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.