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August 2020 August 2020

established. Tilhill Forestry who manage Mays Wood have cut parts of this area The Jubilee Bonfire was recorded in this wonderful poem by “Pam.” - Pam Hoare
just before flowering so that the plants here will re grow and produce a good
show later in the season.
We had a great big bonfire on top of Woodbury Hill,
We now have a wonderful range of contrasting wildlife habitats from the
heathland on the top of Black Hill, ancient woodland on the southern slope, Mays It was so perishing cold up there, I thought we would all be ill,
Wood and the sown dry meadow, then our village wet meadow nature reserve They were selling soup, all piping hot, “Don’t burn your mouths,” they said
and Bere Stream. Many would say “You can’t get better than that!”
So we stood round holding our paper cups, burning our hands instead.

Glow Worms When the kids had drunk their soup, and the hot dogs were all sold,
In previous years Glow Worms have been seen in the hedgerows bounding May’s They layed down on the grass, then down the hill they rolled.
Wood, below Black Hill. Unfortunately, we’ve had no reports of sightings this year. What they didn’t realise was, that earlier that day,
If you have seen any, please let us know. Seventy or Eighty Guernsey cows had chanced to pass that way.
The glow worm, Lampyris noctiluca, is not at all worm-like but is a beetle up to 25
mm long. Only the wingless female glows strongly, to attract the flying males. Some of us decided to sing national songs and we climbed up under the trees,
Each individual female has an adult glowing life of only a few weeks (from June There were nine or ten of us all singing in different keys.
through to early September) until she mates, lays her eggs and dies. A chemical
reaction in the tail of the beetle forms the glow, which is about as bright as an LED We sang “Rule Britannia” and Elgar’s “Land of Hope”,
light on a hi-fi. While half of Bere Regis stood watching us, I felt a proper dope.

Nature Sightings “Time’s going on,” said Jimmy Shave, “Sing the National Anthem now”,
I’ve wondered since if ‘twas the time, or if he couldn’t stand the row,
We would be very interested to hear of
your local wildlife sightings (common or So we gathered round the fire, folks both young and old,
unusual), so as to build up a picture of Our faces they got burning hot, but our backs were freezing cold.
what is about and when it first arrives /
emerges. An occasional and beautiful The boys drained all the cider bottles that they found lying around.
sight along Bere Stream is the Kingfisher,
pictured here. I tripped over one young lad who had flaked out on the ground.
“Get up you silly boy” I said, “You’ll catch your death of cold”

“I would” he said “But tis me legs, they seem to want to fold!”
Nature Notes

We are continuing to post occasional Then the mothers sought their children, and that was quite a game.
Nature Notes on the village Facebook
page and distributing them to all on our e After rolling down the hill the kids all looked the same.
-mailing list. Do look out for them – they I’m sure we all enjoyed ourselves though ‘twas cold and that was a pity,
provide some information on local and And now I think it’s time to say “Thank you, Jubilee Committee.”
seasonal wildlife sights, be they plants, animals, insects etc, and are
accompanied by some amazing photos. Let us know if there is anything you
would like us to cover and if you have any photos we could post, please email What a wonderful commentary on a memorable occasion!
them to us. If you would like to be included on the e-mailing list, please contact
us. SDB

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