Friends Summer Outing

This year’s Friends summer outing was to Kingcombe Meadows and Powerstock Common – two of Dorset Wildlife Trusts flagship reserves. Successfully dodging the showers, we enjoyed a guided tour of both reserves, with highlights including a Wood White butterfly, loads of Twayblade orchids on Powerstock and the beautiful wildflower meadows of Kingcombe, where we were treated to a delicious ploughman’s lunch, much of it produced on the farm itself.

The next Friends event is on the 6^th of July at 7.30pm at the Visitor Centre, when we will be holding our traditional Friends Summer Party. As always, the first drink is free, but do bring along a plate of food to share, and your own booze if required!  

Durlston Project

The ‘Turf Cutting’ ceremony took place with Dorset Councillor and Swanage mayor Bill Trite ‘cutting the turf’.  It was a good opportunity for the local press to get involved with coverage across the networks.

The building / demolition is well under way, with scaffolding now surrounding the Castle, ready for the Belvedere roof and structural works to begin.  We do not yet know when the coastal path will have to be closed, but will let you all know as soon as possible – in the meantime it is only the road down to the Castle and the former site of the Lookout that is closed. .

Country Park Accreditation

This is a Natural England honour bestowed on the best parks in the country – we are one of just 25 to have achieved this high award!

Have You Voted?

Have you voted yet for Britain’s best Park or Green Space?  Durlston is currently fourth and we would love to rise to third or higher.  So please if you haven’t yet done so and like Durlston as much as we do, visit the front page of our website durlston.co.uk and follow the link in the box.  The competition ends in August so there is not much time left - tell your friends and relatives too!

Outdoor Theatre

Tickets are now on sale for the return to Durlston of the Rude Mechanical Theatre Company, with their new show ‘Ik’r’us Inc’ on the 11^th July. The play will be performed outdoors and tells the story of Daedalus H. Gildersleeves, a travelling salesman who progresses from selling vacuum cleaners to encyclopaedias and finally to selling dreams and begins to fly the Dreamville townsfolk up into the clear blue Indiana skies.  

The Rudes effortlessly blend together slapstick with tender romantic comedy, a streak of poetry and rock and roll to create an unforgettable evening of entertainment. Tickets are available from the Visitor Centre – book early to avoid disappointment, as the shows always sell out.  

Boat Trips

We’ve been treated to some fantastic Friday evenings for our summer boat trips so far this year, as well as great views of our breeding seabirds. Highlights have included 15 Puffins, including some flying very close to the boat, close up views of Gannets (including one unusually close to the shore, in between the boat and Ballard Down) and plenty of sightings of Peregrines (although it looks as if they are not breeding at Durlston this year. The evening cruises continue until the 2^nd July, with increasing numbers of seabird chicks to look forward to. See the events listing at the end for details.

Seabird Counts

The annual seabird count was undertaken on 2^nd June, all along the coast from Durlston Head to Isle of Portland.  Fulmars, Shags, Herring Gulls, Kittiwakes, Great Black-backed Gulls, Guillemots, Razorbills and Puffins are counted as well as Peregrine, Raven and Swift.  The full report has yet to be compiled but Shag numbers look to be particularly good.

Beach Clean

Ten members of the Wednesday Work Party joined Ben in Durlston Bay to carry out a Beach Clean and collected 166kg of rubbish and 17kg of recycling.  It is a number of years since we undertook a major clean on this bay due to its inaccessible nature, so thank you for your very hard efforts (puff puff pant pant!!)

Durlston Guillemots

The first Guillemot chick hatched on the 25^th May, but it won’t be long until they start to leave – we estimate about 16^th June.  Numbers are looking good again but if you had a couple of hours to spend to help monitor them that would be really useful.

Durlston Bus

Our new shuttle bus service starts on the 19^th June. The service will run all the way through the summer, until the 26^th September and will provide a cheap, easy and environmentally friendly way to get up to Durlston.

The service will run every half hour between 10.00am and 5.00pm, with stops at Swanage Railway Station, Main Beach Car Park, Rempstone Road, Swanage Pier, Pinnacles Reach, Wordsworth House and Sunnydale, before arriving at Durlston.

National Nature Reserve Management

Over the last few weeks we have been focussing on the dry stone walls - with the Wednesday and Thursday Work Party turning out in good numbers to tackle the large swaths of wall that need repairing this year. Between them the teams have already repaired 33m in the last 2 months with many more sections going up every week. Such headway is only possible because of the positive, enthusiastic (and effective) contribution of so many volunteers. Ongoing support for the conservation of Durlston’s beautiful historic landscape is particularly needed over the next year, with work on the walls around the Castle and Centre becoming a priority.  

We have however been having problems with petty theft and graffiti around the Park, the Police are helping, but if you do see anything suspicious please let us or the police know.

While you are out in the meadows please remember not to disturb the Skylarks, it helps hugely if you (and your dog) keep to the paths around the edges.  The disturbance of the birds, invertebrates and wildflowers are caused by the combined effects of all our visitors, in which you are included!  So what you do has an effect – good or bad…

New Ranger

We are pleased to be able to announce – finally – that Simon Breeze will be joining the team as our Conservation and Wildlife Ranger from the beginning of July.

 Wildlife Roundup

A glorious last few weeks has provided some fantastic butterfly watching – Adonis, Common and Small Blues have had an amazing time, hundreds counted daily.  Green-veined White, Green Hairstreak, the first Large Skippers along with Dingy and Grizzled Skippers have also been seen.

The Skylarks are still singing boldly – please remember not to disturb them, and keep you (and your dog) to the paths.  The Blue and Great Tits nesting around the Centre have all now fledged, while a couple of meetings in the sunshine on the patio were interrupted by a Red Kite and a Bee Eater (28/5)!

Other sightings – Garden Warbler 2/6, Cuckoo 21/5, 24/5, 4/6, Turtle Dove 21/5, Hobby 24/5, singing Reed Warbler and a report from a visiting bird group of a Red-rumped Swallow 23/5.

Flowers – orchids galore – Common Spotted and Southern Marsh across the meadows.

A fantastic year for Bird’s-foot Trefoil and Horseshoe Vetch, but very poor for Early English Gentian

A selection of mammal sightings include Stoats, Fox, Badger, Pipistrelle Bats and 3 different views of Sika Deer – including a pair being chased by two of the Hereford calves – most amusing!

2 ‘new to Durlston’ species found in May, both red and black bugs – Fleabane Tortoise Bug Cassida murraea in Long Meadow and Corizus hyosciami on the coast.

Sightings of dolphins have been good through the first half of 2010 with 42 sightings throughout Dorset including 29 in the Durlston area. The latest sightings were on Wednesday 2^nd June, when a pod of 6 to 8 animals crossed Swanage Bay.  A juvenile Basking Shark swam past Ben at West Bexington on 24^th May – an unusually early sighting.

Volunteer Opportunities This Month:

·         Help with counts of our summer orchids – See Ali

·         Help repaint signs and bollards – See Ali

·         Join our Thursday walling work Party – Just come along to the Centre at 10.00am

     Next Friends Event :

Tuesday 6^th July, 7.30pm

Summer BBQ & Games

We will provide the BBQ the first ‘sausage and roll’ and drink

Please bring along a small plate of complimentary food and any additional drink