We were very lucky with the weather on Sunday 7th July and 7 excited children gathered under the gazebo ready for the Pond dip and Bug hunt with their patient parents.
All the children were given a net, a bucket, and a booklet of pond creatures to help them identify their catch, and they all got busy.
David Holland, our expert freshwater ecologist was there to help everybody identify their pond creatures, and we had a wonderful collection including Palmate newts, water snails, diving beetles, back swimmers and thousands of Daphnia.
There were some great catches which were all returned to the pond unharmed.
The bug hunt was carried out on the field and there were some tiny hidden invertebrates found under leaves and in the grass.
This Combfoot spider was just one of the hidden arachnids, found looking after her parcel of eggs until they hatch.
Alder and Soldier beetles were found as well as ladybirds and butterflies.
Everyone had a fun afternoon and learnt a lot about nature as well.
Thanks to:
Isabelle Hurdle,
David Holland,
David Howatson,
Andrew Weighill and
John McCombs,
for making it a hugely enjoyable day.
Author: B Cameron