Bristol Naturalist News

Contents / Diary of events

MARCH 2017

Photos © John Sparks

Discover Your Natural World

Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 558 MARCH 2017

BULLETIN NO. 558 MARCH 2017 Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World

Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk

HON. PRESIDENT: David Hill,

CONTENTS

BSc (Sheff), DPhil (Oxon).

3 Diary of Events

CTING HAIRMAN A C : Stephen Fay

HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR:

4-5 Society Talk + AGM

Dee Holladay, 15 Lower Linden Rd., Clevedon, BS21 7SU [email protected] 6 Roger’s Notes; Phenology;

HON. SEC.: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528 7 Book keeper wanted [email protected] Welcome to new members HON. MEM'SHIP SEC.: Mrs. Margaret Fay Botany Section needs a President 81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280 Reading Group [email protected] Nature in Avon call for articles

HON. TREASURER: David K Clegg 8 ‘Useless’ statistics (but help wanted!) 42 Dial Hill Road, Clevedon, BS21 7HN Poem for the month

[email protected]

BULLETIN DISTRIBUTION 9 Society Walk Report

Hand deliveries save about £800 a year, so help 10 BOTANY SECTION is much appreciated. Offers please to: ‘Purple Emperor’ talk HON. CIRCULATION SEC.: Brian Frost, 60 Purdy Field meetings with Glos. Nats. Court, New Station Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 Botanical notes : Meeting Reports; 3RT. 0117 9651242. [email protected] He will Plant records

be pleased to supply further details. Also

contact him about problems with (non-)delivery. 13 GEOLOGY SECTION

BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before 14 LIBRARY An invitation to visit! publication to the editor: David B Davies,

The Summer House, 51a Dial Hill Rd., Clevedon, BS21 15 INVERTEBRATE SECTION 7EW. 01275 873167 [email protected] Notes for this month

Grants: BNS typically makes grants of around

£500 for projects that meet the Society’s 16 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION charitable aims of promoting research & Field Meeting Reports; education in natural history & its conservation in Fieldwork - Breeding Bird Survey the Bristol region. Information and an application Recent News - Waxwings

form can be downloaded from: http://bns.myspecies.info/search/site/Grants 19 MISCELLANY Botanic Garden; (and bristolnats.org.uk) Email completed Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project applications to [email protected]. Arnos Vale Tree identification

Health & Safety on walks: Members

20 Inland Seal ! More Waxwings;

participate at their own risk. They are

Scarlet Elf Cup Fungus

responsible for being properly clothed and shod.

Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior

Cover pictures: Kindly provided by John

agreement of the leader.

Sparks, illustrating his talk on Wild

Ethiopia Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World

2 Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk Diary of events

Back to contents Council usually meets on the first Wednesday of each month. If you plan to attend please check date & time with the Hon. Sec. (from whom minutes are available to members). Any member can attend, but must give advance notice if wishing to speak.

Visitors & guests are very welcome at any of our meetings. If contact details are given, please contact the leader beforehand, and make yourself known on arrival. We hope that you will enjoy the meeting, and consider joining the Society. To find out how to join, visit http://bns.myspecies.info and click on membership.

MARCH 2017 Thu 2 Walk: Slad Valley, Stroud Society 10:00 page 5 Sat 4 Severn Beach & New Passage Ornithology 10:00 page 14 Wed. 8 Wild Ethiopia Ornithology 10:00 page 14 Wed 15 SOCIETY AGM+Talk : NB New start time Society 19:30 page 4 Wed 22 Purple Emperor (not just for Botanists!!) Botany 19:30 page 10 Wed 29 Origins of Dolomites Geology 19:30 page 13

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 exhibition ends on 5 March. M Shed top floor. Tickets at Museum Reception (Ground Floor!) or on-line at the museum website. Sat. 4 Mar. Arnos Vale, Winter Trees identification. £5 Arnos Vale 10:30 page 19 Tue 14 Mar. Our Local Raptors Gorge & Downs 19:00 page 19 Thu 16 Mar. Romans & Roses (Italian Gardens) Bot. Garden 19:00 page 19 Sun 19 Mar Curator’s Tour Bot. Garden 10:30 page 19 Sat 8 Apr Lulworth Cove to Mupe Bay Bath Geol. Soc. page 13 Thu 20 Apr Selsey Common & other locations Glos. Nats. 11.00 page 10 Thu 18 May St Briavels & Slade Bottom. Glos. Nats. 11.00 page 10 Sun 4 June RSPB Arne Reserve BOC 08:00 page 14 Thu 22 Jun Rodmarton, Culkerton & the Fosse Way Glos. Nats. 11.00 page 10

