I have been surveying the insects of Warwick Gardens since 2011. Warwick Gardens in Peckham, south east London, is a small, ‘typical’ urban park: a playground, a dog-free orchard, a log circle, picnic benches, a small football and basketball pitch, table tennis tables, and space for dogs. It was awarded a Green Flag in 2012. In 2021, it featured on BBC Springwatch, a testament to the wildlife thriving in this modest patch of green.

The park sits between a railway line and back gardens, dotted with ash, hawthorn, hornbeam, horse chestnut and silver birch. Southwark Council has allowed the borders to grow wild — barley grass, thistles, nettles, green alkanet, comfrey and black horehound – while ivy, rose and bramble spill in from neighbouring gardens. Yarrow and ragwort punctuate the grass. An ‘edible hedge’ planted in 2014 along the railway, including cherry plum, hazel, crab apple, wild pear, blackthorn, field maple, hawthorn, honeysuckle and gooseberry, has become a rich habitat for insects.

I have spent countless hours crouched in the bushes with my camera, finding butterflies, barkflies, bugs, and a multitude of bees and wasps. I even discovered two ‘firsts for Britain’ – a leafhopper and a gasteruption wasp. As one Natural History Museum entomologist remarked, “yet more interesting finds”. This is proof that a small urban park can be extraordinary if you take the time to look. 

Over time, I have learned the park’s rhythms: where shield bugs gather, where fruit flies linger, and the tiny blue chalcid wasp that appears every summer day at midday on a single rose bush.

I have watched speckled bush crickets grow from nymphs to adults, followed spider life-cycles, seen wool-carder bees patrol their nettles, and smiled at the dive-bombing antics of German wasps. The seasonal ebb and flow of plants and insects is endlessly absorbing.

All records are submitted to Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL). 

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