Fungi, flowers, fork tongues and frustration.

It is now, quite incredibly, (and scarily) 10 years that I have been associated with these wonderful reserves in Weymouth and I never feel less than proud to be involved with the ongoing works here. The recent bittern action, kingfisher antics and the repeated marsh harrier success' are fairly obvious 'nods' to indicate the worth of the habitat improvements being made on both sites... however there are less 'showy' treasures - fundamentally smaller successes - unearthed almost daily that could be overlooked or, (to use the modern parlance)  get lost in  the noise.

This week I happened upon these vivid, almost luminous yellow fieldcap fungi whilst pausing between bouts of electro-fishing. 

Summer snowflake was revealing itself beneath a willow and would not have been noted were we not forced to pick litter at the top-end of Radipole.

And, (with huge apologies to photographers and herpetologists everywhere) I would never have seen this beautiful juvenile common lizard had I not had to remove a pile of rubbish from our Buddleia viewing shelter on my weekend off.

Whilst I am sure that I can speak for all my colleagues in expressing our frustration in having to deal daily with the negative aspects of working on an urban nature reserve; I can also speak of our doggedness and determination to make our point and display the wonderful diversity of wildlife that we are able to exhibit at Radipole and Lodmoor. Much of it, as this post shows, would not be seen were it not for the unwanted interventions of folk who view the site with entirely different eyes. It in no way justifies their selfish, thoughtless actions, but it does - entirely inadvertently - steel us for the fight! Were we not up for the fight then I would certainly not be posting this blog at 01.30am!!!