I did this whilst visiting a tiny village called Peasmarsh in East Sussex. Walking along a public footpath across fields, I accidentally stumbled upon the most perfect meadow I had ever seen.
It was completely isolated and untouched and for some reason during the summer months it had been left to grow completely wild with the most beautiful delicate grasses and colourful flowers. We walked knee deep through this secret field and to my surprise everywhere I looked there were insects galore. Dancing butterflies, bright blue moths, the sound of crickets and the buzz of big bumblebees... insects were everywhere in all their exotic and colourful forms.
It was fascinating to see that a wild field could be home to so many species. And it being the hot balmy summer months, insects were in the full flush of mating season. Butterflies were dancing in pairs and bright blue Damselflys were bending in an acrobatic fashion to form what seemed to my eyes a perfect heart shape.
Seeing so much life in the fields made me realise how important it is for these habitats to be allowed to grow wild. The difference between the barren ploughed farmland so common to our English countryside, compared to this spectacle was astonishing. In fact I had recently read of a Road Verge Campaign to support wild flowers being grown by the sides of roads. The petition is to encourage members of the public to ask councils to stop inappropriate cutting, so that flowers and grasses can grow by roadsides in their local area.
What is especially enjoyable about these wild meadows is that it makes you feel like a bit of an explorer. There are so many different types of insects that you can be quite in wonder at their diversity and every day you are likely to come across a new finding, a creature that you have never seen before in your life. If you search in the grasses, you can often get up close to creatures that may stay still for a while.
Insects may have a reputation as 'creepy crawlies', but perhaps it is because they seem so different from us. Six legs and feet that often allows them to creep up walls and hang without effort from ceilings, skeletons on the outside of their bodies, endless combinations of shapes, colours sizes, each creature seems stranger than the next and completely unique and yet perfectly created. More than anything, it is their eyes that give them their 'alien' quality. The bulging compound eyes, that are unmoving, but give insects the benefit of a large field of vision. Try typing 'insect eyes' in the search field on www.flickr.com and you can see just how strange these creatures are.
Insects are also fascinating for their different skills and behaviours. I sat and watched a huge dragonfly hover and dive across a pond, veering backwards and forwards, skimming over the water, showing off its remarkable aerial manoeuvers. I then reminisced about a magical moment in Kerala, India, where I sat in a boat as the sunset and watched a tree twinkle with fireflies. It was amazing to see these little creatures able to light up their bodies like stars. And who can't be impressed when they hear a fruit fly can beat its wings 250 times a second, or a grasshopper that can jump twenty times its length, or even an ant that can carry 100 times its weight.
These little creatures are also vitally important. At the base of the food chain, they provide a tasty meal for birds, frogs, lizards, bats, reptiles and many others. Without them, there would be no flowering plants and we depend on them for the free service of pollination which provides us with so many of our fruit, vegetables and crops.
So I would encourage anyone to explore a summer meadow and rather than just seeing it as overgrown grass, take a moment to have a proper look. You may find some of the world's most fascinating creatures hidden amongst the colourful flowers and delicate grasses.
