The x-rated movie flying from a garden near you

The swirling mass of seagulls slowly progressing along the valley halted my attempts at washing the dishes. I stared, perplexed, through the kitchen window. My house was positioned half-way up the valley side giving a bird’s-eye view along two valleys, and I watched as the seagulls moved down the Golden Valley and then took a sharp left into the adjoining Toadsmoor Valley.  Then, washing-up finished, I headed out for a spot of gardening and discovered the reason for the avian invasion. Climbing out of cracks in the soil, the path and in fact, everywhere were masses of winged ants. I’d just witnessed my first ant swarm. 

So where do the seagulls fit into this? Keep reading…

That was many years ago, and I now keep a look-out for winged ants in the garden as I wait for the annual swarm. It’s nature’s biggest ‘one night stand’ and it happens only on one warm, muggy day in July or August. ‘The Swarm’ might have been a dreadful 1978 disaster movie about swarms of killer bees in America (considered one of the worst films ever made, even though it starred Michael Cane), but our own version involves millions of black pavement ants (Lasius niger is their scientific name). These are the ants that live in our gardens and they’re simply looking out for some sexual action. They don’t pose any risk to us as they’re far too occupied with mating, and the swarm is too high up in the sky. If you see the winged ants emerge in your garden, leave them be as they’ll be heading skywards before you know it.

For the rest of the year, the ants live in an underground complex of chambers which they’ve built themselves. Ants are essentially wingless wasps and create vast colonies the same as the social types of wasps and bees do. The ant colony consists of one queen and millions of workers – female ants that are actually the queen’s daughters. The queen is little more than an egg-laying machine whilst the workers tend the eggs and young, feeding and protecting them. However, the queen controls the behaviour of all the other ants in her colony through the hormones and scented pheromones she emits – how about that for the ultimate in girl power?!

Once the colony reaches a certain size, the queen stops laying eggs that turn into female workers and starts laying eggs that hatch into males and more queens.  She also grows wings so that when the temperature and weather conditions are right, she joins all the other queens and males to fly high into the sky. The incredible thing is that, although ecologists aren’t sure what these right conditions are, all the other black ant colonies in an area know and swarm at the same time.

The result is an orgy as the male ants fight with each other to mate with the queens which also turns into a feast of ‘food on the go’ for birds, particularly gulls which are partial to pavement ants. There are so many millions – if not billions – of ants in the swarm that the birds can’t eat them all. Once the mating is over, the queens return to the ground, bite off their wings (ouch!) and start new colonies. Whichever way you look at it, the males don’t come out of this well – they’re either eaten or die after mating, having done their bit to keep the next generation going.

Blown away by bird’s nests at Rudge Hill

Birds’ nest orchids (credit: Caroline Aistrop)

Driving along the A4173 from Stroud to Gloucester, you’d never know there was a national nature reserve hiding behind the hedgerow as you drive past the Edgemoor Inn. On the opposite side of the road to the Inn, stretching from the road up the hillside, Rudge Hill is a wildflower meadow with more orchids than you can shake a stick at. There are special members of the orchid family growing here – helleborines – and a wooded copse where a a rare orchid is in all its glory.

Continue reading “Blown away by bird’s nests at Rudge Hill”

Wingless butterflies and wild granny’s bonnets at Strawberry Banks

Well, to be accurate, you can find both winged and wingless butterflies at Strawberry banks – I know this sounds like a cryptic crossword puzzle. Mmmm, there’s a thought maybe I could start a new career! The answers would involve a lot of letters so they’d also make good Scrabble words. The wingless butterfly I’m talking about is the Butterfly Orchid, a lovely, modest flower which is the latest of a host of orchids that grow at Strawberry Banks near Chalford. Common spotted orchids are also gracing the sunny slopes right now and it won’t be long before pyramidal orchids are flowering. As for the winged butterfly, this idilic limestone grassland is also a place where you’ll find plemty of them of them zipping around, especially on a warm day.

Continue reading “Wingless butterflies and wild granny’s bonnets at Strawberry Banks”

One of nature’s jewels takes to the wing

The end of May and beginning of June sees the butterfly world start to really take off. There’ve been a few lovely butterflies pottering around during early spring (orange tip, brimstone and peacock mainly) but now the most showy members of the insects rock up to Nature’s party.

Male adonis blue butterfly – credit:

Adonis was the God in the Greek myths that we associate with exceptional handsomenss and beauty, and the butterfly named after him is a stunningly eye-catching one. During the last week of May and into early June, this electric-blue butterfly (few photos really do justice to its colour) shines brightly on sunny days as it flies around looking either for a female to mate with or one of its favourite flowers to feed on. The female isn’t blue but mainly dark brown – a common story as the female of many species is a brown colour to keep her hidden from predators – though there can be a blue sheen on where the wings are close to its body.

