Easter Activity Day and more

The wind blew me to the reserve this morning, the conifer plantation was swaying to the gusts, but at least the rain held off for most of the morning, especially as we were having the second of our Easter Holiday Activities.

The team of volunteers really pulled out the strings for the children today. Activities such as charcoal bark rubbing, using the charcoal from one of our burn sites, as well as drawing with it.

Various arts and crafts from sculptures of toads under the supervision of Glennis

to jelly printing and mask making 

Not just the children were entertained

And looking for any bugs in the bug pit fall traps

 examining Common Toads up close

plus a visit to the pond dipping platforms to see the Toads mating, and their spawn

Don't let the sunshine in the above photo fool you, 5 minutes before this was taken we were in sleet and snow!

The moth trap was put out last night, and we recorded a couple of new moths for this year. The Satellite, with its main dot and two smaller satellite dots,

and The Clouded Drab,
 

It is not just moths that come to the moth trap, quite often you get Ichneumons like this one below caught this morning. Ichneumon wasps are parasitoids; females lay their eggs on a caterpillar and the wasp larva burrows into and develops inside this host, eating its internal tissues and eventually killing it after it pupates. They are normally seen later in the year. There are over 1500 different types in the UK, and identifying them is quite often requiring a microscope.

Thank you to all the volunteers that helped out in their many guises.