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!