Brace yourself for the insect invasions
July 31st, 2009 | by lucy |
Summer time is perilous, judging by some of the recent headlines in the Daily Telegraph:
Wasp Hordes poised to invade British Gardens, Army of Flying Ants descend on Britain, Swarm of Millions of Ladybirds infests farm.
It’s enough to make you flee indoors and hide, with all windows sealed shut.
But one invasion is described in words that don’t invite fear and loathing: Billions of Butterflies expected in Gardens. The mass arrival of migratory Painted Ladies caused a sensation earlier in the year, and their offspring are now hatching. Richard Fox of Butterfly Conservation calculates that “it is possible that we could have up to a billion Painted Lady butterflies by early August.”
The photo of the Painted Lady (Cynthia cardui) is from the excellent Cornish Nature site, where Steve Jones describes observing Painted Ladies in April in the south of Spain, when they had recently arrived from Morocco. Then in July he notes how the offspring of that generation have made it to Cornwall. The next chapter in the saga is now unfolding.
Fears about the impact of last December’s severe weather, the coldest in 100 years, were unfounded. The drop in small bird populations witnessed in the 
The oldest osprey of the UK – and probably the world – has returned to her eyrie in the Scottish highlands. When she left for West Africa at the end of last summer, no one expected her to return. At 26 she’s lived 3 times longer than most female ospreys. In her life she’s laid 58 eggs and hatched 48 chicks, a massive individual contribution to the survival of ospreys in Scotland, where there are still only about 200 breeding pairs. The questions now are if her mate will return and if she is still fertile. Events can be followed on the 
The construction company currently finishing off the Shard building in London, which will be the UK’s tallest skyscraper, recently had to call the council to remove a squatter from the 72nd floor: a young fox. He was surviving on scraps left by builders. After a check-up at the Riverside Animal Centre, the fox has been released on the streets of Bermondsey, having shown the type of curiosity we associate with cats. 
Otters, water voles and fish are all benefitting from the improved quality of the UK’s waterways, now described as the cleanest since the industrial revolution. Since almost disappearing from the wild in the 1970s, otters are thriving, particularly in the south west of England, Cumbria and Northumberland. The population of water voles, highly precarious in the 1990s, is also beginning to recover. The good results of stricter pollution controls and extensive conservation work are set to continue in the new year with the introduction of new European water quality directives. 
