August 8th

The sky over Crail was full of flying ants this evening. The ants synchronise the release of the winged males and females to form new colonies on dry summer evenings. The black-headed gulls were quick to spot the opportunity and they were everywhere too, sailing around slowly and flycatching like huge swallows. They are surprisingly good at it. The ants aren’t very flight capable and just hope that the risk is sufficiently diluted by the thousands (or even tens of thousand) that are on the wing simultaneously: even sparrows and robins will have a go, and succeed, in catching lots. But only a couple for each ant colony need to survive. The rest is a summer feast.

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