As I write this in mid-October at the end of a couple of
very wet weeks, I’ve noticed how quickly things are changing at this time of
year. In the gaps between showers a few
of the last house martins can be seen flying high up and presumably feeding
themselves up before their long migration.
We have seen a few warblers in the garden as well. We generally only see them in spring or
autumn as they too pass through on their annual migration. It would be nice to be able to identify which
warblers they are, but my bird identification skills allow me to tell the
difference between a chiff chaff and a willow warbler only if they are singing,
which in autumn they don’t . I could
always fall back on the not very reliable difference that one has darker legs
than the other – if I could only remember which one had the darker legs. There are also a number of other warblers
that look very similar, so I’ll just have to be content with the fact that they
are warblers and be happy that they’ve chosen our garden for a pre-flight meal.
At this time of year there is also a marked reduction in the
number of insects around. There was a
brief flurry of activity at the start of the month when all the crane flies emerged
and flew around bumping into things.
 |
| Unidentified Crane Fly - possibly Tipula vernalis |
 |
| Spotted Crane Fly - Nephrotoma appendiculata possibly |
The
adult crane flies only live for 10 to 15 days and most do not eat. Their only purpose is to mate and lay eggs to
ensure the next generation of their larvae which are well known to gardeners as
leather-jackets. Whilst they do eat the
roots of plants, and in large infestations may kill plants, they are generally
beneficial by eating decaying plant matter and increasing soil bacteria. They also provide food for creatures higher
up the food chain such as blackbirds, starlings and the increasingly rare
hedgehog.
We went to a very interesting talk by Julia Bradbury as part
of the Rye Arts Festival, who talked about creating a wildlife garden. She believes that letting nature take its
course is a way of dealing with many problems in the garden. She cited an example where some of her plants
had a greenfly infestation. Next to them
was a patch of umbellifers that attracted hover flies. The hover flies laid eggs on the greenfly
infested plant and within days the greenflies had been eaten by hover fly larvae. I read recently about an eminent scientist
who specialized in fungus infestations on barley. He quickly realized that fighting nature was
pointless since whatever the problem, nature had the resources to deal with
it. He developed a strain of wheat by
sowing a high yielding variety with a disease resistant variety. He collected the crop and then sowed it again
without separating the varieties, and repeated it year after year. The resulting mongrel crop always produced a
good yield and never had any serious diseases.
He contrasted this with the poor nutrition, high yield monoculture crops
that are regularly wiped out by various infestations and over the years
produced no better yield than his mongrel crop.
His strain(s) of wheat are now much sought after by bakers because of
their better taste and higher nutrition.
But going back to my time of change theme, at this time of
year there are many fewer insects around.
This is not the decline that Extinction Rebellion are trying to draw
attention to – I say trying because it appears that the powers that be are
still not listening – but rather the natural disappearance of insects as they
hibernate or continue their generations as eggs that will hatch in the
spring.
One exception seems to be the
red admiral butterfly which I have seen several of in recent days.
 |
| Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta |
The red admiral hibernation is not as
complete as the brimstone or peacock butterflies so if the weather is mild
enough they will emerge for a quick snack on whatever flowers are still
around.
(I have been pleased with a new
wildflower meadow that I sowed late in the year – about mid-July! – which has
also flowered late and is now providing cornflowers and mallows for late-flying
pollinators.)
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