Blog - Check the Becks - what we found on Day One!

Exploring the life in our becks

Volunteers from Newbald, North Cave, South Cave, Ellerker and Brantingham joined our first ever training session on 22 March at Ellerker Village Hall. It was run by Dave Southall, ecologist with East Yorkshire Rivers Trust, with colleagues from EYRT.

The training is based on that of the Riverfly Partnership. Riverfly larvae are the basis of the food chain in our becks, and their numbers are a good indicator of the natural health of the becks as a whole.

After a general introduction to the various types of Riverfly larvae, we went out to Ellerker Beck and conducted ‘kick-sampling’ - which is a way of disturbing the gravels in the river bed and catching what is flushed out, into a net. The contents of the net are transferred to a bucket, and then to an inspection tray.

From kick-sampling to identifying riverfly types

So what did we turn up?

We were amazed at what we found: masses of freshwater shrimp (Gammarus). Many of the larger ones were coupled up and mating (amorous Gammarus!). We also found many types of Riverflay larvae, including cased Caddis flies, stoneflies, mayflies and more.

The number of wee beasties, zooming around in the inspection tray, completely belies the fact that if you look into the gravels of a typical chalk stream, you don’t see much on a casual inspection. Those in the know, however, can spot the signs, such as the caddis fly larvae on this stone in Ings Beck, Newbald.

Caddisfly Larvae Newbald Beck February 2022

The amount and diversity of life in our becks is truly amazing. And don't worry, all the wee beasties were safely returned to the beck.

This is an exciting new chapter for WWSTF, one that we have been wanting to set up for years. Now that it has arrived, we couldn’t be more delighted with what we found on Day One. From this start, we look forward to making a real contribution to monitoring the health of our wonderful chalk streams.

Enormous thanks to EYRT for arranging the training, and to our enthusiastic team of local volunteers. If you would be interested in helping out or just want to learn more, get in touch!