Open for Wildlife at Lorton Meadows

This September, Dorset Wildlife Trust’s newly refurbished Lorton Meadows Conservation Centre is kicking off a series of open days for an encounter with the wildlife of late summer.

Home to a vast array of wildlife, including birds, butterflies, bees, beetles and other insects, Lorton Meadows is joining the Wild About Weymouth and Portland celebrations of the area’s outstanding wildlife.

Samantha Dallimore, Community Conservation Officer at Lorton Meadows, said: “At this time of year grasshoppers and crickets provide a constant backing sound to calls of birds, particularly the young kestrels, as you wander around the meadows.  There are also plenty of butterflies and flower beetles to see, visiting late flowering wild carrot, fleabane and thistles ­ valuable sources of nectar. The ponds are alive with aquatic creatures, many you can see by just watching for a few minutes.”

Encouraging people to discover and conserve

Wild About Weymouth and Portland, a partnership between Dorset Wildlife Trust, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Dorset Countryside and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, is funded by the Big Lottery Fund through Natural England’s Access to Nature programme, to encourage people to discover, enjoy and help conserve the borough’s wonderful natural environment.  Lorton Meadows has an ongoing programme of events throughout the autumn for all the family to get close to Weymouth’s wildlife.

The September open days are on Saturday 3rd September and Saturday 17th September, from 10am to 4pm at Lorton Meadows Nature Reserve, Lorton Lane, Upwey, Weymouth, DT3 5QH.  The newly refurbished Conservation Centre has hot drinks, wildlife displays, live bird cameras and trails, and you can stock up on gifts and bird seed.   Free entry, parking available or there is easy access from the new relief road footpath/cycle way, which is now fully open. 

More information

For more information please contact Samantha Dallimore on 01305 816546 or visit our events page here.

Notes to Editor

1. For more information please contact Samantha Dallimore at Dorset Wildlife Trust on 01305 816546.
For our latest news RSS feed, see /c2/rss/dwt_latest_news.xml

2. Access to Nature is run by Natural England and is part of the The Big Lottery Fund’s
Changing Spaces programme launched in November 2005 to help communities enjoy and
improve their local environments.

4. Through this programme, it is Natural England’s ambition to create opportunities
for people from all backgrounds to have greater access to our natural environment
and bring a lasting change to their awareness and understanding as well as
improved links to the natural world, which many of us can take for granted.

6. The Big Lottery Fund is the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.For further information about the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

6 spot burnet moth by Richard Lambert

Fleabane flowers by Sophie Tweddle