Migrations
Driving to the flat through the darkening evening, I find myself enjoying a pleasure I seldom have time for: listening to Radio 4. It's the Nature programme about the migration of insects. And isn't this the magic of Radio 4, that time and again it gets you hooked, listening to programmes about subjects you've never thought about and never knew you could possibly be interested in?
One of the main centres for research on insect migration is Cardington in Bedfordshire, where the huge hangars for airships were built early in the last century. We used to see them from Stewartby, and were amazed when we first noticed them. They are so big, that even though they are six miles away, they look about the same size as the garages over the road, between which you can see them. Apparently Cardington is an aircraft exclusion zone, because of the airships being flown there. So what the insect researchers do is put up balloons with nets hanging from them to catch insects flying at that height. From the insects caught in a space about one metre wide, they can reach accurate figures of the total number, and mix of species, flying over. Something in the millions.
From this I learn that many of the common insects we see: butterflies, lacewings, aphids, have travelled vast distances from North Africa and elsewhere, following the spring, in order to breed in the British Isles. These creatures that look too frail to travel more than a quarter of a mile, are international travellers! Because of global warming, more and more species are colonising Britain, and some like the Red Admiral butterfly are even year-long residents now. It's an astonishing world.
A chance comparison on the radio with the migrations of human beings makes me reflect on the difference between this drive to the flat, and those we made in the summer. Now that the nights draw in, there is much less traffic. People don't drive out in the country when it's too dark to sit outside in the pub garden enjoying a balmy evening pint. So outside the towns: Evesham, Worcester, Bromyard etc., I meet few other vehicles. Except, coming in the opposite direction, large numbers of juggernauts out of the west. Thundering towards Oxford and the rest of the civilised world, like something out of Tolkien. Or maybe, the revenge of the Celt.
I haven't a clue why all the lorries travel east at night, when I didn't have to overtake (or be overtaken by) a single one driving west.
One of the main centres for research on insect migration is Cardington in Bedfordshire, where the huge hangars for airships were built early in the last century. We used to see them from Stewartby, and were amazed when we first noticed them. They are so big, that even though they are six miles away, they look about the same size as the garages over the road, between which you can see them. Apparently Cardington is an aircraft exclusion zone, because of the airships being flown there. So what the insect researchers do is put up balloons with nets hanging from them to catch insects flying at that height. From the insects caught in a space about one metre wide, they can reach accurate figures of the total number, and mix of species, flying over. Something in the millions.
From this I learn that many of the common insects we see: butterflies, lacewings, aphids, have travelled vast distances from North Africa and elsewhere, following the spring, in order to breed in the British Isles. These creatures that look too frail to travel more than a quarter of a mile, are international travellers! Because of global warming, more and more species are colonising Britain, and some like the Red Admiral butterfly are even year-long residents now. It's an astonishing world.
A chance comparison on the radio with the migrations of human beings makes me reflect on the difference between this drive to the flat, and those we made in the summer. Now that the nights draw in, there is much less traffic. People don't drive out in the country when it's too dark to sit outside in the pub garden enjoying a balmy evening pint. So outside the towns: Evesham, Worcester, Bromyard etc., I meet few other vehicles. Except, coming in the opposite direction, large numbers of juggernauts out of the west. Thundering towards Oxford and the rest of the civilised world, like something out of Tolkien. Or maybe, the revenge of the Celt.
I haven't a clue why all the lorries travel east at night, when I didn't have to overtake (or be overtaken by) a single one driving west.
posted by Tony at 9/20/2004 09:16:00 pm
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