I was rather bombarded with Mayflies about 9pm around Beaconsfield Road. It's an uncommon hobby, but I digress...
This means that if we have a warm couple of days we are probably in for a real swarm or two along the Dour. These are an unusual sight and really something quite special to behold. For some reason mayflies hatch and take to the air en masse to find a mate in a very short period of time. If you look at the following pics and think 'urgh!', just remember that the adult flying form probably only has 24 hours in which to find a mate and then die. The trout in the river will thrive on the carcasses the next day.
Mayflies are by far the most primitive flying insects with an established lineage stretching back 350 million years or so, note the four wings, characteristic of the most primitive forms. It is quite likely that the very earliest flying insects would have closely resembled these chaps. It is also thought that the earliest forms of the mayfly may have given rise to all the other flying insects to which we are familiar. So when one looks at a mayfly it's like peering back in time to those ancient days of giant ferns, early reptiles and coal forests.
Here are a couple of pics of mayflies from Dover in 2006. These were with my old Cybershot camera, fingers crossed I'll try to do better in the next few days.