Life on the other side of the window

Thursday 30 April 2020

Doorstep Wildlife

Welcome to our series of blogs to inspire you about wildlife on your doorstep. Join our authors as they marvel at the wonders of doorstep wildlife, delight at the changes in their gardens & provide tips on how you can help wildlife at home.

Insects through windows by Jean Young

Jean takes a different view through her window...

One of life’s simple pleasures that can be enjoyed under lockdown is taking the opportunity to observe the wildlife that you can see from your window. I take great delight in watching the birds in the garden as they go about their daily business, looking for food, creating the next generation and squabbling with their neighbours.

However, I want to encourage you to look even closer to home, actually on or by the window itself, as I’ve been surprised to find quite a variety of species in this area.

Although I was aware of bees buzzing around my kitchen window, as it’s on the first floor I’d assumed they were just passing by. It was quite some time before the penny dropped and I realised they were actually investigating the stonework around the window. The bees I discovered were red mason bees Osmia bicornis, solitary bees that make use of cavities to build their nest. The holes in our stonework were obviously very appealing and I have enjoyed listening out for my little bees and watching them as they industriously travel to and fro gathering mud to seal up their nest cells. The females have a pair of 'horns' on their head below the antennae, which come in handy for positioning the mud.

They are excellent pollinators, far more efficient than honeybees and provide a valuable service to many of our plants and trees and are welcomed in our orchards and rape fields. The bees will use a variety of nest sites, holes in brickwork/stonework, dead plant stems, dead wood etc. and they are very partial to a bee hotel. Why not make your own des res for the bees and pop it in your garden and you too could have red mason bees as tenants?!

The light from your windows may also attract night-time wildlife such as some of the 2500 species of moths that we have in the UK. Moths come in an incredible variety of size, shape and colours and many are very attractive.

A visitor that you may hear before you see though is the head-banging cockchafer; at up to 3.5cm it makes quite a clonk when it is attracted to the light and accidentally collides with the window. It is also known as the Maybug as it is often seen in May and the Doodlebug because of the whirring noise it makes when flying – both a little confusing as it is a beetle not a true bug. It certainly isn’t short of alternate names including billywitch, snartlegog, mitchamador and spang beetle – whichever takes your fancy!

If you’re lucky enough to get a close-up view you’ll notice it has very impressive antennae, ideal for homing in on the pheromones of the female in the dark, if it doesn’t get distracted by the light of our windows! Don’t be alarmed by the pointy bit at the end of abdomen, some people think it looks rather sting like but it is called the pygidium and is used by the female to push her eggs into the soil.

Selection of the undersides of insects taken through windows by Jean Young — Insects through windows by Jean Young

Over the years a selection of bugs, weevils, wasps etc. have visited my windows. Although I rarely manage to identify them from their underside view, it is still a treat to get the opportunity to study them from this rather unusual angle. Once you start looking who knows what you will spot peering back at you?