Spring in the air.....

What a beautiful day! I have been out on a bug hunt with a fantastic group of energetic children. When I left home this morning in a pea souper of dense fog, I must admit I was thinking we are being far too optimistic, especially this early in the year. I was wrong. The sun burnt its way through, the temperature went up, the birds started to sing and the air filled with the undeniable sound of buzzing. The children were absolutely ecstatic at being outside and they really pulled out all the stops! Great fun was had by all, but the clear favorites of the day were the Seven-Spot Ladybirds, Coccinella septempunctata. A brilliant ladybird out of its over wintering to make the most of a fine day. It has a hard elytra (wing case) in an iconic bright red colour with six black spots and the seventh spread over the elytra junction. It is a native species and one that really captures the children imagination- we even sung the rhyme all the way back to class! For those of you who are on a slightly higher academic level, when we give a newly identified species  its latin name, the idea is to tell you a little about the creature itself. In this case septem means 'seven' and punctus means 'spot'. People often ask me why do we use latin at all. The reason is because its universal. Wherever you are in the world and whatever language you speak, the latin name always remains the same, regardless of what the local common name may be. That way we all know what we are talking about!

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home.......

Hazel Catkins full of pollen  - look out for the first bumble bees feeding on the Pussy Willows as they start to flower.