If so it gives a wrong idea imo. I'm not a big SW watcher, not sure why, I guess I've seen it before. But I don't think life is that awful - everything does die in the end though.

I have time to watch swallows and house martins lolling about on the breeze in the evening. To see some of the (too many) deer there are about. Most birds around here seem to have done well this spring. The meadow is wonderful, full of all sorts of flowers. Rain in April helped everything, drought and heat stresses everything..

As ever, all life needs is to be given a break from humans. We are the source of change on this planet and thus conflict.

The natural world is based on relationships and balances. A predator or pathogen can be a species' best friend, weeding out the vulnerable.

No predator/pathogen would benefit by wiping out its prey/host species. It is all down to the "work in progress" - the balancing act. This in turn reflects the changing nature of the natural environment. Humans are a booming plague species now, and few groups live in balance/harmony with nature. Few even try to. More often we act like rapists. Lao Tzu expressed it beautifully in the 6th Century BC.

"Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? I do not believe it can be done.

The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it.

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose it.

So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind; Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;

Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.

Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency."

I'm afraid I have to disagree. They follow the nests of many birds and so many of them die either from being weak, snatched from the nest by predators or even eaten by their own parents. Fledglings don't fare much better, it's absolutely brutal. The same can be said for mammals, insects and plants. 

I'm sure that animals have pleasure too - the play of young foxes and badgers or the swooping flight of a swallow - but most of the time it's a struggle to survive; a day after day battle to avoid predation and starvation. The peace and tranquillity of nature exists of course but it's a veneer against the harsh reality of survival. 

I'm noticing a lot of Red Admiral butterflies today, there has been a very strong SE wind for a while so likely EU imports though maybe mainly on east side? Mind there was a few about early on this year it might be second generation emerging.

I associate them with later in the summer often in considerable number on plants like Sedums.

Can't speak with authority about foxes, but with the wolves their play is entirely built around hunting techniques! They carry that into adulthood, too; obviously captive wolves with good food and vet care have more free time, so to speak, and a good chunk of that is filled with play.

I posted this story many years ago, but it's a fun one:

Back in 2006 we had four wolf pups arrive - three sisters from Dartmoor and a boy from the Anglian Wolf Society. One of the girls sadly died, but the two others - and Torak, the boy - survived and thrived. They were happy animals, always up for a play session, and - being younger than everyone else, and with H&S not as developed as it is now - I did an experiment. 

When they were three months old, I ran away from them (in the enclosure), and of course they chased me... an innate behaviour in wolves (and most dogs). I zigged, and zagged, and they stopped, confused.

At four months old I did the same, and this time when I zigged, they followed suit, and when I zagged they zagged too. Eventually I slowed down and they "caught" me, tails waving, tongues lolling.

The final time was at six months, and this time the two girls ran away from me as I ran away from them - they soon disappeared behind some trees. Torak, meanwhile, stared right at me, and there was a quiet determination in those eyes. I stopped, and, in "stalk mode", he came up to me and proceeded to wrap himself around my legs, still looking into my eyes. While I was thinking "hmm, how do I get out of this?", there was a "whump" from behind, as the two girls pounced on me. Torak moved in an instant to the side and I fell on the ground, with all three pups happily licking me. A great day for them, and a good demonstration to me - those wolves, somehow, had communicated to each other as to who should chase and who should entangle the "prey". I wish I knew how they did it, but I never did find out, and there's precious little about it in the textbooks. 

As an aside, the full hunt procedure goes spot, stalk, chase (or herd), catch, kill (bite), eat. You can see that most working dogs will pick out bits of that - sheepdogs will do it but stop at "catch", foxhounds will do pretty much the whole sequence, police dogs will do the chase, catch, bite part and so on. I find the whole thing fascinating and realise how lucky I was to experience it in the way I did - you certainly wouldn't get away with that these days!

