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An artists impression - Jenny Beck
Keith Tubb - paintings
Photography - Jennie Banks
Project Proposal - Natural History
Stream Survey - Natural History
Stream Dipping Day - Natural History
Local History - Jane Marsden
Tea On The Bridge Day
The Village Archive Project
Textile Making - Rosemary Shepherd
Reminiscences - Andrew Pastor
Film - Reflections by Tim Fogg
Stream Survey 2004 (Natural History)
Naming the Stream
EXHIBITION
Project Image Gallery
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Stream Dipping Day - Natural History
Location: Dorset
A group of village volunteers came together on a gloriously hot day to spend a couple of hours discovering what lives in our small stream.
We met up with Bronwen Bruce of Dorset Wildlife Trust at 10.30am by the village postbox and headed to the nearest access point to our stream in Oxhayes opposite the new development. Most of us were grown ups with happy childhood memories of messing about in water with jam jars and nets and were looking forward to a few hours of reliving those days.
Bronwen showed us the simple technique of kick sampling and we were quickly finding and trying to identify a range of minibeasts living under almost every stone. It’s hard to believe how much wonder can be caused by the catching of a stone loach. Significantly we found a large number of flattened mayfly nymphs, caddis larva cases and stonefly nymphs which only live in clean water and show good water quality. We looked at and recorded waterside plants. Among these were large tracts of yellow iris, brooklime, watercress and hemlock water dropwort. A special (to us) was a tall stand of branched burr-reed which none of us had ever noticed before (which perhaps shows how unobservant we are these days). To make this find even more special, there was a partly-made moorhen’s nest pushed down into the plant’s base.
Bronwen told us about the recording of otter sitings in our stream. She showed us spraint (droppings) which otters use to mark their large territories, and then upstream of Netherhay Bridge we discovered a ‘tar spot’ marking – a lesser form of spraint. We felt a good deal of village pride as a result!
A negative was the finding of a couple of stands of Himalayan balsam – an invasive alien plant which Brownwen suggested we might try to control. If not, it might start to force out native species by its thuggish habit.
The ‘expedition’ ended at a springhead in Netherhay in a wild field full of butterflies.
This day has opened or maybe re-opened our eyes to the joys of our stream and we believe it has given us the kick-start training we needed to continue our study and record-making of the life of our stream.
Natural History – March 2004
Following the enthusiasm generated by the stream dipping day last summer, we agreed to co-ordinate a survey of animal and plant life along the stream through the seasons. Since then the project, though still in it’s infancy, has grown and can now be better described as the natural history of Drimpton and the surrounding area.
Several villagers (some reluctant to admit it, qualified biologists) have “enrolled” for our first stream survey and landowners have been approached to enable access.
Even more people have given us information on their sightings of animals, birds and plants in the locality. We have come to the conclusion that nearly everyone in the village is an interested observer of the local wildlife and each has at least one story to tell – the location of orchids, where to see the kingfisher or how frog spawn was rescued from a rapidly draining flooded area.
We hope that our first stream survey will take place later in the year when conditions are safer and warmer. This will give us confidence to do more surveys later in less favourable conditions.
We are constructing a database of local flora and fauna and recording some of the more interesting stories we hear.
Christine & Peter Cresswell
Natural History January 2005
Progress has been a little disappointing in some areas. We had to cancel two scheduled stream dipping events and our stream survey. This was not due to lack of enthusiasm and interest which is still at a high level, but to the unpredictable weather which, on the appointed days, turned our usually well-mannered stream into a raging torrent. We felt it safer not to proceed rather than become a national statistic.
Many villagers took part in the recent bird survey organised by the RSPB. Again, a disappointment as on that particular weekend the birds seemed to desert Drimpton, and gardens usually alive with a variety of interesting species dropping in seemed to be almost bird-free.
On the more positive side, we continue to receive reports of sightings of birds and animals in and around the village, and note an increase in the number of deer sighted. We are pleased to see that there are now more secure signs marking the toad crossing point at Sandpits and hope that these will withstand the assaults of vandals and souvenir hunters.
We have developed and walked a route for a local walk previously devised as a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the village hall. The route (3 – 4 miles) is to be way-marked and we hope to publish a leaflet with “natural history notes”.
Christine & Peter Cresswell
(For more Natural History see "Natural History..." pages)
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