Ok, so I have a bit of a confession to make, I wrote this blog on Tuesday when the sun was shining and summer felt like it was finally here. It is of course now raining and pretty miserable. However, I still have hope that it will brighten up for insect week next week!
Here’s my blog, written with the sun streaming through the window:
The reserve is looking beautifully summery with wonderful flowers creating splashes of colour along the sea banks and in the meadow. Dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies are out and about which means I’ve got lots to learn! It doesn’t take too long to start getting to grips with these fascinating creatures. I have been out with my ID charts and its amazing what you see when you start to look a bit closer.
Today I went on a mini-bug hunt of my own. My favourite spot at the minute is the bench on the fen trail next to aptly named dragonfly pool. I sat in the sun and spotted blue-tailed, common blue and large red damselflies, a lovely peacock butterfly and a large white butterfly. There was a dragonfly whizzing about but unfortunately it was just a little too far away to identify and I haven’t quite got the hang of following insects with my binoculars yet, they are just too unpredictable!
The pond dipping platform was great for seeing bugs in the water. You don’t need to go pond dipping to explore what lurks beneath the surface, you just need to sit for a bit and look hard. My favourite pond insect has to be the whirligig beetle as they whirl around and around in circles on the surface. These beetles are awesome, they have divided eyes which means they can see above and below the surface of the water at the same time. I also saw pond skaters and water boatman.
Walking back to the visitor centre I saw a speckled wood, my favourite butterfly. It was flitting around the vegetation on the bank and only landed briefly to reveal its beautiful brown and cream speckly wings.
On my way back I was checking all the dock leaves for the green dock beetle, these little golden green beetles are just like jewels in the sunlight. I didn’t find any but a couple of visitors came to ask me what I was up to and when I explained they laughed and said one had landed on them earlier!
Next week we’ve got a Marvellous Moths morning on Wednesday 27th at 9am (just turn up outside the visitor centre) and a special guided walk focussing on insects also on Wednesday at 10am (please book, places fill up quickly). For more information ckeck out our events pages. As its insect week, we want everyone to come and tell us what they have seen lurking in the undergrowth or flitting around the flowers.
To find out more about insect week you can have a look at the national website at http://nationalinsectweek.co.uk/
You can also check out how to encourage insects into your garden on the RSPB Homes for Wildlife Pages.