Steam Dipping on a Sunny Afternoon

On Thursday 25th May the 5s to 13s focus children and their befrienders had a wonderful afternoon paddling in the chalk streams at St Cross Water Meadows. Susan and Shelia from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust brought an array of dipping equipment and identification sheets for the children to use and kindly demonstrated the ‘kick sampling’ technique for the children to copy. They then got busy collecting mud samples to decant into their observation trays. Everyone was fascinated to find all sorts of amazing creatures such as water shrimp, damsel larvae and even a tiny Butthead fish!

One volunteer said “This has been a fantastic workshop, its been so great to get outside. We have had so much fun and have learnt a lot about the tiny creatures that live in the stream. We will definitely come down here again to paddle and have a picnic!”

A focus child added “I loved it when the May Fly landed on my t-shirt, that’s never happened to me before!”