EuCAN and Kingcombe Meadows

Well, time has flown by and once again I need to make apologies for the radio silence. Work manages to keep me surprisingly busy, and we are in the middle of the hay-making season just now which is a whole different ballgame!

Anyway, I really wanted to write about the fantastic weekend I had down in Dorset with the European Conservation Action Network (EuCAN). For those who don't know of this organisation, they work hard to encourage partnerships across europe for the benefit of conservation, and help to train up budding environmentalists. I travelled with EuCAN to Hungary in 2010 to work with one of their partners, Aggtelek National Park, on a working conservation/training/cultural experience trip. I believe this experience helped me to gain my first paid, permanent job in conservation.

The organisation also run training events within the UK. The weekend I attended in May was a chance to learn some butterfly and moth Identification, catch up with Nigel Spring (who established EuCAN in 2007) and revisit a beautiful part of the country. For my girlfriend Tash, not previously involved with EuCAN but trying to gain employment in the conservation sector, it was an opportunity to gain some valuable skills and knowledge to that end.

Friday, May the 18th. Ensuring we had the last of our things packed, Tash and I hit the road for the journey from Essex to Dorset. Tash had wheels and elected to drive us there, so I did what I could in the way of petrol money, DJing and ebullient camaraderie to ease the burden. Our route took us near to Stonehenge, and as I'd not seen this national monument we chose to break up the journey with a sightseeing stop. It was fey and fascinating, and a choice spot to eat lunch!

Stonehenge, our choice of lunch stop

 We arrived at the Kingcombe centre in the afternoon, and after settling into our room there was tea and cakes in the conservatory which was a good chance to meet some of the other people attending the weekend. We also took a walk through the Kingcombe Meadows nature reserve (managed by Dorset Wildlife Trust) with some of the other attendees. This was lovely, as the meadows really are quite special and we were walking with some knowledgeable people. Some of the sightings included a number of orchids, and hayrattle, which I learnt is parasitic on grasses so it can open up the sward (hence farmers don't like it, and conservationists do!). We then proceeded to drinks and introductions in the barn, followed by supper in the conservatory. The food was a delight, as always when eating with EuCAN! To finish the evening, we had a presentation from Nigel about the previous trips and the other activities of EuCAN, featuring lots of photos. I even featured in one photo of the Hungary trip!

After a restful sleep in our pretty room within the barn building, Tash and I rose for an early walk to survey for breeding birds with Nigel and many of the weekend's participants, in spite of the 6.30am start. This was before breakfast, so there may have been a few stomach rumbles in addition to the birdsong that morning! Some members of the group were very keen birders so I managed to pick up a few identification tips even before breakfast. The early bird gets the worm indeed!

Breakfast was large and well-earned, and was followed up with an examination of the moth trap which had been set out the night before. For those who haven't used one, they are much friendlier than they sound! A trap entices moths in at night with light or food, and the cunning design means they have trouble flying out again so you can sample the local moth population at your convenience the next morning.

To someone starting out on moth studies, there is an extraordinary array of exotically-named species! Saturday morning saw us bandying about names such as "brimstone", "pebble prominent", "brindled beauty"; many of the moths were beautiful or outlandish in appearance too when closely examined, but even with the seemingly dull and inconspicuous varieties there can be a poetry in their naming.

Enthusiastic people gathered around the moth trap

At this point Tash and I parted ways; my lovely lady joined a group of brushcutter inductees who were to be trained and certified in the use of that noisy yet useful machine. In fact, they used their new-found skills on Alners Gorse later on in the day, which gave them added experience and helped to maintain this scenic area as an open and scrub-free habitat (to the benefit of butterflies!).

I attended brushcutter training on my previous visit to Kingcombe, a preparatory weekend before the Hungary trip over two years earlier. This meant I had time to visit another moth trap with other participants, so it was with a head full of moths and their eloquent english names that I headed out for the day's main activity. I elected to join the plant identification group on the saturday, which left butterfly identification for the last day of the weekend. Saturday's botanising was led by Dominic Price (who recently established the Species Recovery Trust) and also considered the role of the local flora as food plants for butterflies and moths.