While doing my usual gardening volunteer stint at West Dean Garden yesterday, working through the shrubbery, I came across a wasp's nest and the wasps came across me!. Not your usual yellow jackets, but smaller, less aggressive and a weaker sting. I suspect they were 'Norwegian wasps' (native to this country despite the name), one of the two species of UK wasp which nests in trees and bushes. The other, the 'tree wasp' tends to prefer taller trees. They have slightly different markings but I didn't hang around to find out!

Back home, the bees are having a great time in the sun in the lime tree across the road - you can hear the buzz in my house with windows open.

Stamford Mercury Lincolnshire, England. 28 Jun 1895 ... to Bardney. Four children there were bitten, viz.,  Thomas Blades, aged 13, Harold Woodcock, 7, Jessie Maddison, 6, and Rachel Benson, 9.

The children were put on a train at Bardney station and sent to Paris for treatment at the Pasteur Institute. All recovered.

Today the first hurdle would be getting a diagnosis!

British woman dies from rabies after puppy scratch

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98wyllp170o  

I read that but wasn't really surprised. It only needs a cute puppy lick/scratch on some slightly broken skin from a rabid animal and that's it. I remember having a pre rabies jab in the UK and hearing some unsettling advice from the GP about what to do if I thought I had come into contact with a rabid animal.  The closest I got though was a dog in the middle of nowhere that snarled, drooled and terrified us. I kept well away standing on a table. Eventually the famers stoned the dog to death and left the corpse weighted down with stones in a stream to decompose. The purpose of this exercise I never really found out.

As you said Roger it's not so long ago that rabies was endemic in Britain. One reason even in this day and age not to let dogs slobber all over you or as you sometimes see, kiss the hound on the snout. Happens too much of course. 

An example of human stupidity in this link below. Please if anyone sees this this don't copy her.

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/young-woman-kissing-her-dog-on-the-nose-stock-footage/611699080 

In olden days [1950s] family friends were having a holiday on a tiny one-house island in the Caribbean. Very basic, not a luxury deal - but it did have mosquito nets! Except in one bedroom. The occupant was a gung-ho character who did not care. In the morning the bottom of his bed was bloodstained where the vampire bats has been gently feeding on him, just as they do with other mammals. He had a good old course of injections into the stomach, I was told. Much easier to manage these days.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/rabies/ 

The NHS suggests: get urgent advice if:

    you've been bitten or scratched by an animal while you're abroad

    an animal has licked your eyes, nose or mouth, or licked a wound you have, while you're abroad

    you've been bitten or scratched by a bat in the UK

If you're abroad, get medical help as soon as possible. Do not wait until you get back to the UK.

So I'll emphasise again, it's never a great idea to get intimate with pets let alone bats in the UK or indeed anywhere.

Add: it was school turfing-out time so a whole spectrum of responses including much tearing of raiment and gnashing of teeth made it a memorable moment!

Just waiting for the sky to fill with seagulls...

I've not spotted any flying ant action here yet, Bertie - tho I have been expecting it. We have had something of a general ant problem this month to deal with in the house. I remember a memorable summer at our last place where we had swallows in numbers landing in  coppiced eucalyptus to catch emerging flying ants. Too good an opportunity to waste, I'd say. Never seen that again.

NHM piece:

Flying ant day: When winged ants take their nuptial flight

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/when-why-winged-ants-swarm-nuptial-flight.html 

When I walked down the lane today I stepped over 2 Tree Bees [B hypnorum] mating in the middle of the road! 😁

Thanks for that link Roger; confirmed some of my pattern guessing'.

Liked the (Scottish) bee vid too; honestly didn't know there were tree bees- only hive and mining bees.

I discovered some flying ants on the 24th here whilst moving plant pots about, for watering purposes, as some seem to have made a home in the blackcurrant pot. Hopefully they'll move on soon as there's an abundance of Asian ladybirds, in all their range of colours and spots, in the garden now, so they will start to devour the aphids that the ants have been managing, there's plenty of those as we also discovered an apple "bush" in the slightly wild part of the garden, behind the garage, that has a host of woolly aphid residing upon it.

