Author: raysurridge
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Volunteer Wildlife Watching and Survey
New to surveying General wildlife surveys Cornish Choughs Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust Marine Surveys If you don’t know much about wildlife but you’d like to learn more and build on your wildlife ID skills, a good place to start is at the National Trust Wildlife Watchpoint, where they can offer you the opportunity to…
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Volunteering on the coast and in the countryside (practical)
National Trust Natural England Cornwall Wildlife Trust Lizard Ancient Sites Network (LAN) Our conservation work covers over 1,000 hectares of diverse land, from beaches and cliffs to inland heathlands and wooded valleys. Our work aims to maintain a delicate balance between protecting important wildlife habitats and landscapes and providing good access to enable people to…
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Introduction to volunteering
There are lots of volunteering opportunities in conservation here on The Lizard. Click on the icons above to find out what’s on offer. Volunteering is a great way to learn more about a place, its people and its wildlife. It is the perfect opportunity to get outdoors and play a vital role in caring for…
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Lizard farmers win a national ‘Farming with nature’ award
One of our local farming families were awarded one of the food and farming industry’s highest honours, a National Trust Fine Farm Produce Award at BBC Countryfile Live earlier this summer, with the Lizard’s Tregullas Farm, the most southerly farm on mainland Britain, winning the National Trust’s first-ever ‘Farming with Nature’ award.
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National Trust scything a way forward
National Trust Rangers on the Lizard are turning back the clocks, by putting their faith in the humble scythe. These simple tools, which were the only way to gather in the harvest of hay and corn just a few generations ago, are making a come back for tasks such as cutting footpaths. Martin McDowall Ranger…
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Introduction to volunteering on the Lizard
Pillwort There are lots of volunteering opportunities in conservation here on The Lizard. Click on the icons above to find out what’s on offer. Volunteering is a great way to learn more about a place, its people and its wildlife. It is the perfect opportunity to get outdoors and play a vital role in caring…
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The Helford River Survey– regular long term monitoring of the Helford intertidal areas
Thirty years ago when the Helford River was designated as a Voluntary Marine Conservation Area a survey was established to provide baseline information and ongoing monitoring of the intertidal in this area. It was designed to be a simple, inexpensive and therefore easily repeatable, a non-destructive baseline monitoring system to be carried out at regular…
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Seaquest and Saving Our Dolphins
Overview Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Seaquest Southwest Programme is taking action to conserve Cornwall’s enigmatic bottlenose dolphins by stepping up its research programme, joining forces with the Lizard Watch Point, and getting our local population on Britain’s wildlife map. At the end of July, Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Seaquest Southwest Project came to the Lizard. The…
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Windmill Farm Report Spring and Early Summer
Spring arrivals and passage, of Warblers, was good in April with decent numbers of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler arriving to breed on the Farm. Grasshopper Warbler numbers appear down; I have only heard reeling in 3 locations this year – the farm normally holds at least 6 pairs. A notable omission…
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Crop wild relatives on the Lizard
The Lizard peninsular is well known for its biodiversity importance but the importance of its genetic diversity is only just being realised. Research undertaken by Birmingham University in 2013 has shown The Lizard to be one of the UK’s ‘hotspots’ for the wild relatives of crop plants. These species are an increasingly important resource for…
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Birding on the south-west Lizard
Around and about Lizard Point is known as a good area for birding, but travel a bit further north and west, and there is plenty to see. The whole area is well served by a network of footpaths, most of which have The Lizard village as a hub, so the best sites are all very…
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Dryad’s Saddle
Damp weather is annoying for humans, but good for fungi, like this Dryad’s Saddle, a common bracket fungus on dead and decaying wood. Photos: © Natural England/Paul Glendell
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Algal diversity at Kennack Sands
While walking toward the coast path from Lizard recently I got talking to a fascinating botanist who told me that the slope he was looking at was home to twelve different species of clover, if I remember correctly. He also pointed out some other plants, many of them rare and most of them with spectacular…
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It’s fledging time….
Right now hedges, trees, heath and grassland as well as nestboxes are all of a flutter as the breeding season gets into full swing. Birds are busy diving into all manner of hidey holes and secret places, beaks packed with insect food for their hungry chicks. Egg-laying season is typically between late March and May,…
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Kidney Vetch
The books say Kidney Vetch blooms from June, but this is The Lizard, so it flowers from May. Look out for it on cliff tops and sand dunes from late spring through into summer. Photo: Amanda Scott
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Hoards of Prehistory, History & the Future
The invention of the Cornish shovel made it easier to shove things into the ground. It didn’t necessarily make it much easier to retrieve them as you had to remember the right place to dig. Underground deposits await finders as has been shown by the accidental discovery of a few hoards, right here, on The…