I’ve been watching thousands of ants take to the sky from my back garden. It’s Flying Ant Day – well, here in NN9 of east Northants it is anyway.
I haven’t actually seen any birds taking much notice of the silver-winged additions to the air today – often there are Black-headed Gulls going crazy at the free food but they don’t seem to have noticed today, so far.
But look:
…apparently these ants are descending on the UK whereas I’m pretty sure I’ve been watching them ascending from the UK, my little bit of it, and I hadn’t realised.
Whereas in Liverpool:
…Liverpool, renowned for its stoicism!
And meanwhile the Daily Express extends its usual journalistic high standards:
They’re ants, just ants.
It’s good to see that the public has developed a much closer and more understanding relationship with nature over Lockdown. No doubt the memberships of most wildlife NGOs will be heading upwards.
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Flock of mostly Mediterranian Gulls catching them on the Isle of Wight today.
Keith – that’s fun!
If the annual event of a few flying ants already causes them to reach for their scariest words – ‘plague’, ‘horde’, ‘fear’, ‘invasion’ etc – just imagine how it might be if we got Periodic Cicadas here. The editorial teams of the Daily Express and their ilk would probably explode with the excitement and anxiety of it all when one of their simultaneous emergences occurred!
The Gaianurd would cover the event with a Nigel Slater recipe for oak-smoked cicadas with mackerel mousse and pickled gooseberry salad
Brilliant!
Can’t wait to try it.
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2016/05/cicada_recipes_how_to_cook_the.html
“Similar to soft-shell crab but with subtle overtones of boiled peanuts, the kind only a backroads gas station can do right”
I listened to a programme oon the World Service at some unearthly hour while heading for my BBS square. It was about a Kenyan father who had given up his job to hunt for pre-swarming locusts and target spraying to try and prevent ‘a plague’.
If flying ants ate all our food for the season, then perhaps hysteria might be slightly justified. As it is, we’re just pathetic.
What goes up …