Sun flowers

I have been really pleased this year that 9 out of the eleven sunflowers I planted have exceded 6 foot (my height). Not bad for sunflowers grown in a pot.

They have been visited by a few bees, but have been particularly attractive to hoverflies, often as many as six just on one flower.

Swifts have flown the nest

The swifts nesting next door have left the nest. First thing in the morning they scream around the houses, performing their normal low level flight and acrobatic skills 

My best guess has been 15 in the flock. I have guessed there to be 4 pairs nesting because of there being 8 swifts that have flown together since then. My wife said she saw swifts flying into the eaves in a house down the road, so maybe they join up before flying off to feed. I have only definately seen 3 pairs enter the eaves nest door, but they are very quick and it would be easy to miss it.

Swifts fly late into the evening, after sunset

Ant mating flight

Ants are one of the most fascinating insects you may find in your garden. Today was a humid evening, ideal flying conditions for the ant mating flight. For some time now, winged queens and males have been present in the underground nests of the black ant. The worker ants have been preventing them from leaving, waiting for the right conditions.

                                  Entrance to the underground nest

The queens are released first, which often climb up to the highest points, a wall, gate post, vegetation, before launching themselves into the air.

Winged queen

Then the smaller males are released. The goal being to catch and mate with a female and in theory only the strongest males catch up and mate with a queen.

Queen and smaller male mating

After the mating flight the queen comes back to the ground and discards her wings, as they will no longer be needed.

She will quickly seek out a suitable place to dig a tunnel and start a new colony. Once the tunnel has been completed a queen will block the entrance and retreat to the bottom. The queen ant then digs out a small chamber, this will serve as the founding chamber of the new colony. Generally a queen will begin to lay eggs immediately after the construction of the chamber, the eggs will hatch after 8-10 weeks.

Of course not all the queens will mate and start new colonies. Many will be eaten by predators such as birds and spiders, becoming trapped in their webs.

                                                     Winged queen ants in spider webs

The males that survive will die a few days after the mating flight having performed their role.

Mating flights usually attract a lot of attention from gulls and other birds who pluck them out of the air or catch them on the ground before they fly. This year, few birds were attracted by the flight. All except this herring gull picking them up up off the road and eating them.

Bats return

This is the first evening I have seen the bats hunting in the track since the track was cleared by the council and the vegetation decimated back on the Saturday 19th June. I have kept an eye out for them on many occasions since and I have been lucky if I have had a quick glimpse of a bat flying past.

Yesterday evening the bats were back, as least three I counted in one go. First observed at 9.45pm and they weer active until about 10.15pm when they must have moved onto another area. They circled the larger trees and bushes flying back and forth along the track and as before circling above my head as they returned back down the track.

Trying to get a decent photograph is proving to be a challenge as the flash refuses to work when they are seen again the sky. Occasionally one would fly out of the track and across the road, returning a couple of minutes later.

This evening they were there again, I went outside at about 10.00pm. I managed to get this picture as it flew past the flint wall. You can see the shadow of the wings on the wall behind.

A cropped version

Aerobatic Swifts

I have been enjoying my own personal aerobatic display every day as the swifts fly past their nest site next door. As our bungalow is on higher ground than our neighbour they screech across our garden our garden at some where between knee and head height.

I stand by the bush at the front corner of our garden, adjacent to our neighbours and they zoom by so close I can sometimes feel the draft created by their wing beats. Its also a good place to watch them fly up under the eaves to their nests.

As they say, a picture paints a thousand words, so here are some of my favourite shots.

They really are spectacular birds. Its always like greeting old friends when they return each year. I am going to miss them once they leave for Africa later in the year.

This ones a blackbird flying up onto our roof. A vintage plane to the swifts supersonic jets but equally spectacular in its own rights.

Dirt track disaster

You may remeber my blog entries concerning the dirt track that runs past our house (for back entrances to houses that back onto it), Portslade Old Village

It's always full of bird activity, from sparrows and starlings to goldfinch, robin and more. A large bramble patch is alive with the buzzing of several bee species, hoverflies and also visited by butterflies. In fact last year I found a few painted lady butterflies there. The track also has visits from the occasional hedgehog and slowworms also can be seen from time to time in hot weather.

At night I have been watching bats, which spend about 20 minutes flying up and down and across the track before moving onto another feeding site. A handsome fox also uses the track to its shadowy shape can be seen exploring one bank then another patch of vegetation before eventually reaching our garden.

You can imagine my horror when I returned yesterday, after being out all day, to find the vegetation on all sides of the tracks had been decimated.

The bramble, full with more flowers than it has been for many years, almost ready to start to fruit has gone too. Several people in the neighbourhood would get our supply of blackberries here, people walking their dog as they went past would eat the odd blackberry and there would still be some left for the wildlife.

We managed to catch the people involved as they were leaving. It was a group of youths on community service, with a group leader. The leader said they had been instructed by the council to do this and when I queried it he said it had been done FOR the local residents. I don't seem to remember being asked or receiving notification that it was going to happen. The team was even provided porti loos

When I queried this they said that the track had been checked for wildlife and nesting birds - I can't imagine how they missed it all!

The track is much quieter now (only the occasional birds and no bees). I had previously done a survey for Brighton and Hove's Big Nature - Bee Aware.

This is what I recorded in just a 2 minute survey on the bramble opposite our house.

9 white tailed bumble bees, 7 honey bees and 1 brown carder bee

The bats I have only seen twice since, flying straight overhead, no foraging in the track and the fox looks very confused too. I have seen only a couple of Honey Bees in my garden since the bramble has been removed.

My concern is not just for my lost little haven but for other similar green tracks that may suffer the same fate.

Dirt track insect and bee survey

The dirt track is full of insect pollinators, bees, hoverflies and butterflies.

 

Two species of butterfly,the tortoiseshell...

...and the red admiral.

The bramble patch opposite our house was alive with bees.

This included the two banded white tailed bumble bee

Honey bees

There were also several species of hoverfly

I have been taking part in a bee survey this year Bee Aware, promoted by Brighton and Hove's Big Nature.

Without bees, we would have very few of the crops we rely on commercially as well as the beautiful flowers that surround us. They have been doing a great job in our garden with out fruit bushes, we already have strawberries and the raspberries and blue berries will be ready soon.

Bees are considered keystone species, important species that hold key roles in the ecosystem, which could break down if we loose them.

On the bramble bush I recorded 7 honey bees, 9 of the white tailed bees and one brown carder bee.

To take part in this important survey, follow the link below.

http://www.bigbiodiversitycount.org.uk/bees/beeProcessor.php