It seems that bugs are a bit like buses – you look for ages and only find two, then they all appear at once.

On Monday I caught the train to north Cardiff on a mission to find something special (more on that tomorrow) but, before looking for that creature, detoured through Heath Park. The woodland there is usually quite damp, even in the middle of summer, but neither a drop of water nor a squelch of mud remained.

The only water I could find was in Nant-y-Wedal, a narrow stinking stream that runs across one of the fields (I’m not sure what causes the smell, but there are permanent hazard notices warning of bacteria).

If you can ignore the noxious smell, the wildflowers and trees growing along the stream are always worth a look I’ve found, and so it was on Monday. Some leaf-turning and fossicking amongst the Alders was especially rewarding.

Not only did I find two Red-legged shieldbugs and a Hawthorn shieldbug, but there were several Parent bugs, a couple sitting on their own, plus three guarding their eggs, and what I think are tiny first instars, just in the process of hatching (not sure where their parent had gone). This is obviously the perfect time to see them as I also saw more on the Alders around Roath Park Lake, my subsequent destination.