Phew, it's hot. But we are actually experiencing a 'proper summer' so how can we complain? Endless sunshine, warmth, trips to the beach and BBQs - what's not to love?
This month is all about our insects, our flowers and the rest of our non-avian species. We cannot stop banging on about how amazing our reserve looks at this time of year and our photographs of the gorgeous wildflowers do not do it justice, so you really need to come and see it from yourself! We bask in this time of year as the bleak, windswept winters at Dungeness can drag out far too long.
Speaking of basking, we have plenty of wildlife doing just that at the moment. Summer is here and reptiles are soaking up the sunshine, feeding and reproducing. Now is the best time to get some good sightings of our grass snakes and our common lizards, particularly in the morning when they've woken to warm themselves in the early rays of the sun before getting on with their day.
I witnessed, whilst walking through the Discovery Area that every anthill along the side of the path was occupied by a different common lizard. Clearly the lizards have sorted themselves out for the day - a warm basking spot as well as an all you can eat buffet of ants passing by! Can you spot the lizard in the picture below? They'll run away pretty quickly if frightened, so this is the closest I could get. Look out for them on the trail as you walk round too!
One of our biggest jobs on our reserves for this time of year is removing ragwort. Ragwort pulling is a job that most volunteers aren’t keen on but it is an essential task to remove it from livestock fields as quickly as possible. Ragwort can be poisonous to cows and horses when digested but the flowers themselves have benefits for a whole host of wildlife. Bees and butterflies adore it and the caterpillars of the cinnabar moth enjoy munching on its leaves. Look out for cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort you find, they are fairly small but have bright yellow-orange and black stripes. The moths themselves are black and red. We leave ragwort to grow outside of our fenced areas for the wildlife to enjoy.
Dungeness is living up to its desert status down here as we haven't had a single rain drop for over four weeks now. Luckily, our large bodies of water dotted around the reserve give wildlife plenty to drink! Please, please think of the wildlife at home and put out some water for them. It could be a shallow bowl or saucer, a bird bath or a pond. Having fresh water in your garden is so important for a range of wildlife to drink, bathe and keep cool. By putting out a dish of water, you could be saving a life whether that's of a bird, bee or hedgehog. Please make sure your dishes of water are shallow and that ponds have sloping edges so wildlife can get in and out easily.
Blackbird having a bath - Ray Kennedy
Why not use this gorgeous weather as an excuse to sleep out under the stars? We will be hosting our annual Big Wild Sleepout event here at Dungeness next weekend and we still have spaces available! Fancy an evening of wildlife activities, searching for newts in the ponds and glow worms in the bushes? Does toasting marshmallows on a campfire sound like the ideal evening? How about waking up in your tent to the sounds of the birds singing around you? Click here for more information and call us on 01797 699047 to book your place.