Having been inspired by Fishponds Bioblitz we decided to do our own and to start with looking out for our garden animals.

A BioBlitz is defined as a short, intensive period of time during which a group of people find and identify as many species of plants, animals, funi and other organisms as possible within a specific georgraphic are.

We decided to focus on animals this time and spend a gardening session to expore our own area. Maybe a little less scientific but nevertheless fun. We also wanted to see how much diversity we have in our garden and to continue doing these exercises year on year to monitor the development of animal diversity.

Equipped with containers, brushes and sticks we ventured around the garden, we looked closely at our flowers to look for pollinators, we turned over stones for invertebraes and lifted the rugs from our compost bins to capture some of our many arachnids.

The writer of this post was most surprised by the diversity of snails and slugs in the garden. Not their best friends when it comes to cultivating kale they thought there is ‘THE slug’ and ‘THE snail’. A leopard slug is surprisingly pretty.

We found Parakeets eating the greengages (see the video on our Instagram of that), different sizes of crab spiders a jumping spider a red tailed and a white backed bumblebee.

We learned the difference between a millepedes and centipedes. Did you know that centipedes are carnivorous and actually have fangs to immobilise their prey.

We collected a variety of types of woodlice of all sizes.

Some of our hollyhocks have already started to go to seed – and it is fascinating to watch the tiny weevils with their trunk munching on the seeds.

The kids surprised with their knowledge of bugs and most of all how they handled the bugs and spiders.

A successful and enjoyable day had in the TCG.