PURPLE HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY

Scientific name: Favonius quercus

Hello,

If you find an oak tree, there is a chance that you will see me also, but you will have to look up, as I like to chase around the top of the tree.

I was born in a big oak tree, right next to one of your houses, so please look after it.

I have lived in the same place all my life.

At first I was a little egg at the base of oak bud.

Then a caterpillar feeding off its flower buds.

Then in the bark of the oak tree I magically pupate into a beautiful butterfly.

In the spring and summer you might see my brilliant purple sheen, which is why you call me a Purple Hairstreak Butterfly.

Flutter Bye for now…

River Lamprey

Scientific name: Lampetra fluviatilis

Hello,

We have been swimming along the river to Wakefield, long before people even built your house or any houses in the town.

You call us River Lamprey, and you probably think we are a bit strange, because we look different to many other fish. I don’t have a jaw, and my mouth is a round sucker, which I use to suck the bodily fluid out of other fish, or to suck up dead fish at the bottom of the river.

I was born in Wakefield, but when I was young I swam along the river to the coast and out into the sea, where I lived for many years.

It was a great adventure being in the sea, but know I have made the long journey back home to Wakefield, to lay over 25,000 eggs in the river, which I hope will survive and swim out to sea, just like I did.

Hello,

I come a long way to visit Wakefield in the summer

When I arrive, I build my summer home with my friends in your flooded gravel pits, leftover from your old coal mines, or in the sandy banks of the river you call Calder.

We tunnel long holes in the sand, and make nests of straw for our eggs, if you look along the banks of the river you will see us.

That’s why you call me a Sand Martin, although many people think I’m a Swallow, because of my forked tail.

You will see and hear us flying and singing together, and swooping down to catch a bug.

In the autumn we fly all the way back to Africa, thinking about our fun summer holiday, splashing in your river