St Nicholas Primary Set Sail

St Nicholas Primary jumped aboard a Brownsea Island Ferry for a cruise around Poole Harbour. With the help of RSPB volunteers they managed to spot and identify Spoonbills, Cormorants, Little Egrets and the fastest animal on the planet the Peregrine Falcon.

An unusual visitor....

Whilst looking at the remains of a young Wood pigeon that a Sparrow hawk had half eaten on the front lawn at Leeson, Mike had huge surprise to find a cow standing in front of him.

It was soon rounded up and put back with the rest of the noisy herd.

There's been a few other interesting finds recently. While at Studland Heath with a Primary School, Mike found this caterpillar.

Emperor Moth Saturnia pavonia caterpillar. This species feeds on moorland plants such as Heather Calluna and Bramble Rubus. It is quite common on Studland Heath.

Adult Emperor Moth - image from the internet

Duke of Edinburgh Week at Leeson House

Gold Award students from across the UK have recently stayed at Leeson House.They took part in lots of activities to help build towards their Gold Award application. Amazing weather and an enthusiastic group made the week run extremely well.

Beginning the Night Navigation exercise

Conservation work on Studland Heath

Litter pick at Kimmeridge Bay where more than 25 Kg of litter was cleared.

Rockwatch 2013

Rockwatch - the club for young geologists, stayed at Leeson for a week this summer and visited several geologically great sites!

Over looking Chesil Beach

On Portland

Barry and Mike at the clay pit quarry

Sweltering Summer...

It's been a great Summer for fieldwork and wildlife this year!

The view towards Dancing Ledge on our popular walk to the coast

The Six-spot Burnet, Zygaena filipendulae

Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera have been a common sight during field work this summer.
The name "Ophrys" derives from the Greek word ophrys, meaning "eyebrow", while the Latin apifera means "bee-bearing" and refers to the bee-shaped lip of the orchid.

Large Elephant Hawkmoth's Deilephila elpenor
 have been dominating some of the moth trapping at Leeson.

Life on the Ocean Waves

Ben and Yewstock School took a trip down to Kimmeridge Bay to see what they could scavenge for an art attack in the evening.  From the treasures they found they created a fab Ocean Scene!

I.B Environmental Systems and Societies - fieldwork in the sun!

A group from Marlborough College studying for their I.B ESS course were rewarded with sunny conditions for fieldwork at Studland and Kimmeridge.

Typical succession investigations were carried out at Studland as well as looking at visitor impact on the dune systems.

At Kimmeridge we looked at calculating species diversity between the mid and lower shores. The tide was perfect and lots of species were recorded.

Horses taking a dip

Fantastic tides at Kimmeridge

At last, decent field work weather!

A busy few weeks....

We've had lots of groups staying with us since the last Blog entry and at last the weather has improved.

Lots of Great Crested Newts are back in the ponds



Greater and Lesser Bloody Nosed Beetles
 

Having a picnic on the Jurassic Coast

Rockasuarus at Dancing Ledge Quarry!

Tree Planting!!

The Woodland Trust has kindly given us lots of trees to plant to help improve the biodiversity of our hedgerows and woodland areas.

Nine harding working Year 8 pupils from Swanage Middle helped us clear a huge area before we planted about 200 trees!

Thank you to the Wooodland Trust and the Swanage Middle School pupils!

 

 

Kimmeridge Zonation - A Level Biology

Mike has had a couple of hardy groups studying marine zonation at Kimmeridge this week. Bright skies but freezing conditions. Even parts of the waterfall were frozen! Lots of intersting marine organisms were found including the Shore Clingfish Lepadogaster lepadogaster.

Also, Golden Star Tunicate Botryllus schlosseri was also found under the many rocks exposed at low tide.

Snakelocks anemone (Anemonia viridis) The pinky purple tips are due to a symbiotic algae living within the tentacles.

Spring is on its way

Although all the Leeson House staff are still wrapped up in scarves, hats and gloves (even Barry hasn't dared don the shorts) there are some brave little plants putting smiles on our faces as they begin to bloom, letting us know spring is not far off. 

Cherry Blossom

Snow Drops

Daffodil

Wildlife and Activity Weekend

This weekend Leeson House held another 'Wildlife and Activity' residential. Enthusiastic children found the first returning Great Crested Newts in our ponds and saw Badgers, a fox, Roe deer and heard several Tawny Owls while out on the Nightwalk.

Looking for the ringed birds we had just released.

Cased Caddis Fly, Hoglouse and True Damselfly Larvae

Male Great Crested Newt

Watching the first Great Crested Newt caught this year

Snow at Leeson

Our visiting school woke up to a winter wonderland this morning.  They are currently busy outside making snowmen.