I’ve written about the Coolim Cliffs before, one of the best places on Earth in my opinion:
But in this post I’d like to mainly talk about my visit this year, after becoming a wildlife enthusiast. It feels like I’m seeing my old favourite places anew now, because now I’m much more conscious of what kind of animals life there.
Also, while I’ve been to the Coolim Cliffs a few times when I was a child, 2024 marks the year when I’ve visited the cliffs every year for ten years. YAAAAAY!!!!!! Ten years of visiting this wonderful place!
The bike I usually use to do the road section of the journey had flat tires, and I couldn’t be bothered dealing with that, so I walked the entire journey. Sometimes I need to be reminded that my legs aren’t for just turning pedals, which turns a chain, which turns a wheel, but also can be used for walking.
After several unfortunate encounters with horseflies (horseflies are one of my favourite insects to look at, but it’s important to remember that horseflies hate you, your brother, your sister, your mother, your grand uncle, your niece, and the guy who serves you coffee at your favourite cafe) I reached the Coolim Cliffs. Paradise!
I had a feeling that the Coolim Cliffs would be a great place for insects, because, even before I got really into wildlife, I could always hear the sounds of grasshoppers there. Seems like the insects are wise enough to realize that Coolim is a fantastic spot! So what did I see?
This is a type of shield bug called a hairy shield bug. Shield bugs are one of my favourite insects. They move so silently along the vegetation that they have this almost ethereal quality to them. Hairy shield bugs also have very interesting colours, and they have an interesting almost upside down triangle shape on their backs.
But I know what you’re thinking now, you’re thinking, “I’m convinced shield bugs are wonderful and inconceivably brilliant, so if you don’t show me a picture of a baby shield bug I’m going to get cross and start throwing things.” Okay, don’t throw things please, I do in fact have a picture of a baby shield bug!
Now you may think that now that you’ve seen an adult shield bug and a baby shield bug, that no further pictures I could show you will impress you in any way. But are you sure about that? What if you stop reading and the next pictures are the most impressive you will ever see. Wanna risk it? Do you, do you?
This is a speckled bush cricket, my first ever sighting of one, or indeed of any type of cricket.
So, what about those grasshoppers I already mentioned? Well I did see them, but sadly they were too fast for my camera. Though I’ve already written a post about grasshoppers if you’re interested in reading about our wonderful jumping friends:
Another insect up there that was too fast for me was a dragonfly. During my stay in West Cork, I also saw a dragonfly at Woodpoint. Since I got into wildlife this year, I only managed to get one picture of a dragonfly ever. They’re so fast that if they were any faster they could, eh, do a lot of stuff, I can’t think of an analogy!
But, I saw a quite amazing insect on the Coolim Cliffs that day, and I could not figure out what it was. It was about the size of a bombus terrestris, the biggest bumble bee, and it could fly, but it was this shiny metallic green. What was this amazing creature? I ran through a few speculations in my head. The wildest speculation I had was that there is a type of green bee that I didn’t know about, far fetched, but I couldn’t figure out what this thing was. Then I started to wonder was it a really big shield bug. That seemed a little more plausible. Sadly, this wonderful animal was just too fast for me, and I would never know what it was, and would just have to accept that.
Or so I thought!
You see, sometimes, out of the most amazing luck, an insect will spontaneously just do exactly what you want it to do. And what did this insect do? He landed on my bag, and stayed there for a good ten minutes! Pretty much motionless! Truly the wildlife gods were smiling on me today!
So, what is this fancy little creature? It’s a rose chafer, or a cetonia aurata. What an amazing character for me to encounter on the Coolim Cliffs!
Apparently these little creatures are a menace to gardeners, the hint being in the name. And yes, maybe if I was a gardener I’d hate these little guys, but my encounter with this little one was most pleasant.
But then, he feel off my bag, and was on the ground, on his back, and his legs were flailing wildly. Now, insects are often quite hardy, but all the same, I hoped my new friend was going to be okay. He disappeared beneath the grass, his fate unknown, I thought that was the last I would see of him.
But I was wrong, a few minutes later he emerged again, flying triumphantly after his little fall! A rose chafer in flight is quite a sight, I hope some day to get a photo of one of these fellows in flight.
Before I saw this little creature on that day, I didn’t know it existed. There is something so extraordinary about finding new forms of life, on my own planet. I’ve talked before about my disappointment about the fact that, realistically, there is a good chance that humanity will never discover alien life in my lifetime, but, a very strong consolation is that I can find new animals that previous to that, I didn’t even know about. For me, from my point of view, it is an encounter with a new species. And that’s probably one of the strongest reasons I would encourage people to get interested in the world of animals around them. Just to experience the closest thing you will ever experience to first contact with another species (though it is a bit one sided because half the time an insect doesn’t even know you’re there!)
Ponderings Of An Autist 
One thought on “Magnificent Insects On the Coolim Cliffs”