Page 54 - br-june-2022

June 2022 June 2022

BERE REGIS WILDLIFE AND Flowers Barrow
ENVIRONMENT GROUP Rusting tank hulks, contorted and blasted,

poke through the brambles amidst the shell holes
Now the weather has warmed up it’s a wonderful time while up on the ridge, blood red and ragged,
of year to be out and about and spot the wide range the warning flags flap on their white painted poles.
of wildlife interest in and around the village. Whilst
much of the hawthorn and other tree blossom is over, Down in the valley, broken and battered,
the white flowers of the Guelder Rose are still out and marred by the ravage of training for war,
Elderflowers are about to bloom. The trees and roofless stone buildings, tortured and tattered,
hedgerows are at their most wonderful, freshest and brightest green, wildflowers stand empty, untended and nurtured no more.
are emerging in the meadow areas at May’s Wood, birds are incredibly active
foraging for food for their young, trout are to be seen lazily feeding in the stream Out on the ridgeway, windswept and open,
and the dainty white flowers of Water Crowfoot have appeared above the river
from their long strands of green weed. Ragged Robin and Purple Loosestrife the grasses writhe gently in a rhythmic display,
should soon be seen in the areas we have managed along the riverside walk. exposed to sea breezes, the thistle seeds loosen
and their silky, soft down then bears them away.

The Cuckoo Riding air currents, upsurging and rising, Unusual Pets -
raven and buzzard scan landscape below, Amoeba
Whilst you are unlikely to easily spot a cuckoo you may have already heard one.
They are about and may on occasions be heard from around the village. swooping and soaring and effortlessly gliding,
However, the surest way of hearing them is by visiting Wareham Forest – it seems twisting and swerving to evade mobbing crow. I have a pet amoeba
to be a favourite haunt.
The track on the ridge, once rutted by oxcarts, which I keep inside a jar
The old nursery rhyme sums up the cuckoo’s behaviour well - The cuckoo comes
in April. She sings her song in May. In the middle of June she changes her tune follows the path of an ancient Celt way, but as yet I haven't
and in July she flies away, up to the earthworks whose gullies and ramparts seen it,
sculpt the chalk of the skyline high over the bay.
it's much too small by
What’s happening on the fields on Wild Woodbury? High on its cliff top, exposed to the rainstorms, far.
the hillfort, a refuge in times long ago,
Spring is definitely had an impact on is reclaimed by a landscape of ridges and hillforms, To see my pet amoeba
many of the 22 fields at Dorset well that’s my greatest
Wildlife Trust’s Wild Woodbury. Not of sheltering valleys and wild heathlands below. hope
much on the fields that were under Chris Nother
grass, but those that had crops of but it costs a lot of
barley wheat and maize are putting money
on quite a show.
to buy a microscope.
The annual plants, that would under
farming conditions be sprayed out Chris Nother
by herbicides, are making quite an
appearance from the seeds that
were lying dormant within the soil.
We are used to Poppies, Cornflower
and Corn Marigold that are sown on

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