Ladybird travels 365 miles?

I did one of my occasional walks to Charlestown Harbour today. Regular readers of this blog will know that it is one of the most picturesque places within walking distance of my house in St. Austell, Cornwall. I always confess to driving a little of the way because the walk back to my house is up a steep hill and ... well, I'm 77 years old with sore knees, so I don't feel the need to apologise for that.

The roundabout walk which I undertake involves an early sit down for a few minutes, a walk around the newly renovated inner harbour pathway, past a few tempting snack shacks and bars, back up to a coffee shop where I purchase an iced skinny caramel latte, down to the outer harbour wall for another sit down, watching the tide coming in and visitor families parading noisily, then a walk halfway back to another brief sit, during which I watched a ladybird - more of that later - and finally back to my car where, of course, the windscreen sun shade has fallen down and the vehicle is baking hot (I forgot to mention that it turned out to be a hot day and I was unprepared and thus wearing heavy jeans and shoes rather than shorts and sandals). What with all the sit downs, the circular route of about one mile stretches out to an hour and half. Fine, relaxing and not terribly energetic.

I don't believe that this degree of casual strolling will help me to lose weight; mouthsofmums.com.au tells me I would need to walk 10,000 steps a day to "easily lose between 500g to 1kg a week". They tell me that the average person "walks between 900 and 3,000 steps per day", which frankly seems a wide definition of average - I'm not one of those nerdy types with fitbits and smart watches, whatever they are, so I have no idea how many steps I've walked today, although I imagine it's nearer the low end - so I might have to be ten times average for two weeks to lose a measly kilo. I could probably do that by fasting for a day. There might be a small argument that a bit of a walk might make a marginal increase in my heart health, which is obviously not a bad thing but the occasional walk thing is, for me, primarily for mental health and wellbeing. Getting out of the house, saying "hi there, dude" to strangers, seeing families with young kids having fun, eyeing up the pub gardens, giving in to a culinary temptation or two, window shopping, watching boats, getting away from the computer, TV and gardening; it's relaxing and life-affirming.

It occurred to me that, if I walked one mile every day I would traverse 365 miles a year, which is roughly the distance from St. Austell to Blackpool. Or Leeds. Or, if you were willing to swim a little of the way, Calais. I've been to all those places and I'm not sufficiently attracted to any of them to attempt the walk this year.

Anyway, back to my ladybird.

This little thing was scuttling along at a rate which, given its size, I would guess was the equivalent of a human's brisk walk, even verging on a trot. Did it have somewhere to go or was it, like me, strolling idly about? And why walk when you've got wings? I genuinely don't understand that, although pigeons have wings and they do a lot of hopping about - although not purposeful scuttling à la ladybird. I found a lot of waffle about the origins of their name but, surprisingly, none referencing the gender-specificity of it. Also no references to gentlemanbirds so the poor males have to share the feminine naming. 

As for their wings, journals.plos.org told me that a study found that "most ladybirds were found between ∼150 and 500 m [high], and had a mean displacement [speed] of 30 km/h. Average flight time was estimated, using tethered flight experiments, to be 36.5 minutes, but flights of up to two hours were observed. Ladybirds are therefore potentially able to travel 18 km in a 'typical' high-altitude flight, but up to 120 km if flying at higher altitudes". Wow. If I'd known that I'd have looked upon my new coccinellid friend with newfound admiration. Although still baffled at scuttling rather than winging.

That's another positive thing about casual, purposeless perambulation: you never know what you might learn. Maybe I should get a smart watch.