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October's was talk was given by Connor Goddard, Freshwater Delivery Manager at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust (WWT). The WWT’s Water team comprises 10 staff members, who coordinate projects in Wiltshire with volunteers and other organisations.
Connor came to talk specifically about the Wylye Valley Landscape Recovery Project. This is a long term project which has four aims; to improve the river Wylye’s climate resilience to extremes of flow and temperature, restore habitats, restore species abundance and reduce the pollution load. Connor gave an outline of the project, which was in the 2nd tranche of competitive Defra tenders, with a two year scoping phase, followed by a ten year implementation stage. Wylye Valley Farmer Cluster members are involved, pledging land along a 20 km stretch of river to be involved in several different regenerative actions. Connor outlined how the river will be re-connected with its floodplain. Where the banks have been raised to stop water overtopping them in times of high flow, water will once again flow into the meadows presenting flooding further downstream. In places, the river has been straightened or diverted, so where possible, meanders will be reinstated. In several places, the river will be allowed to regain its old path at the bottom of the valley, rather than perched on the side of it. Finally, Connor showed us slides of other works the water team do, such as pegging woody material into the river in strategic places, to narrow the bed, and as a consequence to increase the flow to enable the water to scour the river gravels clean, for spawning Salmon. Shortly after the talk, it was announced that WWT’s Water team had won the prestigious Sanctuary Environment Enhancement Award for the West Chisenbury river restoration and wetland creation from the Ministry of Defence. Follow this link to see Alice Eley and Connor Goddard receiving the award from Senior Ecologist Jenny Bennett. Peter Shallcross The topic this month is Pine Martens in the New Forest and will be presented by Marcus Ward, manager of the Guided Tours side of Wild New Forest, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company which was established in 2016. They "support the conservation of threatened and poorly understood species in the New Forest by conducting surveys and research, sharing the data generated with key stake holders in the New Forest." They also run a Wildlife Explorers group for young nature enthusiasts.
If you scroll down on the Guided Tours website you can see Marcus on BBC Countryfile. The talk will take place in Victoria Hall on Thursday November 13th at 7.30pm. The bar opens at 7pm. No need to book. As usual, free for members and £2 for visitors.  Connor Goddard, Head of Freshwater from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, will be talking to us about restoring rivers on Thursday October 9th at 7.30pm in the Victoria Hall, Tisbury.
About 7 years ago, part of the River Nadder near Salisbury was restored by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. This link will take you to a brief video explaining what they were doing then. Improvement Works On The River Nadder In Salisbury Come along and find out what has been happening since! The bar opens at 7pm. No need to book. As usual, free for members and £2 for visitors. The first of our series of autumn talks was given by Dr. Tom Lewis, Conservation and Research Manager at Longleat, who came to speak to us about his conservation work on 11 September. This followed on from our excursion to see the beaver territory at the estate earlier this year.
Most of us living locally will know of Longleat as a Safari Park, where they also do a popular light display over the Christmas period. What most of us don’t know is that there is more at Longleat than that! And thanks to Tom we gained a better understanding of what is going on there, and the role that large estates like this can play in local nature conservation. Tom started to become interested in conservation by joining bird ringing groups and witnessing the disappearance of willow tits. He then spent some years abroad working in conservation projects in exotic locations, and saving species from extinction. Back in the UK, after two years at Longleat, he has witnessed the re-occurrence of two key native species which have been virtually absent for centuries: beavers and pine martens! None of these two species were released by the Longleat estate. They either made their way there from other locations where they have been reintroduced, or were unofficially released by unknown persons. But the important thing for us is that they are welcome there and thriving, and perhaps we will have them soon established in our immediate area too (if we don’t already!). Tom showed us some stunning aerial footage and told us how every 200 metres of waterway at Longleat now has evidence of beavers. Beavers have transformed small streams of barely 1 m width, fast flowing in winter but which used to dry up in summer, into wetlands with bodies of water of about 20 m wide and which retain water throughout the year. The slow moving waters now support minnows, toads and newts for example, and the species that feed on them. One of Tom’s jobs was to find out how healthy the beaver population is, so he set up trail cameras to try to find out how many beavers were actually living there. Although his first attempts were not very successful at recording beavers, many other interesting species were recorded. The birds included: kingfishers, herons, grey wagtails, egrets, canada geese, marsh tits, jays, crossbills, sparrowhawks, spotted flycatchers… The mammals, foxes and otters. We saw beautiful footage of all these creatures displaying natural behaviours and were finally rewarded with the beavers and their kits, 4 babies in 2024! 