Dorset Wildlife Trust project; its all in the planning

These short January days are perfect for venturing outside. I do a lot more walking these days and last Monday spent a fabulous three hours trudging through a muddy Steart Marsh which, while having my lunch sitting on a bench, afforded one of the best views I've ever had of a Cetti's warbler.

I was alerted to it by at least two wrens' erupting their warning calls continuously, and within the same clump of reeds a Cetti's called. At this point the birds, about twenty feet away, were hidden but after about five minutes of watching, three wrens appeared and, taking positions at the base of the reeds, began calling ferociously. Then the Cetti's appeared, balanced on a single reed stem just below the 'feather' about two to three feet above the wrens, where it returned their chorus of displeasure with its own explosive call. The wrens replied, the Cetti's replied. I'd inadvertently stumbled across an avian Ministry of Sound territorial bust-up. The three wrens were not happy and were giving it loud. It gave me about two or three minutes to observe the Cetti's warbler out in the open. I've seen Cetti's warblers many times but usually the briefest of views before disappearing. This one was in full view. Through my binoculars in some ways it reminded me of a bulky Dartford warbler with the tail of, yes, a wren. Then, as quickly as it had begun the Cetti's flew off, the wrens dispersed and I was left in silence, apart from a quartering marsh harrier in the distance. 

Somewhere in this view are three wrens and a Cetti's warbler

But I digress. These short days also allow stay-at-home time for research and planning of my Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) reserve visits. On Thursday it never really got light due to heavy rain and thick cloud, so I ventured to our local library to print off my notes, taken from the DWT website, of the near fifty reserves.

 

 

 

I don't have a printer at home but decided for this project I'd go old school, partly as some of these reserves will have patchy mobile coverage. Taking an OS map and those printed notes (along with my flask of ginger beer) should avoid any technological unpleasantness.

 

Researching and then printing these notes and re-reading them in the file has been fascinating. The big DWT reserves I know of, Brownsea Island, Kingcombe Meadows and Kimmeridge for example, will reliably deliver. However I'm now more interested in and wish to focus on the many small reserves in the DWT portfolio. I've noted a few and many are just a few fields or some remnant habitat and under 10 hectares.

 

Broadoak Orchard,  a community orchard with bullfinch and glow worms. Girdlers Coppice, an ancient oak woodland with dormice, spotted flycatcher and silver washed fritillary. Hibbits Wood, good for orchids in the adjacent meadow. Budgens Meadow, just 2 hectares but a wildflower and invertebrate hotspot. Troublefield, tucked behind Bournemouth airport and good for dragonflies. Kings Barrow Quarries on Portland, chalkhill blue and silver-studded blue, Peascombe, a steep sided hill with stream, home to marsh tit and otter (though I'll not see the latter) and last but not least in this brief selection Mill Ham Island (rarely visited I read) home to willow warbler, banded damoiselle and yes you guessed it, otter.

 

My preliminary research is complete. Pages printed, the days are lengthening, birds are becoming vocal, the time has come to venture out. I wonder which reserve on my list will be awarded the first visit?

New Year, New Project in Dorset?

Of all the counties in England Dorset ranks as my absolute favourite. From childhood holidays in the 1970's, through to a solo discovery of both myself and the joys of west Dorset in my teens, to moving south with work in 1993 thus allowing day trips, to my annual visits to Eggardon Hill for over forty years, I have never tried of being in Hardy's Wessex. In fact I vividly recall the intense emotions brought to bare of reading Far From The Madding Crowd in a cottage at Toller Porcorum. On that hot summer's day I can photographically picture the eighteen year old me. I sat in an oversized chair for hour upon hour, feet resting on the sill of a huge sash window, itself fully open to the elemental zephyrs of heat, heavy air, intense sunshine and stridulating insects. I read and read and read, lost in the timeshift of that rural story. Lifting my head for a moment, i observed the stream in the garden, beyond which an undulating chalk landscape stretched into the hazy distance. An awakening locked into my soul possessing emotions I had hitherto not experienced. I was in Dorset. I was being called home.

 It was an extraordinary emotional experience. But why? Why has Dorset crept into my very DNA? I can't say. Northumberland, County Durham, North Yorkshire or the Lake District should be a shoe-in for my primary county. I'm reading a book by Kathryn Aalto at the moment in which she states the golden age in childhood for discovery and its influence in later life, as being between the ages of four and 8. Those northern counties were a huge part of my early childhood. My first encounter with Dorset was in 1975, aged 11. I spent a lot of my own golden age in Essex too. I like Essex but it doesn't call me as Dorset does. Dorset it is then.

 All of this is somewhat of a long curtain-raiser to the germ of an idea I have been mulling over for a few months. I like a project to focus on and with this being New Year's Day a new quest for my energies seems pertinent. This is not the unleashing of a New Year Resolution, those annual flim-flams of good intentions have their place, however most if not all, wilt and die before the first aconites appear. No, this is a grand-sounding project, the goal of which will be to visit every Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) nature reserve in 2026, and write up those visits here on the blog.

 Having been a member of the Dorset Wildlife Trust since Thomas Hardy was in articles, my knowledge of the fifty or so sites should have been exceptional. Yet as I began to mull this idea over in September I realised I knew virtually nothing other than at a few hotspot reserves.  All that is, I hope, about to change. Leafing through a recent DWT magazine I noted their reserves map languishing within. It was but that of a moment to cut the map out of the magazine, section Dorset into four zones (north, south, east and west) and paste it into my schedule book - (formerly my sound recording schedule book, now repurposed).

 

 

I have also made a list of the reserves in these zones. All I need now are my boots, binoculars, a stout pair of baggy shorts, a pen, flask of ginger beer, a round of ham sandwches, my car of course (public transport would be fun but looks tricky) and if the sun shines my hat or should the rain fall my brolly. Travel light, travel swift.

 

 

 And that is pretty much it. My plan, if there is one, is to not have a plan. Common sense would suggest visiting some reserves during their sweet spot of wildlife activity. Yet many DWT reserved seem to be year round exemplars. What I feel does give the project a light frisson of a quest is to maybe search for each keystone species specific to that reserve, be that animal, vegetable or mineral during my visit. I'll research these nearer my arrival. Clusters of reserves I shall attempt to visit in one go, some outliers however will be a special endeavour.

 

At approximately one nature reserve a week will this be feasible? I hope so. Having retired in 2025 time has opened up its stall and thrown me its slippers of availability. Watch this space, what larks, what adventures are in store.

 

Oh and Happy New Year.