Hundreds gather at Abbey Gardens, in Bury St Edmunds, to learn about all things wildlife

A town centre park was buzzing with activity as more than 1,000 people gathered to learn about all things wildlife.

Following the success of the two previous events, Bury BioBlitz returned once again to the Abbey Gardens, in Bury St Edmunds, on Saturday.

From listening to birds sing to finding spiders in the meadows to learning about gardening, visitors had a chance to dive deep into understanding what lives in the environment and how to protect it.

“It went really well – it was probably our best year,” said Libby Ranzetta, chair of Bury Water Garden Meadows, who organised the all-day free event.

“We want to show people what they have in their very local environment, including bugs, insects, birds or plants so that people can appreciate them more.

“Biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate and we’re interested in understanding what that looks like locally.”

Ms Ranzetta said wildlife is suffering from the lost of habitat due human-related activity, including farming and building on green land.

She hopes the event helped to increase people’s awareness of the environment around them, including how to attract more wildlife into their gardens.

“Activity such as farming squeezes the space that wildlife can live in,” said Ms Ranzetta.

“It makes it difficult for animals to find food so everything is struggling.”