Following up from our talk on Grassland Invertebrates in February, we held an Invertebrate Safari on a member’s site near Crasswall, Herefordshire, in September. This event was kindly funded by Rewilding Britain Innovation Fund.
20 members and their children joined us on a warm August morning to explore with sweep-nets and pooters, finding, identifying and recording grassland invertebrates. Led by brilliant entomologist and naturalist Tim Kaye of Cultivating Learning and Nature, we learnt about invertebrate lifecycles and how these relates to grassland management, how to catch and identify insects and how to make our grasslands as diverse as possible to benefit invertebrates. As Tim said “You don’t need to a spaceship to go to space to discover another world – you just need a hand lens.”
He was right - there’s another world right here under our feet. The world of invertebrates, brought alive by Tim’s knowledge and enthusiasm, its beauty enhanced by the hand lenses which enabled us to see it clearly, was a delight to discover.
The abundance of insects in the long grasses of the hay meadows, and fields which are no longer intensively grazed, provided further evidence of the benefits of rewilding for wildlife at every scale.
Both children and adults hugely enjoyed seeking and catching the insects, rushing to Tim with pots and nets full of creatures to discover what and who they had caught. Learning their species name or family was fascinating, and I hope to remember at least some of them! It was enormously entertaining watching people stalking tiny creatures through the grass, chasing butterflies and swishing nets back and forth through the long grass, with much laughter and fun had by all.
After a couple of hours insect pursuing insects, we were hot and ready for a break. We headed up the hill to where our hosts the Freer family kindly provided drinks and wonderful home-made biscuits and pastries.
A joyful morning in a beautiful wilded place, learning more about the wondrous world we inhabit. Huge thanks to the Freer family for welcoming us onto their land and showing us around, and to Tim Kaye for leading such a fun and informative event.
