Posts by Jonathan Hudston
08/06/2011 No comments

Dorset stag beetle sightings increase

Stag Beetle seen in profile from low angle

A stag beetle on a log, photographed by Nigel Brooks. Britain's largest beetle likes to live in dead wood.

UNUSUALLY high numbers of stag beetles are being seen in Dorset this year.

Dorset Wildlife Trust says the county’s unusually hot Spring seems to have brought these fantastic creatures out nearly a month earlier than normal.

Steve Halliwell, project co-ordinator for the Trust’s Wildlife On Your Doorstep Project, said: “Early this June, as I was relaxing in the garden one warm evening, I saw at least a dozen male stag beetles fly over, a phenomenon I have never witnessed before.”

Stag beetles are globally threatened. In Britain they’re protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

To see just one is a treat.

The male can grow up to 7.5 cms long – it’s Britain’s largest beetle – while the female rarely gets past 4.5 cms. However, the male is harmless, while the female can have a nasty bite.

Stag beetle numbers have been dropping since the 1940s, because of the destruction of their favoured dead wood habitats.

Dorset Wildlife Trust wants people to be less tidy in their gardens, and leave out old logs as possible places for stag beetles to live.

The Trust’s ‘Wildlife On Your Doorstep’ project offers a free information pack including  gardening tips, wildlife identification charts and recording sheets.

For more information see www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/woyd or contact Steve Halliwell at shalliwell@dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk or ring Dorset Wildlife Trust on 01202 692033. The code is for the conurbation because Bournemouth is one of the UK’s hotspots for stag beetles.
20/05/2011 No comments

Queen Victoria and the Dorset Piddle Riddle

“Legend has it that the villages of Puddletown and Briantspuddle, which used to contain the word ‘piddle’, changed their village titles to avoid embarrassing Queen Victoria whilst she was visiting.” So says the newly-published Little Book of Dorset. Is it true?

03/05/2011 No comments

Butterfly bonanza for Bridport shops

SHOPS around Bridport are being encouraged to get creative and decorate their windows with butterfly-inspired designs. A competition is being held to promote Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Wild about Bridport Butterfly Bonanza on June 4.
The contest is meant to colour Bridport’s streets with the splendour of butterflies and to show how anyone can get involved in helping wildlife.
25/02/2011 No comments

Wind turbines plan for prominent West Dorset beauty spot

Radio masts at Rampisham photographed by Nigel Mykura

The blades of the wind turbines proposed for Toller Down would reach roughly the same height as the radio masts at Rampisham by the A356 in West Dorset. Photograph by Nigel Mykura, reused under Creative Commons Licence.

TWO WIND turbines reaching as high into the sky as the biggest masts at Rampisham radio station could be erected on the summit of Toller Down in Dorset.

Farmer Henry Lovegrove, of Comforts Orchard, Corscombe, wants to put a pair of turbines near the A356, up along from the Rampisham site.

The machines could generate enough electricity to power about 100 homes.

A design and access statement supporting Mr Lovegrove’s planning application acknowledges that two 34.2m high structures would be visible for many miles across the West Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

But it argues that “the skyline has already dramatically been broken” by the radio masts at Rampisham and the mobile telephone masts at Winyard’s Gap.     

And it claims: “The proposed turbines at Toller Down will enhance the area’s eco-credentials rather than ruin the skyline further.”

The nearest property is about 500 metres away.

In the video from Transition Vision TV’s Farming Channel that accompanies this piece, Mr Lovegrove says that if planning permission is granted the next stage will be “to go out to to tender, because I haven’t got any money, to developers, and ask them to quote a price for ground rental.”

He adds: “There is some pressure to get the local community to invest in this, and that will also be a question I’ll be asking the developers, to see if they will offer the opportunity to people in the locality to invest in these turbines, so they actually feel they own local energy production.”

The application is strongly supported by Corscombe Parish Council, while individuals from across Dorset and Somerset have also backed Mr Lovegrove’s vision.

“Bring them on and save our planet,” writes Ricky Hawkins from Shepton Beauchamp in Somerset.

“I doubt that they will offend the eye,” writes Ali Cameron, who indicates that he will be able to see them from his home in Marshwood.

Rev David Harknett, of the Melbury Team Ministry, writes: “The turbines seem very appropriate in an AONB. After all, we are seeking to safeguard the outstanding beauty of our whole planet!” 

Objectors include the Boileaus from Witcham Farm in Rampisham.

They say: “The dowland ridge has more than enough ugly clutter along its length.”

They add: “Off shore wind farms have been approved for Dorset, therefore we have more than contributed to the ‘green power movement’”.

And they conclude: “Applications of this sort are all about money. We would like to suggest that in the unlikely event the application is approved, it should be on condition that 90% of the money generated is distributed to the rural area and individuals blighted by these machines.”