To the taverna in Tinos

One week with my family on the island of Tinos in the northern Cyclades, Greece.

We stayed at our friend Martine's beautiful house on the south coast.

The walk to the beach may take only 10 minutes for a German naturist, but it can take a few hours for the English naturalist - for there is much wildlife to be seen.

Tinos is not a fishing island, and lacks the coastal villages you might expect. In the past it was heavily farmed, though has long since ceased, and there still remain on the hills the stone wall terraces and the walkways connecting the villages.

Walking here you will see many Starred Agama (Stellagama stellio), 30 cm of spiny dragon, sitting on top of the walls and bobbing their heads up and down in mating display.

The wall lizard niche is filled here by Erhard's Wall Lizard (Podarcis erhardii).

Kotschy's Gecko (Cyrtodactylus kotschyi) can be spotted when moving around the entrance of its lair, but is incredibly difficult to see when resting on a wall.

Scattered among the terraces are elaborate dovecotes. The Venetians introduced pigeon breeding to the island, and they were subsequently used for meat and fertilizer production.

Walking through the terraces disturbs the ant-lion, Palpares libelluloides, which flies to a nearby plant from which to hang.

Libelluloides means dragonfly-like. A picture taken from the web shows what magnificent dragonflies they make when their wings are open.

Another web picture shoes the larva, which digs out a cone in sandy soil and waits at the bottom to eat any insects (such as ants) that fall in.

Bees and wasps make a living on the tough drought-resistant plants.

This, I guess, is a Digger Wasp (Sphecidae). The females paralyze other insects with their stings, then put them in a burrow and lay their eggs on them. Fresh meat for the hatched larvae!

Flies have an image problem. This March Fly (Bibionidae) could have been the model for Darth Vader...

...and Robber Flies (Asilidae) have a look to match the name - with a nasty habit of catching other insects in the air and sucking them dry.

But who could resist the fluffy Bombylius Bee-flies that dart from flower to flower to hang and feed like humming birds?

And although these other bee-flies (probably Exoprosopa) are not cute, ugly sex creates divine symmetry.

Arriving at the beach at last. But before a swim and a sundowner in the taverna, a search on the sand. A stunning Bembix Digger (Sand) Wasp is making her burrow, to stock with paralyzed flies before laying her eggs.

And, to end the day, in the long shadows of the setting sun I spy a female Eresus Ladybird Spider walking towards the sea. I know not why she was doing this - they live underground in silk burrows. The male Ladybird Spider is less than half the size of the female, and has a bright red abdomen with black spots - thus the name.