We have suffered two setbacks this year. Our house martins did not reappear this year and my earlier account triggered similar reports from several friends. This has set me wondering if there was a problem in the wintering quarters or along the migration route. I do know that this species, as with so many others, is in decline.
All, however, is not lost, as non-breeding birds were seen building nests in preparation for next year. They had a hard time of it though as there was not much wet mud around at the time, but a seepage from adjoining farmland along our lane provided them with a ready source. It was delightful to watch them swooping down to collect nesting material and then something really strange happened. We witnessed up to five birds all busy building a nest together.
The second setback concerned our bees. All that hot weather in June allowed them to go into overdrive and build up astonishing stores and we looked forwards to a bumper harvest. That will teach us not to count our chickens before they hatch! The much cooler and wetter conditions in July meant that they did not leave the hives to forage and instead fell back on eating their own stores, but that is the nature of things and after all the welfare of the bees is paramount. We did get a honey harvest but much reduced and the bees will now be left alone to build up enough honey to hopefully get them through the winter.
We met a lady at a recent local open garden who believes that there are already far too many honey bees and that they take all the pollen and nectar so that other species are left with none at all. I find this is such a strange way of thinking. She seemed unaware that, for example, honey bees and bumblebees nectar off quite different plants, in fact there are so many species that are specific to one or just a handful of plants. She should be more concerned if native plants, weeds to you and me, are pulled up before the pollinators have had their fill.
Have you seen those large black, white and red moths flying around in the sunshine? They are Jersey Tiger moths, a species that until fairly recently was extinct in Britain but are now abundant across the country. I still remember waking up early one morning to see a young fox cub resting its front paws on top of my moth trap trying to catch them as they flew around its head. Andrew Vincent was kind enough to send me a photo he took of one he recently saw.
