What happened to the August Environment?

Well, the author was seduced by the glorious weather and the profusion of birds, butterflies and flowers that were out there to be seen.These included a good population of nightjars up on the Corfe Hills Reserve, and the best population of late Summer butterflies I can recall. Of special memory will be a trip to the DWT reserve at Fontmell Down, where we arrived on the day for the full hatch of Adonis Blue butterflies. These iridescent metallic blue butterflies are fairly widespread but not normally in large numbers. On this particular day, every footstep raised three or four butterflies and after a couple of hours on the hillsides I calculated we had seen around 10,000. A memory for ever! Plenty of local sightings of butterflies, dragonflies and reptiles, including several young snakes and lizards which shows they are still successfully breeding.

Next month sees the start of the transition to winter, with several migrant bird watching walks at Durlston Country Park, Upton House and Holton Lee. Also a number of regional walks, some to keep us fit, others to look at places of interest in the area. I would have expected to see Fungal Forays in the lists, but that is one branch of nature that is not brought forward by the hot weather. "We want rain" shout the fungi.

Of particular interest locally, is the walk on Sat 13th to look round the Pinesprings Local Nature Reserve, meeting on Pinesprings Drive at 10.30 am. This is a new Reserve, and has received a grant of £10,000 from the National Lottery to help with development. It is an important buffer between Creekmoor, Broadstone and the Upton Heath SSSI.

The Greenlink Guide has an extensive list of guided walks and events,
and copies of the guide covering events up to the end of September can be obtained from the local Library.

Conservation tasks will be starting up again, with DWT and DCV to the
fore.

Useful numbers:

Other useful wildlife web sites for wildlife news in this area are:

http://www.greenlink.co.uk/

http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/dorset

http://www.dorsetbutterflies.com

Prepared For Broadstone.Net
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dudley.hull

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