Dave Dana, dragonfly recorder extraordinaire, has reported 2 very exciting records from the Gift to Nature pond at the sandown Wetland Walk. He found Hairy Dragonfly Brachytron pratense and Four-spotted Chaser Libellula quadrimaculata, both rather scarce on the Island and the former scarce just about everywhere! This is a great reward for the conservation efforts of the Trust, many volunteers and Southern water who own the site. Here’s one of Dave’s fabulous pictures of the chaser.
Is this the year of the Lesser Whitethroat? I’ve never heard so many around as in the past couple of weeks. It’s great to hear such an obscure little bird it out and about shouting from gardens,the seafront, the railway embankments but its such a skulker you just can’t get more than the most fleeting of glimpses. Quite a pretty bird in a dark kind of way, especially when they’re all freshly arrived and still quite neat: slate grey with a darker face and blue legs. The song is a machine-gun-like rattle, not terribly musical but quite distinctive. Listen out for it and so long as you’re not near a war-zone or on MOD land you can be fairly confident that you too have heard the Lesser Whitethroat.
As part of our work for Yarmouth Harbour on all things Yarmouth Pier, we were asked to put together a show to celebrate the pier and mark its re-opening. The Not-The-End-Of-The-Pier Show was born. A certain member of staff who shall remain nameless decided it would be a good idea to claim we could light up the pier as part of the show. We calculated we had around £1,000 to illuminate the 609ft long pier. A quick bit of online research turned up various projects to light piers. Saltburn Pier had been lit, but permanently. Cost? £380,000. hmm… New Brighton Pier came in for a more modest $50,000NZ. Nowhere I looked had a budget of less than £25K, even for temporary installations. Oh dear. The Island 2000 team kicked around various ideas, including illuminated balloons, which would have looked beautiful but gave us too many issues of reliability, safety and marine environmental risk. Out of this however was developed a simple, low cost idea. Post event we had enquiries from people wanting to replicate the idea, and I thought it might prove helpful to others looking to light large structures to blog details on how we did it.
We bought tiny LED packages designed to insert into balloons from Ebay and threaded them together with garden wire in groups of 3. Each group of 3 was then strapped to the enormous handrail with 4 long cable ties linked together at 4ft intervals (or 4 plank widths - it was the easiest way to measure, even if you look rather silly tiptoeing down the pier counting!). The local community helped light the pier, collecting a set of lights each from the bottom of the pier, then strapping them on where we had put out the cable ties. It was still light when we started, and we hadn’t tested the concept on the pier (only testing had been strapping LEDs on the back of my car one rainy night and running halfway down the street to check they were visible) so it was a nerve racking half hour as the sun set. As it got darker though it became clear that the effect was working. Once the lights were in place we deployed the last stage of our lighting, floodlighting the timber roundhouse at the end of the pier. We used a Ring PowerPack - a handy combination of heavy duty battery and inverter in one box, providing 300W of mains power to supply power to 4 low energy site lamps from screwfix.
The approximate cost breakdown was:
600 LEDs - £300
4 work lamps £160
Powerpack £100
Garden wire £3
Cable ties £50
Experimentation along the way £200
The end result was captured beautifully by Julian Winslow. Because of the angle of the shot (aimed at capturing the fireworks - not included in the budget!) you can’t see the lights close in to shore that well, but the ones at the end 600+ft away can be clearly seen. Click on the picture for a larger version.
I had the great privilege of joining in with Professor Boffin’s walking festival walk around Cowes and East Cowes “The Queen’s Bloomers” on Sunday. What a great walk! If he manages the trip across the Solent to present it again next year I would heartily recommend it. The YouTube video below gives a small taste of the days fun.
Newport’s first Riverfest held last Saturday was a great success! The weather was kind and the days activities were well received by the crowd of well over 2,000 who came along. Alan Titchmarsh arrived on the world’s smallest paddle steamer, which appeared to have the world’s loudest horn! The video below (also available on the YouTube site) gives a bit of a flavour of the day.
Saturday sees the launch of the Isle of Wight Walking festival at Riverfest, an event celebrating Newport’s rivers. There is a packed programme of activities throughout the day, and you’ll even have a chance to see Alan Titchmarsh if you missed him at the re-opening of Yarmouth Pier.
Take a look at the programme below for full details - click either image for a bigger version.
Saturday saw the re-opening of Yarmouth Pier after months of work replacing piles and improving the look of the pier. Alan Titchmarsh officially opened the pier, and unveiled a plaque listing donors to the pier appeal. Meanwhile Island 2000 provided all manor of excitement in Pier Square and at the end of the pier, including arts and craft activities, a Gribble hunt, pier wildlife safari and a display of the New Pier Archive including an audio-visual presentation. In the evening an estimated 500+ people returned to light the pier and enjoy a fantastic fireworks display.
No Ian, Alan Titchmarsh is opening the pier, get down!
The second sexiest man on TV charms the crowds by discussing piles before opening the pier.
and then unveils a plaque, assisted by Richard Gribble, who is very proud of his curtains. A member of Island 2000’s crack security detail hovers to the right, hiding behind a silly grin…
…while another guards the image of Roger Herbert. Don’t let the smile fool you, this man is SAS trained you know.
We’re working through both the Gift to Nature and Landcare programmes to develop a series of carbon-conservation projects under the title ‘Island Climate Care‘. One such project is a focus on Isle of Wight wetlands to gain a better understanding of their carbon capture role. We are especially interested in the deep peats of the East Yar Valley where we have worked to keep water levels high and the peat wet for the past 10 years but we are only now beginning to realize the essential importance of protecting and managing these as flooded prehistoric carbon stores. There’s still a lot to learn, about the methane/CO2 balance, about water quality and peat formation and about coastal and estuarine peat. There is a growing recognition too that ponds in the landscape provide a vital service as silt-traps and organic stores. We create or restore a pond somewhere on the Island every year but now we see them as contributing to a bigger picture. Island Climate Care will be working with partners on specific schemes to protect and enhance Island rivers, marshes, floodplains and ponds not only to conserve wildlife but also to take some demonstrable local action against climate change.
Island 2000 have teamed up with staff at St Georges school to present Dolly Mixtures.
Dolly Mixtures is an eclectic mish-mash of art dolls created from an equally eclectic range of materials by more than 20 Island-based artists exhibited in the Learning Curve Gallery at Quay Arts from 17th May in support of the St George’s School DRAGON Project.
Visitors to the exhibition will have the rare opportunity to own these pieces of art and to support a good cause at the same time as they will be raffled off to raise funds for the project.
Catalogues will be on sale at the Quay for £5 which will include a raffle ticket on which you can indicate your favourite ‘dolly mixture’ doll. The draw takes place on Thursday 29th May (between 6-8pm), so do go along to buy your ticket and see the draw. If you can’t get to the Quay to buy a catalogue e-mail hannah@island2000.org.uk for info on other outlets.
The DRAGON project at St George’s is an amazing and ambitious new kind of learning centre run by students for students. It will offer new opportunities for pupils at St Georges School as well as pupils across the Island who can come and use the unique bespoke facilities.
Flooded Peat nearAlverstone. 
Island 2000 have teamed up with staff at St Georges school to present Dolly Mixtures.
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