4 babies is the upper range of beaver litters, and Tom attributes the high number to the quality of the habitat. It seems this year only 3 beaver kits were born, and one was sadly found dead. Next, Tom told us about his pine marten work. Pine martens were discovered in the estate through some unusual poo, and this was later confirmed by trail camera footage. Tom has since been trying to establish how many are present and he showed us some interesting footage of 2 playful pine martens having a romp this year. Recently, a pine marten with a tracker from Exmoor (the Two Moors Pine Marten Project) has been found in the New Forest by Wild New Forest, showing how large distance movement is possible. Tom mentioned future plans in his work, including analysis of bib patterns (the white marks on the chest of pine martens, unique to each individual) and DNA of scats. He fleetingly mentioned dormice footprint tunnel surveys, bat surveys, wild boar and bird counts. We are happy to hear all this is happening at Longleat and would like to hear more in due course. There is other information on their conservation projects in their website: https://www.longleat.co.uk/things-to-do/animals/conservation/uk Inés López-Dóriga Our first indoor meeting for the autumn/winter season of 2025/26 will be on Thursday September 11th at 7.30pm at Victoria Hall, Tisbury. Our speaker will be Dr Tom Lewis, Conservation Manager at the Estate. Those of us who were lucky enough to go to Longleat and (almost) meet the beavers earlier this year will remember Tom and we are looking forward to hearing what he has to say. The bar will be open from 7pm and so we look forward to giving you a warm welcome. No need to book! As usual, free for members and £2 for visitors. © Longleat Enterprises
This month we have our last indoor meeting of the season on Thursday April 10th at 7.30pm in the Victoria Hall. Please note the date – unfortunately the incorrect date was published in the April Focus magazine. As usual, the doors (and the bar!) will be open from 7pm. Everyone welcome. Members are free and guests are asked to make a donation of £2. Our very own Peter Shallcross will be talking about The Black Poplar Conservation Project. Peter is taking part in the project which involves identifying local old poplar trees, sampling, genetic studies and propagation. Below is a photo I took a few weeks ago of the information board alongside the footpath between Wick Farm and Hatch which explains the works that have been happening over the winter and include planting of black poplar saplings in our neighbourhood. Emma Procter Dr Jocelyn Elson-Riggins gave us a fascinating insight into the research being done on the impact of whale populations on marine ecosystems. The Rugvin Foundation in the Netherlands was established to monitor whale populations and Jocelyn first worked for them as mentor for a scientist carrying out their PhD research on lungworm parasites in whales. In studying whale poo, they gained valuable understanding of the importance of its role in the ecosystem of our oceans.
In the mid twentieth century, when we lost half the population of whales in the Southern Ocean due to intensive whaling, the counter effect of an increase in krill, key food source for baleen whales, was expected, but these small shrimp-like crustaceans actually decreased in quantity during this period. Why was that? To give an example of the number of krill consumed by a whale, we learned that a Blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived on our planet, eats 40 million krill and releases 5000 kg of poo a day, the weight of an elephant. Whales come to the surface to poo, due to the water pressure, and surprisingly for its weight, it floats (and is very stinky)! We inspected slides of yellow masses of floating poo and were introduced to an important member of the research team, Fargo the Rottweiler, who despite suffering from motion sickness could scent whale poo in the water up to a nautical mile away, which vastly sped up their collection rate. Whale poo has nitrogen, phosphorus and iron and whale urine has nitrogen and phosphorus, all necessary in the fertilisation of phytoplankton on the surface of the ocean. As whales feed at the poles, lots of poo is deposited there and as they migrate towards the Tropics their urine nourishes the oceans. Phytoplankton, the food source for krill, consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen and glucose, thus playing a vital role in our planet’s carbon cycle and oxygen production. Once you deplete the whale poo stores of the marine ecosystem, the phytoplankton, krill and the photosynthesis cycle are affected, leading to a decrease in krill. Jocelyn also talked about the whales’ role in carbon storage, how a Bowhead whale for instance can live up to 200 years in the Arctic, holding the equivalent carbon of 1500 trees. When it dies a natural death and falls to the sea floor it gives a lot of food to deep water organisms, with its remains locked into the sediment. Jocelyn finished with some examples of why we need to continue campaigning for the protection of whales.
In our last meeting in February, about 50 people listened to Peter Thompson, formerly from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, elaborate on the future of British farming.
