You're Not Isolated

Warm spring days bring out some colourful characters in our gardens and spending time at home gives us an opportunity to meet some of them. The Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Alan Wright explains

- Alan Wright

Spending extra time at home in spring should hopefully mean lots of opportunity to enjoy our gardens. Whatever social distancing regulations are in place, you’re never isolated in your own patch of wilderness.

Bugs and slugs might not be the most appealing members of the animal world to most of us, but every one of these creatures, great and small, has a part to play in the jungle that is your garden.

Sitting out in the garden, there is always a lovely buzz as bees and other insects luxuriate in some of your flowers – feeding and pollinating as they wander from plant to plant.

Bumblebees are a favourite insect, with 25 varieties in the UK, you can spot a good number of them, including white-tailed, red-tailed, garden and hooped bodied carder bees, making the most of your heather, herbs and flowers. Bumblebees have fat bodies with bright coloured, “woolly” jumpers and are a delight. They will be joined by other members of the bee family, there are 250 kinds of bee in this country, so you might try to identify some of them.