Loch Leven midges

Huge clouds of midges around Loch Leven in Fife. According to the BBC, it's an annual phenomenon but this year the numbers are exceptional.

At first, walking through them seemed unpleasant, and we saw children on bikes who were quite upset by them. But these midges don't bite, and after a while we began to enjoy the unusual experience.

Often a dense patch would form in front of us, and move with us. If we stopped suddenly it appeared to keep moving. This was confirmed when a couple passed in the other direction, and we felt the impact of colliding with their cloud. I wonder if the midges just take their position from the nearest object, or if they are using our motion to move.

I tried taking closeups, with limited success (see extras). I thought with so many I could just focus on a fixed distance and I couldn't miss. But of course there were always many more at other distances. They seemed camera shy, too, moving off whenever I paused!

In the closeups I can see that they fly strangely, with two legs held up over the head. Puzzlingly, every view in profile showed only three trailing legs. Is one held asymmetrically as a stabiliser against the (very slight) breeze?