Being passionate about nature, one of the things I'm going to be concentrating on, in conjunction with Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Churchyard Conservation Scheme, is uncovering some of the insect life in churchyards.

My first visit was to Whittington and Wretton in the west of the county (and, I discovered, across the border in the Diocese of Ely!) But with a vast array of insects, only a few of which I can recognise, what should I focus on? And where to look, on a day (or in a season?) when few bees or hoverflies were visiting the ample flowers in the short turf?

My answer to that question was to investigate the boundary hedges and the native shrubs growing within the churchyards. This was done both by careful inspection, and by tapping or shaking the foliage over a stretched piece of canvas, known to entomologists as a beating tray (you can improvise with a white sheet, or an upside-down umbrella).

At Wretton this produced, amongst other beetles and bugs, an array of ladybirds. This wasn’t just the well-known 7-spot and the ubiquitous harlequin, but also the yellow 14-spot (which I remember as the 'clown ladybird', as its spots usually coalesce to form what looks like a smile on its back). I also came across the smaller 10-spot (both the regular form and one in which the black spots coalesce so much that they reverse the ladybirds' colour scheme).

But the highlight here was a species I see very rarely these days: well-hidden in a blackthorn bush, a 2-spot ladybird (the non-native harlequin has been implicated in its demise).

Maybe ladybirds, being both recognisable and appealing, are the answer to my question of what to focus on? My companion on this occasion - churchyard invertebrate-lover Vanna Bartlett - reminded me that later in the season, many of the adults (apart from the harlequin) will disappear. They will then be replaced by their larvae – already, there was a 7-spot larva on a headstone at Wretton.

But there’s another dimension to ladybirds which appeals to the specialist in me, for there are also the so-called 'inconspicuous ladybirds'. These are very small (around 2mm) and often hairy and cryptic. A hawthorn in the hedge at Whittington came up trumps in this regard, with several Red-flanked Scymnus spotted. This is a species which has established itself in the UK this century – thank you to Vanna for the identification.

You can find out more about ladybirds at the UK Ladybird Survey. Meanwhile, I’ll see if any other Norfolk churchyards can better Wretton’s count of five ladybird species. There is every chance, as Friends Of Earlham Cemetery’s Jeremy Bartlett reports that the cemetery currently boasts 21 species!

From wildflowers to butterflies, swifts to slow worms, Norfolk's churches are special places both for people and wildlife. In collaboration with the Diocese of Norwich, we have run the Churchyard Conservation Scheme for over 40 years, offering advice to communities managing churchyards with wildlife in mind. Find out more about the scheme here.