{"id":411,"date":"2014-05-12T16:34:07","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T16:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=411"},"modified":"2014-12-19T11:32:41","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T11:32:41","slug":"mayflies-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/12\/mayflies-rising\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayflies Rising!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mayflies<\/a>
Mayflies rising over Wraysbury Lakes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May is the fastest time of Nature’s year. What a difference a few days make! Last time at Wraysbury, a few sluggish mayflies sitting around as if waiting for something to happen in a one horse town.<\/p>\n

Well, today it’s happening. In places, the sky is filled with rising mayflies: a few mating, most alone. Here and there, some repeatedly dance up, and a few seconds later, down; but most just climb, and fly about, seeming frail on their large wings, their triple tail streamers hanging below them: it’s worth zooming in on the picture. Even better, here’s a short video clip. The soundtrack combines an airliner taking off and a Blackcap singing.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Mayflies-Rising-at-Wraysbury.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n
\"Male<\/a>
Male Banded Demoiselle on Bramble<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the glories of summer by water is the brilliant turquoise and green iridescence of the male Banded Demoiselle – the so-called band is actually the appearance of flickering of the wings, the dark spot on each of the four wings giving a hard-to-describe semblance of a sparkling blue jewel in flight, with bands of colour too fast and changeable for the eye to understand. But he’s pretty fine at rest, too.<\/p>\n

\"Male<\/a>
Male Common Blue Damselfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Common Blue, Bluetail, and Red-eyed Damselflies have all now emerged, the Red-eyed being the scarcest of the three, seemingly.<\/p>\n

\"Soldier<\/a>
Soldier Beetle, Cantharis rustica<\/span> on Cow Parsley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the Cow Parsley were, as well as the damsels, two cantharid Soldier Beetles, Cantharis rustica<\/em> or a close relative. Another enormous cloud of rising mayflies, and suddenly behind them a pair of Hobbies, hawking for insects – whether damselflies or even mayflies is impossible to tell. One comes close, wheels away on scything wings as it sees me.<\/p>\n

\"Silver-Ground<\/a>
Silver-Ground Carpet Moth Xanthorhoe montanata<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Silver-Ground Carpet Moth, Xanthorhoe montanata<\/em>, flutters weakly past me among the Hawthorn bushes and flops onto the grass. Garden Warblers sing, a Whitethroat rasps in its songflight. A Treecreeper sings its little ditty sweetly from near the river.<\/p>\n

On the hill, three Greylag and two Egyptian Geese form a peaceful flock. Stock Doves and a mixed flock of Crows and Jackdaws rise from the grass. A Song Thrush gives a marvellous solo recital near the road.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May is the fastest time of Nature’s year. What a difference a few days make! Last time at Wraysbury, a few sluggish mayflies sitting around as if waiting for something to happen in a one horse town. Well, today it’s happening. In places, the sky is filled with rising mayflies: a few mating, most alone. … Continue reading Mayflies Rising!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90,88,6],"tags":[157,20,643,12,59,124,170,227,229,230,189,18,123,52],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-history","category-nature-reserves","category-wildlife","tag-banded-demoiselle","tag-blackcap","tag-bluetail-damselfly","tag-buzzard","tag-chiffchaff","tag-garden-warbler","tag-hobby","tag-mayflies","tag-red-eyed-damselfly","tag-silver-ground-carpet-moth","tag-treecreeper","tag-whitethroat","tag-willow-warbler","tag-wraysbury-lakes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}