Our programme of family activities for the school holidays got off to a fantastic start on Friday. Three volunteers were kept busy by 26 children, who had been brought by their parents or grandparents to discover something of the underwater life in a lake here at RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes.
One of the first catches was a bright green water beetle, which we’d not seen previously. By the end of the afternoon another two of these beetles had been netted, although these were brown and green. Our task now is to try to identify these rounded animals, about one centimetre in diameter.
Many of the children caught water scorpions, and a couple found water stick-insects; Harry found the only screech beetle of the afternoon. There were also lots of damselfly nymphs, back swimmers, water boatmen, other water beetles, snails and fleas. One young lad even caught a small fish.
A little girl told me that her best catch was a leech – I suspect that significance was enhanced by her mother declaring on arrival that she hoped we wouldn’t find any!