Author Archives: Carol

Summer events for children at RSPB, The Lodge

The RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy run a series of events during the summer holidays:

Mini-beast Safari: These are focused mainly for the younger children and take place in a small area of the reserve away from the trails.

  • Tuesday 28th July 10:30-12:00pm
  • Monday 3rd August: 2:00-3:30pm
  • Thursday 6th August 10:30-12:00pm
  • Tuesday 11th August: 10:30-12:00pm
  • Thursday 27th August: 10:30-12:00pm
  • Wednesday 2nd September: 10:30-12:00pm
Walk on the Wild Side: These are suggested for older children (8 – 12), and involve a 2 mile walk along reserve trails, including a flight of steps, discovering nature by looking for clues.
  •     Friday 14th August: 10:30 – 12.30pm
  •     Tuesday 25th August 2:00 – 4.00pm
All children must be accompanied by adults and booking is essential as numbers are restricted, phone 01767 680541.  Further details on the RSPB website.

 

Invertebrates @ Flitwick Moor: 4th July 2015

We had hundreds of invertebrates join us for our exploration of Flitwick Moor, some YounGnats and some not-so-young YounGants came along too.

Do you know anything about Glow Worms?

If not and you missed our members evening, watch this short home made film that that was made for the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales (WTSWW) Bridgend Group members night 02/12/13. The film is about the Glow worms you can find in Wales (Lampyris noctiluca). Hope you enjoy it but really hope you make the effort to go in search of your own Glow worm experience.

Orchids, Chalk Flora and Butterflies: 27th June 2015

Our walk around Sharpenhoe Clappers started off with 8 and grew to about 16 including 2 YounGnats.

We walked from the car park down moleskin hill by the road and saw Twayblade, Bee, Common Spotted and Pyramidal Orchids in good numbers.

There was a good show of Great Pignut and several butterfly species seen including Dark-Green Fritillary, Marbled white, Meadow brown, Ringlet, Large skipper and Small Tortoiseshell.

The three fields that used to be arable had large numbers of Pyramidal orchids, including one white one, as well as Common Broomrape.

A caterpillar of the Brimstone butterfly was found on a Buckthorn and a fantastic female Small Elephant Hawk Moth was rescued from the path.

On the return to the car park via the hill fort we found white Helleborine that had finished flowering. We searched for Yellow Birdsnest orchid without success, but found Fragrant orchids in the grassland.

Orchids and Chalk Flora: 13th June 2015

Fortunately, the rain didn’t stop us finding plenty of orchids and other chalk flora on Knockinghoe NNR and Pegsdon Hills NR.

In the morning 8 of us went to Knockinghoe NNR and saw common spotted orchid, twayblade, pyramid, fragrant and burnt orchids. We also saw the rare Spotted Catsear and Field Fleawort…both plants that live on chalk grassland.

After a sandwich lunch 4 of us went to Pegsdon hills where we saw more orchids, including White Helleborine and Fly Orchids. We also saw Great Pignut.

We saw the sheep at close quarters that were grazing the chalk grassland.

Butterfly Walk: 17th May 2015

It was a bright but breezy day for our walk around Whipsnade Downs looking for butterflies, in particular Duke of Burgundy, Green Hairstreak, Grizzled and Dingy Skippers. There were 16 of us in total but unfortunately no YounGnats.

We saw 16 species of butterflies mostly in the more sheltered locations, and saw each of our target species. In fact there were 50 Duke of Burgundy spread over a good range of the walk. The other species included Brown Argus, Common Blue, Brimstone, Green Veined White, Large White, Orange Tip, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and a Cinnabar Moth!

Thanks to Greg Herbert and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Butterfly Conservation for organising the walk.

Wildlife @ Rushmere: 9th May 2015

It was a lovely day for our visit to Rushmere Country Park to take a closer look at the wildlife to be found around the park. We had plenty of YounGnats come to look at our Nature Table in the Rushmere Visitor Centre which this time included some live beetles and moths caught in a moth trap overnight. As usual the Mink was of great interest.

Some of the young herons had already fledged but there was still plenty of activity in the heronry to be spied upon using the spotting scopes. One young heron was even seen to make its maiden flight although we weren’t sure if it had been planned or not!

After a slow start, the bug hunters arrived at our marquee in the bottom meadow. They quickly set to work and found an impressive amount of wildlife.

  • Ground Beetles of various sorts: Carabus problematicus  (Violet ground beetle), Abax parallelepipedus,  Nebria brevicollis, Pterosticus madidius (Black clock ground beetle) and Bembidion Sp.,
  • Rove beetles: Philonthus plus larvae and Xantholinus
  • Ladybirds: 14 spot, 16 spot and 24 spot
  • Cuckoo bee and Red tailed bumble bee
  • Wolf Spider
  • Springtails
  • Common Ground hopper
  • Speckled bush cricket and Dark bush cricket
  • Various Butterflies: Orange tip, Green veined white, Large White, Brimstone and Peacock caterpillars
  • Longhorn Moth
  • Lots of bugs: Leaf Hopper, Green shield Bug and Sloe/hairy Shield bug, Phyllobius (Weevil), Corizus hyoscyami, Stenodema laevegeta (Grass bug), Birch Bug, Nettle Bug and Nabids

Thanks to Julia and Erika for arranging a fabulous day for us, and to John Pitts our roving photographer. Why not come along to our next one and see what you can find?