I learnt that Devil's-bit Scabious, one of the wildflowers found at Roding Valley Meadows, is depended upon by the Marsh Fritillary butterfly. This plant likes two very different types of habitat: very wet acidic bogs, and very dry calcareous grasslands, two extremes of the wet/dry spectrum. I also discovered that "ale-hoof" is an alias for Ground Ivy as it has been used as a substitute for hops for making beer, and that the leaves of Meadowsweet smell rather like cucumber!

After a fruitful day of learning, the budding botanists were reunited with the lepidoptera learners and the brushcutter trainees back at the Kingcombe Centre. There soon followed a lively evening of barn dancing, in the barn naturally. In the interval everyone segued to the conservatory for a hearty meal of venison goulash, and a few toasts with the Hungarian fruit brandy 'Palinka'. After much arm-linking, twirling, and breathless laughter, I slept very soundly indeed!

Sunday dawned on the Kingcombe Centre and the final day of the training weekend was begun. We ate another slap-up breakfast, and then those who had attended the botany training the previous day had a chance to learn about lepidopteran identification and survey skills. Having completed her brushcutter training, Tash joined me for a roam around the Dorset hills in search of lepidopterans, with Nigel Spring and some butterfly nets.

Nigel led the lepidopteran group around two different upland grassland sites, one at Lankham Bottom and the other near the Cerne Abbas giant. I felt priveliged to see so many different butterflies (and daytime moths!) out in the field, and to be with knowledgeable people willing to share what they know. Findings on the transects ranged through the lifecycle, from a wood tiger moth caterpillar, to six-spot burnett moths in cocoons, through to adult marsh fritillaries, a green hairstreak, and a narrow-bordered bee hawkmoth. The later was a startling beast: a large bumble-bee at first glance, with a small moth-like face. A moth masquerading as a bee!

The narrow-bordered bee hawk moth!

The training weekend wound down later that day, with various individuals and groups of people departing as the afternoon went on and the evening came in. My lady and I had gained permission to stay an extra night, planning to travel back the following day as we had both obtained the day off from work. We were the only ones to stay the night however, so we were able to experience the centre and its surrounds in a more peaceful and introspective manner, reflecting on what we had learnt and discussing it with each other. As the training weekend had officially finished we repaired to a local pub for our evening meal, recommended by Nigel. So it was we spent a happy hour or two at the Marquis of Lorne in nearby Nettlecombe, a pretty and cosy pub tucked away in the middle of the Dorset countryside.

The remoteness of the pub had no detrimental effect on the quality of the food or the sheer numbers of people coming in through the door to eat that food! Tash ordered the Boudin Blanc, which was a white chicken sausage served on pearl barley and butternut squash risotto. I opted for the Roast Belly Pork, which was accompanied by creamed potato and a green apple puree. The portions were large, the dishes prepared with panache, and the side of vegetables were delicious and all locally sourced (or grown in the pub's own polytunnel!). I washed my meal down with a pint of Copper ale, and we discussed how amazing our weekend had been so far. Then we returned to the Kingcombe centre, where the centre manager Nick had invited us to join him on his bat count that evening.

Nick told us that the BBC were coming down the following week to film some footage for the new television series Secrets of Our Living Planet, and he wanted to check what types of bat were around and in what numbers beforehand. So we accompanied him and assisted the counting of pipistrelle bats emerging from Beech Cottage, and checked where they flew out from. We counted over 20 bats emerge between us, before heading off on a walk through the high moor and along a stream to find a possible Myotis bat using the bat detector. We went to bed very happy from our nocturnal experience, having seen and heard up close some exciting wildlife.

Monday morning, and we took one final walk on the meadows up above the centre. We heard blackbirds, songthrushes and wrens singing, saw birds of prey in the air, and took photos of the flowers. Then we ate a cooked breakfast, prepared very kindly by Nick himself, before packing our things into the car and hitting the road. Tash drove through Cerne Abbas on the way, and we stopped off to see the 180-foot 'ancient' naked giant, cut into the chalk hillside above the village - a very different kind of monument to Stonehenge!

We stopped to eat our lunch at Stonehenge again, as it was en route. While we parked up we saw an army tank with a learner sticker on it, doing manoeuvres next to us! We finally made it back that afternoon, tired but very contented after our weekend of learning and adventure. All in all, I would highly recommend EuCAN to anyone. If you can make it along to a training weekend, or even get involved in one of their trips abroad, jump at the chance! You can find their website at www.eucan.org.uk.