The chain gang

Val looks at wildlife’s dynamic nature and food chains

- Val Bourne

THE word dynamic is usually associated with positive proactive people who get lots of things done. However, it has another less well-known dictionary meaning that describes ‘a process or system characterised by constant change, activity or progress’. Wildlife is dynamic in this sense, and the last two years is a good indication of just how dynamic it can be because we’ve had peaks and troughs.

In the lockdown spring of 2020, our garden was abundant from April onwards, and our aphids were controlled by teams of hoverfly larvae, and adult and juvenile ladybirds. Birds nested and thrived, and we had bees galore, including the black ruderal bee (Bombus ruderatus). There were huge numbers of orange-tip butterflies floating through the garden in April, but the cherry on the cake was the narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth (Hemaris tityus), foraging on red valerian (Centranthus ruber) in early July. We also had bumper vegetable and fruit crops.