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Environmental News September 2008

What to say about August. Not cold, but with endless patches of cloud and continual wind. Luckily Dorset missed a lot of the rain, but some of my spies were not so lucky.

When the weather was tolerable, I did a bit of bird and butterfly hunting, but did not meet anything exciting. The overall effect has been to produce signs of Autumn somewhat earlier than usual, with flowers shutting up shop and leaves tumbling from trees. The flying period of some common butterflies has shortened, and recently on one trip all I could see were whites of various sizes. But if you keep looking you can get a reward – like three small tortoiseshells simultaneously. Some of the birds are back in town too- looking for easy meals. There was a flock of tits in my garden recently, probably as many as 50.

We had one calmish, warmish evening, and I summoned up my courage and set up my moth trap. Next morning i could see quite a few moths had been trapped, and I set out to try and recognize which species were there. Lifting the lid caused problem number one, as a lot of visitors had settle on the undersid. Whoosh I was surrounded by frantic moths who all escaped into the nearby trees. Some remained in the base on our collection of egg boxes, but it took me at least half an hour to extract and recognize a species, and after amorning recording six species, I turned the remainder out. I may try again this Autumn. Depends on the weather.

I wrote earlier of the leaf miner that wasdevouring the leaves of my horse chestnut tree. During the month we took our grandson to Beaulieu Motor Museum. In the grounds stands an avenue of stately horse chestnut trees, and their plight was dreadful. It seems hard to see how the trees survive, but the book says they do, so we all can hope. (Except of course those teachers that see conkers as dangerous weapons)

Activities begin to wind down, only 18 in the Dorset Coast and Countryside magazine. None in Poole area alas!

For the more energetic conservationist some of the winter tasks are starting up.

So to see what’s on, just ring 01305 224214 for a copy of Coast and Countryside, or try your local library.

Useful Numbers of organisations running tasks or walks:-

Local Dorset Wildlife Trust	01202 420909
Durlston Country Park	01929 424443
Avon Country Park	01425 478470
Dorset Countryside	01305 224214
Poole Countryside	01202 265265
Moors Valley	01425 470721
NT (Studland)	01929 450259

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

Environmental News September 2008

Prepared for Broadstone.net by dudley hull

Prepared for Broadstone.net by
dudley hull