Beetle's about

Whilst out walking on the Coast path, enjoying the spring sunshine, keep your eyes open for the rare oil beetles.  Members of the public are being asked to help with the first ever nationwide survey to map the location of the threatened and beautiful oil beetles, and the Lizard is one of the best places to find them

The survey is being organised by Buglife, The Invertebrate Trust and the National Trust in partnership with Natural England and and Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Two species of oil beetle are already extinct, and populations of the other four species have halved in the past 100 years.  One of these species, the Short-necked oil beetle (Meloe brevicollis) was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered on National Trust land in South Devon in 2007.  Let's see if we can find it here on the Lizard too.  This survey will help establish the whereabouts of the remaining four species and boost efforts to secure their future.

Oil beetles have suffered through a loss of their favoured habitat of flower rich coastal habitats, and a serious reduction in native solitary bees, with which they have an extraordinary relationship with.  After hatching, the tiny larvae crawl to the top of a flower, from where they hitch a ride on the back of a visiting bee collecting pollen.  Once back in the bees nest, the larva disembarks and proceeds to live within the bee's nest, feeding off pollen and the bee's eggs.  The larva develops in the bee burrow until it emerges as an oil beetle ready to mate and start the whole cycle again.

Oil beetles are normally found between late March and June.

We have put up 'Don't step on the beetles' signs at various places around the coast path and id guides will be available at many of our car parks around the Lizard.  Alternatively, visit the Buglife website http://www.buglife.org.uk/ for a free identification guide, more information about these brilliant beetles and to report sightings and photographs.

SOTB 2011 Update

Boarder Series Prize Update!

More news from the Boarder Series: Not only do we have fantastic individual prizes from our other sponsors but we've also teamed up with Cornish water company Pure Blue to offer the overall winner of the entire boarder series (most points accumulated over the two competitions) a prize worth entering for! A weeks accommodation on the beach and a surf guide in MOROCCO!


Go to: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/boarderseries for more info and entry forms. First 50 entries also get a free t-shirt. 

Science Museum visit to historic communications sites.

  

The Science Museum is making progress on planning a major new communications gallery. A team of 4 curators and two managers has been formed to develop the project, which, subject to the necessary funding, will open in 2014. On Friday last week (25th), as part of the preparation, a team from the museum came down to see us. Our Volunteer manager at the Lizard Wireless Station, David Barlow took them on a guided tour of the famous communications sites on the Peninsula. The tour started at Goonhilly at the Bronze age "menhir" and a viewing of the aerial for the reception of the first transatlantic television pictures, and hearing of plans for using the aerials as radio telescopes in the near future. 

Moving on the Science Museum team were shown the communications sites at Lizard Point including the Lizard Wireless Station, site of the reception of the first SOS. National Trust Volunteer John Davies gave a graphic illustration of how communications have evolved in just over 100 years by playing a recording of himself talking to the International Space Station by amateur radio as it passed over the North Atlantic.

The team then headed out to Poldhu where they walked the “wireless field” and stood on the foundations of the building where the first transatlantic signal was sent in 1901.The tour ended at the National Trust Marconi Centre with Poldhu Amateur Radio Club Chairman Keith Matthew speaking of the many achievements of Marconi relating to the Poldhu site.

David Barlow

South of the Boarder Junior Surf Comp 2011

The National Trust’s South of the Boarder junior surf competition is returning to Poldhu Cove for the second year running. This is a surf event for the environmentally aware grom! Open to everyone what ever your ability as long as you’re 16 or under on the day of the event. The National Trust feels it is essential to highlight the importance of looking after the coastline. The Trust protects over 360 miles of coast in Cornwall and Devon which us costs £50,000 a year to clear the beaches of rubbish…if you stacked all the full skips on top of each other they would be higher than the Statue of Liberty!! It is essential to hand pick the litter so as to keep the natural habitats intact. Plastics which make their way into the ocean become potentially fatal for sea birds and marine wildlife, whales have been found starved to death because the amount of plastics in their stomachs made them feel full. And so with this event the National Trust is promoting the importance of litter picking through new judging criteria…read on to make a difference…

Where:

Poldhu Cove, the Lizard, Cornwall.

Park in the Council car park opposite the beach and make your way to contest control on the beach to check your heat.

When:

Saturday 16^th April 2011

Check in time: 08.30

First heat starts: 09.00

Important

The scoring system will be the same as Surfing GB’s score system:

In your heat you are allowed to catch a maximum of 10 waves. Your top 2 scoring waves will be added together for your final score. The 2 surfers who score the highest in the heat will progress through to the next round.

There is an option to gain points before your first heat starts by picking up beach litter and handing it into contest control.

A maximum of 2 points will be available to any one surfer.

One carrier bag of beach litter is worth 1 point.

Litter picking points will be added to the surfing points to determine who progresses through to the next round.

The litter picking points gained before your first heat will go towards your first heat score total. (ie. If you have collected 2 bags of beach litter before your first heat you will have gained the advantage of 2 points being added to your first heat score).

When’s the next one?

The next Boarder event is North of the Boarder to held at Crantock Beach on the North Coast of Cornwall on Saturday May 2011…check back for details

To enter: Very soon we'll be putting applications up online, then you can go to www.nationaltrust.org.uk/boarderseries and download an application form or contact us at: southwestcornwall@nationaltrust.org.uk for more infomation. 

Follow us on Twitter: @swcornwallnt and facebook: facebook.com/boarderseries for updates and news. 

Tregullas Word Cloud

We've put together a word cloud for all the written responses to the Tregullas Farm survey. The more often a word is used the larger it appears.

Tregullas Farm Open day

We had a good turnout to our open day at Tregullas on Sunday the 6th March, despite a freezing northerly wind. On display were the results of the survey we have carried out since our first meeting with the community at the Hidden Lizard tea rooms in December.
The survey showed a strong desire within the community for a working farm at Tregullas, lots of ideas for different uses of the farm buildings, interest in allotments and concern for the wildlife of the farm, particularly the choughs which uise its fields. In addition a number of people are interested in a Community Farm and have arranged a meeting at the Top House on the 24th march at 6pm to find out more about this exciting prospect.

Our meeting at Tregullas on Sunday allowed everyone to find out what other people thought and gave them an opportunity to sign up to one of the working groups to take forward some of the great ideas that are coming forward. So far we have a group to work on wildlife, another for the community farm idea and another to look into ideas for the traditional buildings.

Check out the website for more information on future events and activities as we continue to talk to the local community and visitors about the farm's future. http://www.tregullasfarm.org.uk/

Alastair