… originally written for the South East England Youth Nature Network Blog (February 2025).
This month it’s been all about the bugs! On 20 February, we paid a visit to Canvey Wick nature reserve, which is co-managed by the RSPB and Buglife. Buglife Community Warden, Jo, explained that the site (which was developed as an oil refinery in the 1960s) is now a haven for rare bees and other invertebrates, many of which are rare or threatened. In order to preserve the mosaic of habitats, regular maintenance work is needed to stop certain plants taking over, and squeezing out other flora and fauna. Today our job would be to cut back brambles to uncover part of the ditch system. These ditches are home to aquatic invertebrates, and those with aquatic stages to their life cycles, such as the Near Threatened Scarce Emerald Damselfly (Lestes dryas). If the ditches aren’t maintained they risk drying out, and the habitat will be lost.
These photos tell the before, during and after story of a morning of hard work! It was very satisfying to see the difference we had made.
After a well-earned lunch, Jo showed us a citizen science project that she has been taking part in over the winter, called Bug Bunkers. Pots containing stones, sticks and leaves are checked regularly and the number of different species recorded. We found lots of woodlice, spiders and springtails. Learning about this has given us ideas for surveys that we can carry out at Rainham Marshes. You can find out about this and other projects by visiting the Buzz Club website.
On 22 February, we held our regular meet-up at RSPB Rainham Marshes, where we were able to put into practice some of the tips we had learnt at Canvey Wick.
For example, Jo explained to us that some types of solitary bee like to lay their eggs in small-diameter tubes, such as cut reeds, rather than the bigger bamboo tubes that are usually found in bug hotels. Back at Rainham there are plenty of reeds, so we were able to make some into bundles to furnish our ‘Bugtopia’ village. Bugtopia is built from upcycled flat bird tables (which the RSPB has recently withdrawn from sale due to the risk of diseases spreading).
We also worked hard to repair and extend the dead hedges in the Wildlife Garden, which are a brilliant hiding and nesting place for many different invertebrates, birds and small mammals.
Next month, we are planning to build a log pile habitat for beetles, using driftwood collected from the Thames foreshore, as well as finding out how to survey for Swifts in your area.
If this mixture of practical conservation tasks, surveying skills, and meeting like-minded people sounds like something you’d like to be involved in, do get in touch.
All images © South East England Youth Nature Network
