On Saturday morning I arrived at the fantastic Chapter Art house in Canton in Cardiff, with pots, pooters and all the identification sheets I could carry. Chapter were holding a NGS Community Garden event and I had offered to identify the buzzing, crawling, fluttering creatures which made the garden their home.
So what did we find,
(1.) Human (see below image)
The community garden is run by local volunteers and I was surprised by how young some of them were. They soon helped me track down a number of creatures and told me stories of they had come out of the undergrowth covered in caterpillars. Great to hear how they were experiencing a bit of nature through gardening in the middle of Cardiff!
Woodlice - Scuttling about the dampest parts of the gardens, these lot are members of the crab and lobster family after all.
Garden snail - We caused a few raised eyebrows as we cheered on snails as we raced mollusc on mollusc.Obviously Speedy the snail won and given a few leaves as a prize. (see below image)
Quickly hopped out of the pot
I would not want to guess at the two smaller species which wizzed about us, but the hornet-mimic hoverfly is a new one to me this year. I snapped a photo of one over the summer and posted it online asking “what is this gorgeous fly?” and discovered this species which seemed to have been mostly a south England species and which I personally had not noticed before this summer.
Speckled wood butterfly
Red admiral butterfly
Large white butterfly
Small white butterfly
When I was 7 I absorbed the pages of my little Colin Gems butterfly book. It was great to meet a new generation of young naturalists who had that same enthusiasm.
Queen white-tailed bumblebee
Common carder bee
Honey bee
Making beautiful honey (tastes slightly citrusy) at the community hives at chapter.
Harlequin Ladybird
10 spot ladybird (see below image)
Garden spider
Orb web spider
Flesh fly
Small brown moth
With our heads among the runner beans and peering under leafs and stones we did not spend a lot of time looking up! But a few other spots were
Goldfinch
Herring gull
Magpie
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
26 species!
Thank you Chapter Art house for providing such a great home for nature! Watch this space for more like this.....