News

Recent Events

Bug Hunt - 27 June 2009

16 adults and children joined entomologist Lawrence Bee on a bug hunt through the community woodland on a hot sunny Saturday morning. Lawrence swept the glade with a net, capturing several grass bugs, and was able to explain that to an entomologist, bugs are a special group of insects which often have overlapping wings: examples are waterboatmen, which we didn't find in the woodland and aphids of which there were many! He also found an adult froghopper in that first sweep; many of us are familiar with young froghopper larvae which coat themselves in cuckoo spit, made by blowing air through their waste liquid and preventing their soft young bodies from drying out. A couple of people had brought beetles along for Lawrence to identify. Patrick Boston showed us some particularly impressive mint beetles from his garden; with their beautiful iridescent green wing cases, they looked like Christmas tree ornaments.

We then split up to shake tree branches over trays and sheets to see what surprises might fall. We soon found that oak trees offered the biggest range of creepy crawlies and ash, the least. Finds included a rather fierce looking striped scorpion fly, a large black and white ichneumon fly, some very colourful spiders and a woodlouse. Interestingly, woodlice hatch with 12 legs and gain another 2 when they shed their skins. 2 handsome green oak bush crickets were found on a nettle among the newly coppiced hazel; with their bodies about 1 cm long, they were really young and can expect to double or triple in size by the end of the summer. The largest creature we saw was a stag beetle, found by the smallest bug hunter.

We enjoyed coffee, lemonade and biscuits in the glade while releasing our finds back into the undergrowth. We are very grateful to Lawrence for sharing his expertise.

Dawn Chorus Event - 25 April 2009

9 adults and teenagers got up with the lark to enjoy the woodland's dawn chorus from 5 - 6.30am on a fine Saturday morning. John Woolliams identified 16 species of bird for us, repeating their cries. A skylark opened the performance, then a bat swooped over the glade as we were surrounded by the music of many blackbirds. Experts have made several different suggestions as to why birds chose to start the day with a song: because it is calm and still; because sound travels well in cool air; because they can't feed yet and because it's important to let other birds know that they've survived the night and that their territory is still occupied.

Halfway through we were thrilled to see and hear a blackcap as it slowly circled us, singing from 4 different points to mark its territory. When it was fully light we spotted our newly planted bluebells, now in flower, and admired the crabapple blossom and cowslips. A greenfinch finished off the main chorus at 5.50am, but the sleepy collared dove only started to call as we were finishing coffee and brioche at 6.30am. Some of us were lucky enough to hear a cuckoo, on our way out through the gate.

4.50am Skylark
4.55am Blackbird
5.00am Pheasant
5.10am Yellowhammer
5.10am Robin
5.15am Chiffchaff
5.15am Wren
5.20am Woodpigeon
5.25am Great tit
5.25am Bluetit
5.25am Chaffinch
5.25am Blackcap
5.30am Rook
5.30am Songthrush
5.50am Greenfinch
6.30am Collared dove
6.45am Cuckoo

Older Events

2009 index

2008 index

2007 index

2006 index

2005 index