The food for half the birds at Delta Marsh

It is after sundown at Delta Marsh and I was just treated to the sounds of countless midges doing their aerial courtship ritual.

Males fly in huge groups that the girls briefly join, get a boy, mate, and lay eggs.

They are free flying for just days; the vast majority of their lives are spent as larva in the marsh sediment – typically for one year.

Midges are food for many of the ducks and most of the woodland birds on the Delta Ridge.