Steve Photo © Hale

Thanks to Steve Hale for this Song Thrush, taken 8 Feb. 2017. He writes: Lots of Thrushes around Ashton Court today, 6+ Song Thrush and 20+ Blackbird

SOCIETY ITEMS

Contents / Diary SOCIETY AGM – NB CHANGE of advertised START TIME

Followed by a Presentation on Palaeolimnology Ancient Lake Ohrid: An Exceptional Hotspot of Biodiversity and Archive of Environmental History Speaker: Dr. Jens Holtvoeth, University of Bristol

NB Early start: 7.00pm, Wednesday, 15th March 2017 Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, BS9 3AA (There is a large car park adjacent to the Church and several buses stop nearby)

This presentation will introduce members to Lake Ohrid, a transboundary lake shared between Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia that has long been recognised as one of the oldest extant lakes in the World. The lake features an outstanding level of biodiversity as it hosts more than 300 endemic taxa, ranging from phytoplankton to fish, per square kilometre - more than anywhere else. Biologists were soon wondering whether this exceptionally high level of endemism resulted from frequent climatically Lake Ohrid: An Exceptional Hotspot of Bio- diversity and Archive of Environmental History driven environmental changes that triggered extinctions and the evolution of new species or, by contrast, from stability and some kind of resilience to change. They therefore joined forces with geologists in the “Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Ohrid” or (SCOPSCO)”. In 2013, a drilling campaign supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) recovered the full 570m of uninterrupted sediment sequence from the lake centre, providing the scientists with a unique archive of environmental changes in the Ohrid Basin over more than 1.2 million years. Climate variability in the Western Balkans and ecosystem response are finally revealed.

Dr. Jens Holtvoeth joined SCOPSCO early on in the quest to get to the bottom of Lake Ohrid’s secrets. He will introduce methodological approaches to paleo- environmental reconstructions and present first answers to some of the big questions surrounding the history of this remarkable The International Continental Scientific Drilling ecosystem. Programme Team at work in Lake Ohrid

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (Preceding the talk) Election of Council Most Council Officers and Members are required to stand for re-election.

David Hill: The BNS President will be standing down this year having reached the end of his three year period of office. Council would like to take this opportunity to thank David for his skill and wisdom during this time. As retiring President, he will remain on Council next year to join with us in welcoming his successor.

Council Nominations are: Stephen Fay (Member/Chairman) Ray Barnett (Member) Lesley Cox: Hon Secretary Richard Bland (Member) Michael Butterfield: Hon. Treasurer Tim Corner (Member) Margaret Fay: Hon. Membership Secretary Robert Muston (Member) Jim Webster: Hon. Librarian. Mandy Leivers (Member) Dee Holladay: Hon. Proceedings Receiving Editor David Davies: Hon. Bulletin Editor

Clive Lovatt: Hon. Archivist Section Representatives: Mark Pajak: Hon. Webmaster Richard Ashley: Geology Brian Frost: Hon. Circulation Secretary Tony Smith: Invertebrates Vacancy: Publicity Secretary Giles Morris: Ornithology

Any member of the Society wishing to nominate a fellow member for election should inform the Hon. Secretary as soon as possible. Lesley Cox (Hon. Sec.)

SOCIETY MID-WEEK WALK Back to contents / Back to Diary Slad Valley, Stroud Thursday, 2nd March: 2¼ miles. This is a varied and interesting, short walk with woodlands and fields but a bit steep in places. Meet at Bull’s Cross at 10 am on the Slad Road, SO877086, parking on the roadside. To get here use the A46 to Stroud and take the Slad Road B4070 East out of Stroud. Bull’s Cross is about 2 miles North of Slad village. Hopefully we will have lunch at the Woolpack at Slad. The walk should finish about 12.30 pm. The field paths should be in good condition but good walking boots should be worn and suitable clothing for the time of year. Tony Smith; telephone 0117 965 6566

ROGER’S NOTES Back to contents / Back to Diary

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, as my Mum always told me, each year. March winds and April showers, make way for sweet May flowers, as Abe Lyman sang in 1935.

