RiverFestival


New life emerges > RiverFes


The season of new life emerging and in the making! Fresh female Red Mason Bees have emerged from my bee hotels, mated and laid eggs provisioning them with food for next year’s newborns, closing off each ‘nursery’ with a neat door of pollen and mud


In a thicket by the river there are more eggs in waiting - five speckled blue eggs lie cradled in a carefully structured masterpiece of woven stems and dead strands

Elsewhere, more eggs have hatched - the still of the water is rippled by a passing family of Canada Geese

Between egg and adult, many types of insects pass through several stages: here


 a Bush Cricket in miniature clambers laboriously over Veggiemesh. It is extremely miniature... Bush Crickets change form and shed hard outer skins 5-6 times before becoming adults.

In another part of the garden, underneath a Hop leaf


 an unknown inert creature, somewhere between caterpillar and dormant pupa, is hidden. It will soon emerge with wings and fly... in order to mate and make more eggs and start all over again.


Many moths have adapted to incredible extremes for the mating game. Many males pick up the scent of females from over a mile away, some species can detect these scent pheromones from over 6 miles away (11 km). Their specialist apparatus is their feather-like antennae



 male Muslin Moth) – some moths have 60,000 smell receptors on their antennae.



Shield bugs ensuring the next generation...

Beneath the surface of the garden pond


 it is a wholly different Brave New World... here two very different larvae, each superbly adapted for this submerged stage of their lives. The full caste of water life in a garden is an entertainment, but it is merely the starter... a gently flowing river

has more surprises in store...


- A local (Midford Brook) Grayling being gently returned to the river...if you want to see a variety of living animals, great and small, and be completely awestruck by the watery diversity in a river, put this date in your diary...


Wednesday 11th June 10:00-14:00


Guided Walk Along the Midford Brook


What3Words neon/spoon/care


Tickets available via ataafishing.net


(More details of watery events www.wildwatersfestival.com)


 - Local volunteers creating a river walkway on the Midford Brook – saving the river bank from eroding and creating a safe path for people.

Wildlife Gardening Tips: when tidying or making plant breathing space check the underside of leaves for hidden eggs and larvae of butterflies, moths and many more!

Some Red Mason Bees will still be looking for new homes – easy to create from cardboard tubes bought on-line put in a cut off plastic bottle/wooden box surround. Photo 1 – notice yellow spilt pollen as they they work!

Leave hedge and shrub cutting for later – the birds need undisturbed areas to nest.


Photo & ID Credits: 2, 11, 12 Phil Chant; 3, 10 Peter Scourse; 8 Andrew Scourse; others Nicolette Scourse. Moth ID Elisabeth Love Allen



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