Laban – wildlife
by Dusty ~ July 17th, 2009. Filed under: Green Roof News.[nggallery id=11]
Over the years a whole range of bugs have taken up residence on the rubble, brown roof at the Laban dance centre. It has thoroughly researched over the years. Annually since 2003! Some point soon we will publish a whole species list but a few things come to mind: we have seen quite a few moths and six-spotted burnet moth are regular, painted lady, small tortoiseshell and red admiral can often be seen collecting nectar and the small blue butterfly also visits.
This year I have noticed a lot of grasshoppers but still not sure what species they are.
In may throgh to september bees are relatively numberous, especially 6 species of bumble bees, brown carder bees and honey bees. We have some small sand boxes with pre dilled holes which are being used by mining bees. This part of a project with the London Wildlife Trust. We have installed them on 5 roofs in London to see whether they help increase the diversity on the roof.
Birds do visit the roof though sadly the black redstart is no longer resident in the area. Hopefully when nearby construction is finished and other brow and green roofs are installed they return. They still breed about a mile away.
However I have seen Goldfinches, Linnets, Pied and Grey Wagtails on the roof.
