2018 Summer V 1976 Summer

[Billhook]

I am old enough to vividly remember 1976 , the hot Summer and the plague of greenfly which covered the ground like a green carpet.

This was followed by a plague of ladybirds and again everything was covered with a red carpet and  it was so bad on the beaches that people left in droves and complained about being bitten, although I have never been bitten by one.  I do not think that they can bite a human.

Compare that to this year and I do not think I have had to clean my windscreen once for bug splat, I have seen relatively few flies and moths, hardly any butterflies. Very few insects came into our bedroom in the evening with the window open and light on.    Wasps and Hornets were doing ok though.

The swallows left early without gathering on the wires   Short of food?

Was it the long wet Spring this year?  Any other theories?

[nepia]

You had swallows?  There were no swallows, martins or swifts here this year - not one.  I saw maybe a couple of dozen individuals over Oxted a few miles away but otherwise none at all.

Yet my mate 10 miles from John O'Groat's had record numbers of swallows and martins and swifts for the first time.

 

Haven't the swallows etc had a rough time of it in Africa the last few years or am I imagining that one?

Shortage of food here certainly I'd say:  you're right - there are no insects to speak of.

 

In the comparatively short time we've been in this house - 20 years - the wilflife of all shapes and sizes has crashed.  Except for corvids, pigeons, buzzards and Red Kites.  I notice no change in wasps - there's a very active nest in the roof as we speak - but fewer hornets.

 

1976...O Levels in a gym that had a full height west-facing glass wall, cricket, cricket, cricket, a free fortnight in St Tropez, Elton bloody John and Kiki Dee!

 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

Swallow numbers creeping up slowly here year on year after a crash.

 

They did seem to leave without much ceremony this year now you mention it,  no sitting on lines, just disappeared.

 

I was 12 in 76. Ladybirds did bite!

[peatff]

We went to Skeggy for a day in 76 and the beach was a sea of ladybirds. August 09 we were in Mablethorpe and there was a similar plague of ladybirds. There was a fence round the campsite and you could scoop them in handfuls off the top of the fence.

[Stubby]

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Swallow numbers creeping up slowly here year on year after a crash.

 

They did seem to leave without much ceremony this year now you mention it,  no sitting on lines, just disappeared.

 

I was 12 in 76. Ladybirds did bite!

I was 23 in 1976 and remember spending a huge proportion of that summer on Elmer beach . Remember everything being scorched brown . Don't remember any plague of insects . There were lots more starlings  back then . the sky used to go black with them in the evenings . Kites and buzzards were few but now they are like confetti , everywhere .  

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Ladybirds did bite!

yes they did

[Vespasian]

I was twelve myself in 76, can't remember much of it to be honest..   apart from some people goin on about the weather..

 

This time round its a bit different, I understand why it was so hot for so long..  the jet stream migrating North..   were'as the summer of 76 was just an anomaly, this summers weather has more sinister implications..  thats what I've taken from this years hot summer..  

 

That climate change isn't an academic theory, but a real and present danger...   

[Billhook]

3 hours ago, peatff said:

We went to Skeggy for a day in 76 and the beach was a sea of ladybirds. August 09 we were in Mablethorpe and there was a similar plague of ladybirds. There was a fence round the campsite and you could scoop them in handfuls off the top of the fence.

It was that part of the East Coast that I was referring to.  I remember also the wheat was full of ladybirds and the wheat on trailers going into store was orangy red!   Still it probably raised the protein levels and made a higher price for milling!

[Billhook]

16 minutes ago, Vespasian said:

I was twelve myself in 76, can't remember much of it to be honest..   apart from some people goin on about the weather..

 

This time round its a bit different, I understand why it was so hot for so long..  the jet stream migrating North..   were'as the summer of 76 was just an anomaly, this summers weather has more sinister implications..  thats what I've taken from this years hot summer..  

 

That climate change isn't an academic theory, but a real and present danger..

 

.   

Don't think there is much argument about the world becoming warmer as it has done many times in the past without Range Rover Sports and modern warfare.  The big question which is up for debate is how much of it is man made.

If we all cut out all fossil fuels now and other forms of pollution would it make any significant difference to global warming?.

These things should be done anyway for a clean environment, but that is a different argument.

[westphalian]

talking about Skeggy. we would go there every year but in 76 we discovered Newquay. i thought i was in the Caribbean. Just seen Jaws and was worried each time i heard a splash. i remember the grass being damaged more in 76 than this year. i had zero midges in my wood this year and fewer mozzies. Earth is not in danger, we are. water shortages, migrating populations failed crops etc. feel sorry for the kids. global warming is going to happen, me turning turning the central heating down isn't going to cut much v the 3 billion of china and india wanting a developed world life style.

is skeggy still shit?