March is the first month that sees the possibility of some consistent warmth. Harbingers of Spring that have teased us, only to be nipped by frost, now become a reality. As I write this, I have garden Robins, nervously tolerating each other, and Blackbirds going about in pairs. Dunnocks are, well, doing what Dunnocks do (This is a family publication. We’ll draw a veil over that!). Collared Doves which, as John Gooders pointed out, started their breeding season on January 1st and will not stop until December 31st.

The hedges will start to gain a haze of green, but above all, things start moving, as the weather improves. The first migrant birds arrive in force, drawn on by the prospect of invertebrate life to feed their chicks. Each year we wonder what we will see - and things are changing. Will my, recently infrequent visiting, Little Egret, become a regular? Will I hear a Cuckoo (at all!). I didn’t get one on my Breeding Bird Surveys last year. A few years ago I could expect to hear one, maybe once, from the garden. Warmer climate species are pushing into southern Britain. Some, like the Asian Hornet, not so welcome. Importantly, it is always uncertain what each year will bring.

Mammals are always a lucky sighting. A few weeks ago I saw a resting Brown Hare in a nearby field. March is, of course the season of the Mad March Hare. Do keep an eye out.

Roger Steer

PHENOLOGY January was the coldest since 2013, but a degree warmer than the average since 1853, but spot on the thirty-years average, or climate. Until the last weekend it was exceptionally dry, and the final rainfall total of 60mm was below the January average of 85mm let alone the 30 year average of 101. As December was also unusually dry we have now had only 800mm in the past twelve months, compared with the average of 900, and this is the lowest since 1996 and 1997. If a dry summer succeeds a dry winter we get into drought alert territory. A number of common species are on the way to overwintering in flower. They include Chickweed, Groundsel, Daisy, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Mexican Daisy, Petty Spurge and Shepherd’s Purse. Many of these will disappear if we have a cold spell. How far overwintering is a new phenomenon is hard to say, as people enjoy recording new spring flowers, but have rarely recorded survivors right through the winter. Hazel catkins elongated on the Downs on the 15th, two days earlier than the long term average, and three weeks later than last year, and Snowdrops opened on 27th, but Crocus, Hairy Bittercress and Forsythia which have, on average since 2003, opened in January have shown no sign at the time or writing. Stinking Hellebore, a native plant most often found in gardens, is open, and the Primroses in my garden have already been in flower since September. Richard Bland

BOOK KEEPER Required: Could this be a job for you? Contents / Diary

Your Council believes it would be useful for the Society to have a Bookkeeper as part of the team whose job it will be to keep a simple, accurate record of all our daily transactions. These are regular rather than frequent and cover things such as making a note of members’ subscriptions, speakers’ costs and venue hire. Some members may have a bookkeeping qualification, which would be useful but not necessary. We just need someone dependable and willing. We believe that this will spread the load for the Treasurer who will continue to be responsible for producing the Society’s Accounts.

If you could be the person who helps us with this simple task, please contact me. Many thanks. Lesley. ([email protected]).

Welcome to new members of BNS:

Miss Jane Shackleton; Ms. Cathy Tailby (Interests: Geology); Miss Elizabeth Yates (General, Ornithology)

BOTANY SECTION: Help Required Our Botany Section benefits from a large Committee, which provides ideas and support helping the Secretary and the President to construct a programme of events. A President of the Botany Section is required to fill this post to plan and run the Botany meetings with the Section Secretary and the rest of the committee. It is not an onerous job. If you are interested and want to know more please contact the BNS President, [email protected] or the Secretary, [email protected]

READING GROUP / BOOK CLUB

The Reading Group welcomes new members

Contact: Tony Smith 0117 965 6566 [email protected]

