but they don't deserve to be culled because of that.
*End rant*

#greatcormorant
#phalacrocoraxcarbo
#whitewagtail
#motacillaalba
#purpleloosestrife
#lythrumsalicaria
#tansy
#tanacetumvulgare
#helsinki
#finland
#summer
#july
#balticsea

The #slave #ant #Formica #fusca (#Formicinae) is seen here on common #tansy collecting #honeydew from and guarding the #aphid #Metopeurum #fuscoviride. The #workers of this ant #species, which builds #polygynous subterranean nests, are often exploited by other species for nest building. As C. Carere et al. (2018) found, there is a linear link between #individual and #collective #behavior.

©#StefanFWirth Berlin 2025

Ref
C. Carere et al. (2018)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2018.07.009

#Photos
©S F. Wirth 2025

The pink #tansyaphid #Metopeurum #fuscoviride is native to Europe and prefers forming large #colonies on #tansy #Tanacetum #vulgare.This aphid is very attractive for #ants, as one aphid has a high #honeydew #production with in average 1 milligram of honeydew per hour. Authors M. K. Fischer et al. (2002) found the #aminoacid #concentration in honeydew increasing with #aphid age.

© #StefanFWirth #Berlin 2025

Ref
M. K. Fischer et al. (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1910(01)00179-2

#Photos
© S F. Wirth 2025

#BloomScrolling while strolling around the backyard

#feverfew #geranium #Tansy