I got to help at the Great Fen today, where my Mum works, and had a great day! First I met Alison who runs Little Bugs and Christina who volunteers. They were really friendly and kind and I was excited to help. Little Bugs is for the really young children, although today a couple of other older children came too as their schools were closed as well. Alison asked me to set up some foam mats for the families to sit on when they arrive. I chose a pink one for myself and set up at the front as I am a helper today! When the children arrived, I introduced them to Oscar the Otter and Alison taught everyone about the pond lifecycle. I didn’t know that beetle larvae breathe through their bottoms! 

Then we went pond dipping. We scooped some water into a tray and used little nets to swish around and see what we could find. There were lots of damselfly larvae! We also saw pond skaters and water boatmen. Did you know pond skaters are predators, eating other insects, but water boatmen eat plants? There were loads of blue damselflies flying around. I love them as their colour is so bright. I also saw a brown dragonfly which I think could be a brown hawker.

Alison told us how important it is to have some water in our gardens for wildlife so we made our own mini ponds to take home. We got a black bucket and added lots of stones at the bottom. I think larvae will like to hide under them. There are some big stones to help wildlife climb out too but I’ll add more at home. We got a water mint plant and it smells so good. Alison said it will have pretty purple flowers. I’m going to let the rain fill it up next week and keep watching to see who comes to visit it in my garden. We got a copy of the Wild about Ponds booklet too. 

We had a snack in the wooden outdoor shelter and listed to the story ‘Oi Frog’, it was really funny! I was glad we were in the shade as it was so hot today.

My favourite part was setting up the mud kitchen. There were lots of pots, pans, bowls and a kettle and I got to choose where it all went. Christina and I also went hunting for safe ingredients they could cook with and I made sure we didn’t pick any hemlock, thistles or nettles! The lime flowers smelled amazing and there were lots of plums and buttercups we could pick. I mixed a tub of really sticky mud using the dirt from the mole hills and I think they had a great time playing with what I set up. The children made soup, drinks and cakes.

I hope I can come back and help again. I learned a lot and I think everyone should come to Little Bugs!

Great Fen Little Bugs meets alternate Wednesdays and Fridays, 10.30am - 12pm, at Ramsey Heights Nature Reserve. See our latest events to find a date to suit you. 

If you're an adult interested in volunteering with Little Bugs or other community and education events, please get in touch!