Down your ear, in your hair - flying Ants everywhere! A
family walk within the grounds of Normanby Park on Sunday afternoon,
gave witness to a mass arising of yellow meadow Ants rising from mounds
randomly spaced out at 3 metre intervals in the lawns and pathways
surrounding the Hall. The weather was hot and humid perfect for
triggering a late summer Ant swarm.Flocks of Gulls hung high above the Hall Estate feasting on the airborne ants. Down on the ground, a Peacock joined Pied Wagtails to feast on the bounty of ants emerging from the nests close to the hall building. The Ant nests seemed to be everywhere at ground level, and at a higher level, a Spotted flycatcher hawked hapless insects from a Beech tree to the side of the hall. But it was the Swallows and Martins which attracted the most interest. Numbering perhaps a hundred birds, a flock of young Swallows and House Martins encircled the building swooping low around the hall catching the rising mass of ants at will. Many of the birds landed in small groups on the Georgian building details such as window and ledges. The building seemed not just a magnate to them, but to their prey as well. The Yellow Meadow ant is a common Ant species over the the British Isles, and yet it is only when the mass of Small Ant hills in summer appear that we really get to notice them
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| Juvenile House Martins and Swallows. |
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| Worker ants pushing a Queen from the nest |
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