Wildflowers, insects and bats!
What a fantastic spring it has been for Greenhaven’s, we have enjoyed some fantastic events and connected with lots of people out in the community enjoying being around nature and all with a passion to preserve our natural world.
May saw two fantastic wildflower walk weekends. The first at Riverside Park, Newhaven where our group loved spotting all the beautiful flowers and insects along the way, we even had members in the group who taught us how to identify birdsong, a fascinating walk. The following weekend we visited The Last Wood and Meadow in Seaford. An abundant area for wildflowers and wildlife where we identified flowers such as Birdsfoot clover, Cranesbill, Scarlett Pimpernel and Yellow Rattle to name a few. We spotted many Butterflies, Small Copper, Brown Argus, Large Skippers and loads of Bees and Insects. What makes these walks special is that none of us are experts, everyone with various knowledge of the flowers etc but everyone learning, connecting with each other and together committed in our love of nature and the vital role it provides to our planet. These sessions were fun for everyone, and we will be returning to the Last Wood and Meadow to see the Orchids at the end of June.
Our fantastic Wilder Gardens champions responded to a lady in Peacehaven who wanted her lawn rewilded. Jessie and her Peacehaven Pod spent the day planting in wildflowers and getting the lawn ready and already flowers have started to grow. This will be a fantastic place for pollinators and give joy to the householder as she watches the garden evolve and spring to life.
The end of May saw a group of us meeting at Riverside Park, Newhaven to go on a Batwalk. The evening was led by our Jessie Rodriguez and armed with sonar detection we set off as the sun went down. We loved hearing the amorous Marsh Frogs as we walked along the riverbank and were treated to a glorious sunset with a chorus of birdsong to accompany us. This evening only one Bat was seen and detected but we were in a large group all chatting and enjoying ourselves too much! This was a great evening and we have arranged another one on the 17th June at The Meridian Centre, with smaller groups we hope to detect more this time.
Our final event in May was the Buglife day with Alice Parfitt, the morning saw her talk all things Bugs with an adult group, we then went and applied our newfound knowledge at Riverside Park. I learnt lots about parasitic wasps who lay their eggs in other Bees abdomens, their larvae grow and eventually kill their unwitting host… A gruesome but rather fantastic way of survival! These findings were recorded on the Fit App and we all learnt loads. The afternoon saw us move over to the Last Wood and Meadow in Seaford. Here we were joined by lots of families, and it was amazing to see the kids catching Bees in their pots, identifying them and then letting them go. Fun was had by all and the children enjoyed making dragonflies before returning home. Thank you, Alice, for a fantastic day.
Before this gets published we will have had an amazing Wildflower Roof Tour at our AGM, a fantastic Froglife day, learning everything about Amphibians and another Batwalk. Greenhavens Network will have attended the Fish Festival and we will be getting ready for our Big Butterfly Count event with the amazing Dan Danahar on the 9th July. Starting in the morning at the Peacehaven Community Orchard and moving onto the Castle Hill Nature Reserve in the afternoon. If you want to book and join us please email me at contact@greenhavens.network .
All events can be found on our Facebook page: Greenhavens Network, do add yourself to keep up to date and check out our website www.greenhavens.network where there is a fountain of information to get your garden wilder, and find all the great groups we have if you fancy getting involved on a project.
