Jackdaws, Rooks, Butterflies & Mites. Rainy day projects.

It's raining again so today I'm putting videos and stills together to make a movie of a project I worked on last year in and around Lewes in the Southdowns National Park.

Bearing in mind what my grandfather taught me when I was a youngster, I have discovered something interesting that others have perhaps overlooked.

"Don't just look at things, 'see' them, and don't just listen to things, 'hear' them."

Have a look at this...

The Rooks build nests in the trees but the local Jackdaws nest in holes and cracks in the chalk cliff below Lewes golf club. They are both in view of each other and the Jackdaws fly over to sleep with the rooks!?

In Spring the Jackdaws gather hair from cattle in the water meadows below the cliff, to line their nests and later the Rooks join them in the grassalnd up on the downs behind the golf club hunting insects, in particular during summer, sleeping butterflies at dawn and dusk.

Certain butterflies, mostly Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites, Common Blues and Small Skippers are commonly parasitized by tiny red mites; Trombidium breei which normally attach themselves to the thorax or legs of the butterfly. They transfer from host to host when the butterflies alight to nectar at flowers. This does not appear to affect the butterflies adversely and I suspect this to be a symbiotic relationship i.e. both parties benefit from each other.

As the season progresses the numbers of these butterflies decreases which I believe is simply because the corvids are eating them. However, the numbers of butterflies with mites attached increase.

Might in be that the sight of a red mite puts the birds off? Red is sometimes a warning sign in in nature and birds do suffer from mite infestations!

My mission this coming summer is to prove this by filming it. Wish me luck, it's a very difficult job, but I believe a worthy task.