Continue reading “One of nature’s jewels takes to the wing”

Midger wood: ancient and tranquil

Just a short way from the busy A46, this ancient woodland feels as if it’s in its own world, miles away from anywhere. Its hidden valley, gently babbling stream, moss covered oak trees, bird song and tranquility make it an ideal place to forget about the cares of the world. It feels ancient as if it’s been here since time began.

Wild garlic carpets Midger Wood in May. credit: C Aistrop

The valley is old – and I mean mindblowingly old. It was carved out during the Ice Age by a stream flowing beneath the ice sheets which covered all of this region. Once the Ice Age had finished and all of the ice had melted, trees and plants moved in and covered the area, creating woodlands like Midger Wood.

Continue reading “Midger wood: ancient and tranquil”

Minchinhampton Common: flowers, butterflies, birds, iron age ramparts and …cows. There’s so much to see!

Stroud is blessed by being ringed by three very special commons and we’re so fortunate that we can enjoy each one of them. No unfriendly ‘keep out’ signs here even though each common is a nature reserve, a site of special scientific interest and one is internationally important for its wildife.

Cowslips and cows on Minchampton Common – credit: C Aistrop

Minchinhampton Common is one of these special places and abuts onto the village of Minchinhampton (funnily enough). The whole area has a story stretching back to prehistoric times and the ridges of land running along parts of the common are the remains of Iron Age defenses (called The Bulwarks by locals). Nearby is a neolithic long barrow which was a communal tomb for local people thousands of years ago. The common is now owned and managed by The National Trust so it’s protected for future generations.

Continue reading “Minchinhampton Common: flowers, butterflies, birds, iron age ramparts and …cows. There’s so much to see!”

Nature Highlights in May

Dazzling display of bluebells carpets Cam Peak with hawthorn bushes looking like iced wedding cakes. Credit: C Aistrop

May is bursting out all over – literally. You’re probably puzzled, thinking the old adage surely refered to June but, believe you me, May is the month when nature explodes onto the scene. After months of grey lifelessness when winter seems set to never end, nature accelerates from full stop to warp factor 10.

Nature’s activities in May remind me of the Rupert Bear story (which I loved reading to my daughter) about the ‘imps of spring’ – tiny, elf-like people who slept underground during winter and then, woken by their alarm clock, come above ground with their bottles of magic potion. They spray everything in sight and suddenly trees come into leaf, flowers bloom, grass grows and the animal and bird life appears from nowhere. There’s such a sudden profusion of life this month that part of me suspects the imps and their potion really do exist.

Continue reading “Nature Highlights in May”

The prettiest ‘snake’ you’ll ever see

One and a half million of them and not a forked tongue in sight, thankfully. The snake’s head fritillary flower is nationally rare but 80% of what’s left in the UK grows in North Meadow, a national nature reserve at Cricklade near Cirencester. OK, I have to admit that this is nowhere near Stroud. Yes, yes, OK, I admit it’s not even in Gloucestershire but just over the border in Wiltshire. However, this spring spectacle is worth the 45 minute drive from Stroud – there really are hardly any other places in the country to see this and at least one and a half million of them really do flower every year in the meadow. Plus, the best bit is that you’re literally inches away from the flowers as the footpath takes you through the middle of this floral exuberance.

Continue reading “The prettiest ‘snake’ you’ll ever see”

It’s glow time!

At this time of year, there’s a female that shamelessly flaunts her figure and desire to attract a male for the night. She certainly doesn’t hide her light under a bushel and turns parts of Stroud into a ‘green light’ district with her unbridled desires.

But a one-night stand is all she craves and once that’s satisfied, her light is extinguished as she crawls away to lay her eggs and then die. More tragic heroine in a Charlotte Bronte novel than a Jilly Cooper pot-boiler.

Continue reading “It’s glow time!”

Look out for woolly bears in your garden (or even flying tigers)!

Beware of what’s hiding in the undergrowth: they’re black, very hairy and large – well, by caterpillar standards anyway. Woolly bear is the nick-name given to the caterpillar of the garden tiger moth because, as the name suggests, it’s covered with hairs – lots of them. It looks black but in reality the hairs are a mixture of colours: shorter black ones and ginger ones nestling amongst long white-coloured ones.

Continue reading “Look out for woolly bears in your garden (or even flying tigers)!”