Environmental News May 2007
Looking round my garden you could think it was Summer. It is almost as if Spring has been by-passed
Certainly all the plants and flowers are much earlier, and one only hopes that the creatures and insects that feed upon particular plants and fruits, will be able to speed up their breeding cycle before the food has gone.
So far it has been a splendid year for most species. Butterflies are around in good numbers, and in particular the Holly Blue butterfly seems to be having a boom year. Multiple squirrels occupy my garden, and nearly frightened a spotted woodpecker away, after he had laboriously made a new hole.
On trips round the golf course, there have been several sightings of shiny new adders, and this week I saw the largest lizard I have ever seen in this country. He was sunning on the path and refused to shift - most unusual. He was a sand lizard, so it was quite a rare sighting.
Another rare sighting this week was a house sparrow in my garden. They got chased out of their hole about 20 years ago, by a nuthatch. They never returned, and this was my first sighting here - though I must add they went off into a neighbour's garden.
Friends of Broadstone Nature Reserve are having a guided walk with the local Countryside Warden on 16th May. (tel 250148 for details). B. of Poole are also running a beginners guide to birdwatching course at Upton Country Park on 12th May (tel 265265)
The Dorset Coast and Countryside has just been issued, and lists over 40 activities for May, together with a number of regular activities that occur on a weekly or monthly basis.
Useful Numbers of organisations running tasks or walks:-
| Dorset Wildlife Trust | 01305 264620 |
| Dorset Countryside | 01305 225037 |
| Durlston Country Park | 01929 424443 |
| Avon Country Park | 01425 478470 |
| Poole Countryside | 01202 261339 |
| Moors Valley | 01425 470721 |
| NT (Studland) | 01929 450259 |
| Dorset Conservation Volunteers | 01202 573213 |
Other useful wildlife web sites for wildlife news in this area are:
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dudley hull
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