Currently we are reading The Serengeti Rules by Sean B Carroll. Contact the above for details of meeting places and times

NATURE IN AVON Next Issue - 2016

Deadline for contributions 31 March 2017

All contributions welcome, short notes or longer papers! Please send to [email protected]

SOME LATEST 'USELESS' MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS Contents / Diary

t the time of writing, membership of the Society stood at 408. There are 56 more male members than female. There are 318 Full members, and 68 Household A members. The few remaining include Affiliated, Corresponding, Honorary, and Student members. Of these members, there are 329 different surnames, with the most common being Brown, at 5. We have no 'E' members, except one Household. There is one member who joined in 1940, one in 1949, and several in the 1950's. including myself. Our oldest one who will be 99 on the 1st. of November, joined in 1975, (unless someone knows of an older one). Obviously, most of our members come from BS postcode areas, with 8 and 9 being the most usual. However, we have at least one member in each of the following postcode areas:- BA, BH, CF, GL, GU, RH, SN, TA, TQ, WF, WR, and YO. There is also one member in Germany. We have three full members in one road, Dial Hill Road, in Clevedon Of those members for whom we have internet email addresses, the most common providers are blueyonder, bt internet & btopenworld, gmail, hotmail, and yahoo. Some members have their own personal provider. At the present time, we have 350 copies of Bristol Naturalist News (Bulletin), printed monthly. Of these, 121 are hand delivered by volunteer members, which saves the Society a considerable amount of money. We could save even more, if we could find deliverers for the following areas:- Bedminster and Southville (10), Downend (4), Kingsdown and Cotham (8), Montpelier (9), and Stoke Bishop (6). Offers (preferably by email), would be gratefully appreciated by me, Brian Frost, Hon. Circulation Secretary, details inside front cover. Some members opt not to have a printed copy, and get the details from our website, which saves on printing and postage costs. If there is something that someone spots, that is incorrect, please forgive me! Brian Frost

POEM FOR THE MONTH “Work Without Hope” Poem discovered by Helen Mumford and contributed by Tony Smith

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair — The bees are stirring — birds are on the wing – And Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow. Bloom, O ye amaranths! Bloom for whom ye may, For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away! With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll: And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul? Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 21st February, 1825

SOCIETY WALK REPORT Contents / Diary Report on a walk at Abbots Leigh, Thursday 2 February. Tony Smith this month casts his report in the form of a letter to one who missed out… Dear Eileen, You may be kicking yourself for paying attention to the weather forecast for today: we had a very interesting walk, with the rain quite ceasing at about 9.30, the sun shining by 5 past eleven, and no wind. We found my first Lesser Celandine this year in flower and Red Deadnettle, Winter Heliotrope and Snowdrops all greeting the mild and damp air. I took another recce of the walk yesterday and decided that there was no reason to risk skiddy mud and nasty falls on the steep hills near Abbots Leigh and certainly there was no way to negotiate the deplorable morass that you and I had both tackled at different times at the end of Home Farm Road. We just walked along the footpath beside the main road, crossed over Beggar’s Bush Lane at the traffic lights and after a further few yards got into the grounds of Ashton Court, where we followed the wall round on the inside and came out opposite the road to Upper Farm. Then we kept on until we reached Abbots Pool and almost the end of the walk up to The George. Jean Oliver was on hand to name some spectacular fungi. We saw Ganoderma bracket fungus (see photo) in great vertical columns rising up the trunk of one large beech tree and on the flaky bark of a sycamore there were tiny clusters of exceedingly tiny, translucent white Mycaena toadstools. And I was able to hold my X 10 hand lens just 1 cm away from one group so that people could peep through and see the delicacy of the structure. On the ground were some Scarlet Elf Caps, that amazed people (picture p20). I was able to handle a large Garden Worm and point out the features, and do similar for a Banded Snail and a Two-toothed Door snail, in so doing being able to cover hermaphroditism, shell growth, aestivation break in growth, dextral and sinistral coiling, and Artist’s fungus Ganoderma applanatum invertebrates versus invertebrates, genetics Photo © Clive Burton and processes of cell regulation, and then we found the pub was shut. However, we had already decided that we would have lunch at the Priory Inn, Portbury, which proved to be an excellent choice. I was gratified that eight people turned up, obviously a lot more confident than I had felt! You would have enjoyed the whole thing. Best wishes,

