“It’s based on the weather, so a warm and dry, but humid day is absolutely perfect,” said Dr Ian Bedford, who is an entomologist and known as East Anglia’s Bug Man.
“So, they’re up there in the sky, seagulls see this cloud of food, and they just gobble them up and then they’ve still got lots of these ants on the ground too to feed on.”
But the influx in these swarms of flying ants – “one of nature’s wonders”, according to Dr Bedford – is not just good for seagulls, other species of bird benefit, too.
“Swallows, swifts and house martins need to build up their energy to make their long journeys back to Africa,” he added.
“So, they’re out feeding on all these flying ants too. The last thing we want to do is start killing them off because they are there as a very important food source.”
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