The second of our summer talks programme was held at the Studland Study Centre on Saturday, 5 July, and attracted over 20 members on a bright summer morning. 

Our first speakers were Angela Peters, who is the National Trust ecologist working in Purbeck, and Antonio Fernadez, a PhD student from Bournemouth University.  The subject of their talk was the Sika Deer monitoring project, which The Purbeck Association has supported by funding the purchase of radio location collars for the deer to assist in tracking their movements.  The project is not due for completion until next year (when we will have a follow-up presentation), but already a great deal of information has been collected which will prove invaluable for controlling the deer in this very vulnerable environment. 

Our second speaker was Pam White, who is part of the National Trust educational team at Corfe Castle.  She showed us a number of aerial photos taken from the balloon, together with many close-up pictures of the renovation work that has been undertaken.  One of the interesting facts to emerge from her talk was that the castle was originally painted white – but she assured us that there are no plans to include this in the renovation project!  We have been pleased with the response from members to these two additional talks, and will certainly aim to arrange more next summer

Our three guest speakers, Pam, Angela and Antonio

Pam gives us another insight