Peter started by giving us a warning about his intention to be provocative! Peter remarked on the fact that there have been 11 Defra ministers in the last 15 years, each trying to make changes in policy. He contrasted it with his own long experience in farming -Peter trained as an agronomist and during his time at the GWCT, he was instrumental in the invention of the farmer clusters that now are spread about the country, aiming to do positive things for nature conservation. Peter proposed we should have a long term plan for the countryside beyond party politics. Peter then went to speak on a range of broad topics such as agriculture, climate change and people involvement. He touched on issues within agriculture, such as food security, overseas trade and food costs, and intensive agriculture. He remarked that water is going to be massive problem in association with climate change, either we have too much or too little, and then went on to speak about soil erosion and worms. An interesting anecdote he mentioned was that Darwin recognised the earthworm as the most important being on earth. He remarked on the importance of stock for land management and the paradox of vegan diets, which are not necessarily better for the environment in comparison to non-intensive stock husbandry.. Rewilding was necessarily part of the reflection and Peter explained that rewilding shouldn’t be applied everywhere but targeted to specific areas - giving the example of heather moorland, an important habitat maintained thanks to human intervention and which would be lost if it stopped. He remarked on the importance of rewilding river margins and creating wildlife corridors. Another topic he touched upon was tree planting and afforestation - but not the only solution to carbon capture! Peter also touched on housing, which of course adds pressure but it can bring opportunities, for example for solar farms on their roofs rather than on farmland. Peter ended by speaking about the importance of community involvement, educating future generations and even adults - 85% of the people in the UK live in an urban environment. Finally, he reminded us to stay positive and the importance of submitting our wildlife observations as records to the Biological Record Centre, which compiles all of them to provide baseline data for nature conservation, planning, etc. Peter Shallcross Dr Jocelyn Elson-Riggins is a locally-based Whale Poo Ambassador for the Rugvin Foundation and a self-employed research consultant specializing in the fields of marine biology, veterinary parasitology, and wildlife disease. Jocelyn joins us on Thurs 13th March for her talk "Pooping for the planet: why whales are marine ecosystem engineers" in the Victoria Hall, High Street, Tisbury at 7:30pm. The doors to the Victoria Hall will be open from 7pm and the bar will be available then too. Members are free and guests £2 at the door. Jocelyn obtained a BSc from Bangor University, an MS from California State University Long Beach and a PhD from the University of California, Riverside. She then spent four years lecturing at Montana State University Billings before undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), UK. Prior to becoming self-employed, Jocelyn was the Supervising Scientist of the RVC’s Clinical Investigation Centre laboratories. Most recently, she has been lecturing part-time at Bournemouth University. In this session, Jocelyn will give an illustrated and entertaining talk on the roles whales play in marine ecosystems and in the mitigation of climate change. This will include findings from the latest scientific research. These discoveries have shattered previous assumptions about the importance of whales. Finally, she will talk about the threats whales face in today’s world and will open the floor to group discussion. The Rugvin Foundation’s “Whale Poo Game” will be on display at the talk and if any Young Nature Watch members want to come have a look at it before the talk, they are most welcome. This game was developed as part of a workshop for school-age children. These uplifting and educational workshops are designed to raise awareness of how sustainable living and protection of whales can contribute to healthy ecosystems and the fight against climate change. We would like to encourage those of you with children or grandchildren to visit the Dorchester Family Science Festival on Sun March 16th where Jocelyn will be running the game in conjunction with Prof. Genoveva Estaban and Dr Demetra Andreou of BU. The children will play the whale poo game first. They will then move on to Genoveva's table where they will see phytoplankton for themselves under the microscope. Then, they will learn about environmental DNA with Demetra. They will "process" water samples to generate a DNA barcode, which they will use to match to a specific marine organism (one of the ones they learned about in the whale poo game).  UPDATED TIMES
Our AGM will take place at 7.00pm on Thursday 13th February at the Victoria Hall, Tisbury and will be followed by a talk at 7.30pm entitled The Future of the British Landscape by Peter G Thompson, formerly of Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. Doors and the bar will open from 6:30pm. Peter worked for the trust for more than 30 years until his retirement in 2018. In his position as farmland biodiversity officer, he is described as a huge inspiration for many of the Trust’s current farmland conservationists. Before joining GWCT Peter worked as an agronomist and crop consultant for commercial companies. At the same time, our farmland research group, building on Hugh Oliver-Bellasis’ work, had developed many management techniques to help support grey partridges, especially developing insect-rich brood cover and nesting cover. These ideas needed to be promoted to farmers by someone who understood arable farming – especially pesticide use - who was BASIS trained and could speak with confidence to farmers. Peter was perfect for the role. Known for his ability to translate science and communicate the message effectively, Peter toured the country giving advice about arable crop management and partridges. People always understood him and were enthused by his passion for wildlife. He inspired people to do better and achieve more on their farms. Peter was at the forefront of the development of Farmer Clusters and his ideas, drive and advocacy for a bottom up, farmer-led approach to conservation have helped influence current and future agri-environment policy. A farm walk led by Peter was always a jolly affair, but packed full of knowledge and useful advice. Peter is also a keen birder and has taught himself the identification of UK moths. Emma Procter |
Photo: Avocets (Izzy Fry)
The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
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