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East Dorset Open Day, 16th May 2009
There was a great turn out at our urban day at the Urban Wildlife Centre in Corfe Mullen on 16th May. Over 100 people of all age ranges, showed up to watch, listen and learn all about our local heath and the fascinating habitats and wildlife that it supports and chat to members of our local groups.
The fantastic new educational room buzzed with life as children and adults alike enjoyed the beautiful images of the live kestrel and blue tit webcams projected onto the large screens. Water was collected from a local pond and the River Piddle and a variety of different creatures were discovered in a pond dipping activity. Some of the smaller insects were put under a USB microscope and investigated on a big screen.
Amanda Cooke, our Senior People and Wildlife Officer, showed the children how to make colourful dragonflies and hummingbird hawk moths and how to use the exciting new interactive displays dotted around the room.
Meanwhile, our volunteering programme manager led one of the guided tours out on Upton Heath. The windy conditions didn't seem to put our local reptiles off, and the tour party were lucky enough to discover two smooth snakes, the rarest snake in the UK, a common lizard, a sand lizard and an adder.
Andy Fale, Head Warden for Upton Heath, headed the other tours in a bid to discover some more elusive heath wildlife. With so many curious onlookers, inhabitants of the heathland can be tricky to spot but they managed to find a sand lizard, lots of slow worms and some large red damselflies. They were even able to see some stonechats that rely on the heath but have been a rarity this year.
After all that busy wildlife spotting, it was time to get back to the centre, kick back and enjoy a big feed up from the BBQ.
Enjoy fascinating wildlife this summer and get down to your local heath. All you need is a little bit of patience and you'll be amazed what you can discover!
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