Cumbria Wildlife Trust is buzzing with excitement this weekend, as it holds a Carlisle-wide celebration of pollinators.
Tomorrow and Sunday sees the trust singing the praises of bees and butterflies at events and it will even bang the drum for the much-ignored fly!
With free activities every day, there’s something for all the family to enjoy – some events need to be booked in advance.
Highlights of the festival include:
Saturday
Flies, the forgotten pollinators, Tullie House, 2pm to 2.45pm
Dr Erica McAlister from the Natural History Museum will talk about her life-long passion for flies – and why we shouldn’t forget about them!
The Swifts – from Golf Course to Nature Haven, Tullie House, 3pm to 3.45pm
Dr Alex Dittrich from the University of Cumbria will describe how a wildlife desert became an amazing haven for nature.
Celebration of Bees, Tullie House, 6.30pm to 10pm
The launch of the very first Cumbrian Bumblebee Atlas – includes a talk from local naturalist Jane Orgee, and premier of film My Garden of a Thousand Bees.
The Big Plant, Swifts Nature Reserve, Carlisle, 10am to 3pm
Help the trust and Carlisle City Council plant around 4,000 wildlife-friendly plants to help make a difference for bees and other pollinators. Plus: pollinator trail, bio-blitz and children’s activities.
The Big Plant, Allonby Green, 10am to 3pm
The trust is planting 2,000 plug plants with Solway AONB. Plus: bio-blitz.
Sunday
The Big Buzz! Gosling Sike, Houghton, 10 am to 4pm
Join us for:
- Wildlife themed arts and crafts for children.
- Pop-up plant and garden product sale.
- Get creative drop in arts and creative writing activities for all ages.
- Refreshments available to buy.
- Open garden and self-led trails.
Gosling Sike will also be the venue for moth trapping, a nursery and seed bank tour, folklore storytelling and a wildlife gardening workshop.
For more details of all fringe events, and to book, go to https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/big-buzz-national-pollinator-conference-Fringe-2022
The Big Buzz National Pollinator Conference and Fringe have been made possible thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and is the culmination of Get Cumbria Buzzing. The ground-breaking, three-year project aims to get community green spaces around north and west Cumbria and road verges on parts of the A66 and A595 buzzing with bees and pollinators, and to increase the communities’ knowledge of pollinating insects.