It's great in the garden for it's diversity of grasses and wild flowers in the "lawn" (and wildlife in general), which looks more akin to a meadow. There's plenty of minibeasts and flying pollinators, to watch out for as well as a good variety of butterflies, we've also had plenty of birds visiting, without having to leave out feed for them. Most notably the wagtail, that keeps coming back every day this last week and the goldfinches with their distinct calls, there was also a small flock of long-tailed tits visit about a week ago.

I've even had the good fortune to witness a sparrow pair perform their courtship ritual, quite amusing to see a tiny sparrow puff itself up just like a miniature turkey. Then a female blackbird, this morning, feeding a young blackbird on the last few blackcurrants that I had left on the plant.

Not only do we have a surprise apple plant, there's a young cobnut/hazelnut that has a few fruits on it which means we will have to try to beat the squirrel, that's been about, to those once they ripen.

Spending as much time in the garden as possible, during the good weather. So much wildlife watching from this tiny patch of land is amazing to me. It's quite the eye opener after living in a bustling town for too long.

"Tree Bees" are relatively new arrivals, Bertie.

A good intro site is The Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ 

If you want to dig more deeply into the world of Bees, Wasps and Ants, here's a good recorders' website.

https://bwars.com/ 

I should have sent you my Beekeeping webpage, Bertie. Especially see:

What's in flower month by month - London Beekeepers Association. Very useful.

Pollen Identification Chart On Sheffield Beekeepers' website. Excellent!

http://rogerparsons.info/bees.html 

Plants that used to reach peak flowering in mid to late July here in the 80s/90s (bramble, clover, rosebay willow herb, wood sage, lime) are now showing signs of peaking. Sadly I think such calendars are out of date. August could be very brown, very burnt and very difficult (like '22 was) for insects and invertebrates.

Add in regional, local and a bit of random variation and you can see generalisations are not going to be perfect. They never were. Pollen colour, however, is always going to be helpful if you know what IS in flower.

It sounds great. We have a lot of diversity but doesn't sound as good as yours for insects. Any type of ladybirds are really scarce and a beautiful cotoneaster has been coated with ant farmed aphids. The pond has almost dried up which has rendered it popular with mosquitos more than damselflies although the newts are hanging on. On the plus side we have had a resident hedgehog in the box for the first time, a robin's, bluetit's and house sparrow nests but unfortunately the sparrows used the swift box high in the eaves although sadly haven't seen any marauding swifts over this year.

There are Swifts a plenty here, we see (and hear) them gliding about in the evenings, along with the house martins (that have built a nest in the pointy eaves on the dormer on the front of the house, which is a bit of a pain as you end up with muddy dust on the windowsill when the window beneath it is left open. But we leave it be as it's no real nuisance). There's also a hedgehog that visits late at night, both my sons have seen it as they wondered what was moving about on the gravel edge that borders our garden and the neighbours fence. The bats also like to swoop low over our garden, and the neighbours, for a long time in the evenings, feeding on insects (probably crane flies right now). That's our dusk entertainment, sitting on the patio watching them. There's quite the small colony here and it's awesome to see them, seemingly, fly in formation and perform aerial acrobatics (better than any air show 😊)

I've not seen any dragonflies yet, but they may not be about until later next month or possibly August, as that's roughly when I saw them here last year.

Hope you get some rain soon though, for your pond. We've had rain most weekends here, for a spell, but then we end up with plenty of windy days too which also dry things out pretty quick, however a lot of the grass (and crops) are still looking lush up this way. 

Actually I need to get myself a microscope as I find pollen an increasing interest for me and it would satisfy my fungal spore interest too- help me with those pesky russula!

Nothing electron- just good quality lenses with maybe a 500 mag?

Your garden sounds a dream, Willow. Shout out to the Noah's Arkers!

"Get involved in our citizen science project today and collect your very own phages!  Help us to develop an extensive phage biobank and learn more about these amazing viruses."

The Phage Collection Project - University of Southampton

https://www.phage-collection.org/getinvolved 

Flying ants: why this year’s mating season could be longer and more frenzied than ever

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/30/flying-ant-day-this-years-mating-season-longer-more-frenzied 

My first flying ants this year was on 26th June, earliest that I can remember.