I am looking forward very much to performing It’s Buzzing! at St Piran’s School in Maidenhead on Wednesday 28 February. I’m also looking forward to reading feedback from the pupils after the performance.
St Piran’s School visit
26 February 2007
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Audience feedback, Buzzing!, Performance, School visits | 
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York Literature Festival is Buzzing!
21 February 2007I’m very excited to have teamed up with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the City of York Council to create a free It’s Buzzing! gig as part of the York Literature Festival.
The unique thing about this performance is that it will be followed by an hour-long Wildlife Walk through Rowntree Park, led by wildlife experts Vicky Harland, of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and Stephen Whittaker of City of York Council. Who knows what mini-beasts we might encounter …!
What’s It’s Buzzing!? Find out here
When? Sunday 11 March, 1pm – 3pm
Where? The Pavilion, Rowntree Park, York
Who for? All the family – suitable for children of 7 upwards.
Refreshments? Provided
Cost? Free
Booking? Essential! Contact Vicky Harland on victoriah@yorkshirewt.cix.co.uk, 01904 659570 or 0789 6674809
If you’re wondering whether to come or not, read what the audiences at previous It’s Buzzing! gigs have had to say about it here.
This is the first York Literature Festival, and I’m very proud to be taking part. I’m grateful to festival organiser Anne Mortimer, to Vicky Harland at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Stephen Whittaker at City of York Council for their help in making this event possible.
We look forward to seeing you there!
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Festivals, Performance, Poetry, Yorkshire | 
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First butterfly of the year!
21 February 2007Well, there I was leaving a message on my friend Catherine’s answerphone when I saw something flutter into – and straight out of - our garden. A butterfly?!? I dropped the phone and flew out of the house in my slippers, grabbing my camera en route, and went on the hunt of the could-it-possibly-be-a-butterfly.
And lo and behold, in our neighbours’ back garden, I saw that it very definitely was a butterfly. A Red admiral. (I had assumed it would be a Peacock, as they tend to be the first ones I see each year. But that’s usually around April. Last year, for example, my first Peacock sighting in the garden was on 16 April.)
The very-definitely-a-Red-admiral was fluttering around and then came to rest at the top of our neighbours’ white back door. I tried to get a photo, but it was gone again before I could get in very close.
Off it fluttered, and off I followed, round the fronts of other neighbours’ houses. It stopped now and again at the top of white window frames, and eventually I managed to get a picture. It’s not the world’s best photograph by any manner of means, it does prove that I did just see a Red admiral, at 13:45 on Wednesday 21 February 2007.
The reason I say it does prove it is that I tried to enter the sighting on the UK Phenology Network website, and they said it was too unusual a sighting to enter on their records till they’d checked it out!
Interestingly, the Red admiral was the last butterfly I saw here last year, on 30 November, which you can all about it at my Surprise Visitor post.
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Butterflies, Insects, Lepidoptera, Yorkshire | 
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Recording the bugs where you are
20 February 2007You can make a valuable contribution to science by recording the wildlife you see, and submitting your observations to one of the many wildlife surveys there are in the UK. Here are some you might like to take part in.
National Insect Week 2008
National Insect Week 2008 is coordinating several insect surveys you might like to take part in, including:
- 2-spot Ladybird
- Stag Beetle
- Hummingbird Hawkmoth
- Painted Lady Butterfly
If you see any of the above species, then visit the National Insect Week website to log your sightings!
Nature’s Calendar records the changing seasons, and runs SpringWatch and AutumnWatch, which the BBC is involved with. There are lots of online resources to help you identify animals and plants, and lots of things to record!
Nature’s Calendar uses some of my photos on its website, newsletters etc.
Younger recorders should check out the Nature Detectives scheme.
Garden BirdWatch is a very easy recording scheme to be involved with, and as with all schemes, it’s great fun too. You just record the birds you see in your garden each week. There are also monthly recording forms for butterflies and moths, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, if you want to record those too.
There are two ways to participate in this survey. You can either let the survey know as and when you see a ladybird, or you can carry out a specific site survey.
If you need help identifying the ladybirds you see, check out the national ladybird survey site, or Paul Mabbot’s ladybird site.
Let the Harlequin Ladybird Survey know if you spot any of the new ladybird in Britain, the Harlequin. Find out about Harelquins and about my first Harlequin sightings in York here.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is starting a more informal Garden Beewatch project. They’d like you to take photos of as many different types of bee as you can in your garden, or when you’re out for a walk, and then email the photos to enquiries@bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk Let them know when and where (with a postcode or grid reference) the photos were taken.
Contact the Trust for more details.
The People’s Trust for Endangered Species wants to know if you’ve seen any stag beetles. Go to their Great Stag Hunt information to find out more.
Also, if you find a dead stag beetle, then wrap it carefully and send it to:
Deborah Harvey
School of Biological Sciences
Royal Holloway
University of London
Egham
Surrey TW20 0EX
Carefully enclose it in both a box and an airtight envelope, with details of exactly where you found it. It will be passed on to researchers who are studying beetle sizes.
Sawflies
There are various scientists in Britain interested in the sawflies you see. If you see Berberis sawflies, you can record you sighting with the RHS. Find out more about other sawfly sightings at my ‘Entering the scientific literature’ blog post.
Leave a Comment » | Amphibians, Bees, Birds, Butterflies, Flowers, Hymenoptera, Insects, Ladybirds, Lepidoptera, Mammals, Plants, Wildlife | Permalink
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Entering the scientific literature!
12 February 2007The Berberis sawfly larvae I spotted in our garden last October (find out more ) have entered the annals of science! Andrew Halstead, principal entomologist at the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, and co-author (with Pippa Greenwood) of RHS Pests and Diseases, has written a scientific article for the Sawfly Study Group’s January 2007 Newsletter about Berberis sawfly in Britain. And my Berberis sawfly larvae sighting is mentioned! It is also plotted on a map showing Berberis sawfly distribution across England. The map shows just how remarkable my sighting was – it’s miles and miles and miles away from any other sightings!
The article also includes one of my photos of Berberis sawfly larvae. And a photo (not taken by me) of the adult sawfly. So, now I know what I’m looking out for when the pupae hatch!
To read the article, click on the following link:
Sawfly Study Group, Jan. 2007, Berberis sawfly article by Andrew Halstead
Andrew Halstead would be interested to hear from anyone else who sees Berberis sawflies. He tells me:
“The sort of information that is useful regarding Berberis sawfly sightings is the location where the insect was seen (town/village and county), with the post code and/or map reference, the date it was seen, the host plant and the stage(eggs/larvae/adults/
defoliated plant without larvae or adults).”
Andrew Halstead can be contacted on andrewhalstead@rhs.org.uk
Meanwhile, the editor of The Sawfly Study Group Newsletter, Guy Knight, zoology curator (entomology) at the National Museums Liverpool, is actively looking for sightings of any species of sawfly spotted in Wales. So keep a good lookout there too!
Email him your sightings to Guy.Knight@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
Find out more about Berberis sawflies (including photos of eggs, larvae and adults) here
2 Comments | Berberis sawflies, Hymenoptera, Insects, Sawflies, Yorkshire | Permalink
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Yorkshire Wildlife Trust donation
7 February 2007I visited the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust head office in York yesterday to hand over a donation. The money came from the sale of my 2007 BigBuzz calendar. So, thank you to all those who bought the calendars!
The photo above shows me (on the left) handing the cheque to Vicky Harland, who is the Education Officer for the Trust’s Wild About York project. She and I hope to be able to work together on some projects for local schools – so watch this space …
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