Tony

BOTANY SECTION PRESIDENT:- Vacant HON. SEC:- Clive Lovatt 07 851 433 920 ([email protected])

Back to contents / Back to Diary

INDOOR MEETINGS We have a new venue (and day) and for the indoor meetings, which are now held on the 4th Wednesday in the month at 7.30pm - 9.30 pm. We are using a room in the Westbury- on-Trym Methodist Church, Westbury Hill, BS9 3AA which is on a bus route and has an adjacent free public car park. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PURPLE EMPEROR Speaker: Matthew Oates Wednesday 22 March, 7.30 pm The Botany Section invites all members of the Society to this talk. Matthew tells us: “I’m writing a new book on the natural history of this wonderful butterfly. There’s a good Bristol link here as Ian Robert Penicuick Heslop, who wrote much on this butterfly during the 1950s and early 60s was a Bristol boy, went to live at Burnham, and his collection and papers are in Bristol Museum.” The eccentric Heslop once claimed to have ‘taken’ as many Purple Emperors as Elephants (four). Matthew has been with the National Trust since 1990 and is their National Specialist, Nature. Initially he worked in nature conservation practice, specialising in grazing regimes, scrub management and lowland habitats. A frequent radio and TV broadcaster, he is particularly drawn to people’s relationships with nature, places and seasons, and increasingly the impact of weather on wildlife. For a taster, see Matthew’s website http://www.thepurpleempire.com/ and the account of this local rarity in Butterflies of the Bristol Region. We should also learn how Salix caprea, Sallow or Goat Willow should be managed in favour of the butterfly, and its unusual tastes.

FIELD MEETINGS The following meetings, led by Clive Lovatt, BSBI recorder for VC34, will take place as a continuation of the five Gloucestershire Pot Luck botanical recording meetings held last year, but now extending into areas outside the traditional BNS area. All meetings start at 11am. The meetings are being held for the Gloucestershire Naturalists Society and BNS members are welcome. Thursday 20 April 2017. Selsey Common and other locations. Meet at the Selsey Common car park with multiple entrances on the B4066 at SO82880267/GL5 5PL for a ‘pot luck’ botanical survey of spring flowering plants. Cerastium semidecandrum Little Mouse- ear occurs on the Selsey common and C. pumilum Dwarf or Curtis’s Mouse-ear was recorded there 20 years ago. We will move on to search other commons and roadside verges for ephemerals including the apparently rare segregates of Erophila verna, Whitlowgrass. Thursday 18 May 2017. St Briavels and Slade Bottom. A ‘pot luck’ botanical survey focussing on plants not recorded since before 2000 (list available) in two tetrads. We should be able to visit St Briavels Castle and see the tufa formation at Slade Brook SSSI. Meet at Forestry Commission Car Park at Tiddenham Chase SO558993/GL15 6PT to consolidate before moving on.

Thursday 22 June 2017. Rodmarton, Culkerton and the Fosse Way. A ‘pot luck’ botanical survey of largely unrecorded monads close to the county boundary in a rural setting. Rosa tomentosa, Downy Rose should be seen. Meet at Rodmarton Church ST942981/GL7 6PE (limited parking). August – date to be confirmed. Arable weeds of Gloucestershire. A ‘roving meeting’ to look at the current distribution of arable weeds in the Cotswolds.

The BNS Botany Section’s own meetings (at least one a month relatively close to Bristol) and those with a stronger emphasis in recording and rare plant monitoring run in collaboration with or by invitation of the Somerset Rare Plants Group will be advertised in the BNS Bulletin as soon as details are available.

BOTANICAL NOTES Contents / Diary Indoor Meeting Reports AGM and 2016 BOTANICAL RECORDS, Wednesday 25 January A brief AGM was held with a dozen members present. Apologies were received from Libby Houston and Helena Crouch. The Hon Secretary reported that five indoor meetings had been held in 2016 (2015, 6) and 16 field meetings (2015, 14). Attendance varied from 1 to over 20 in the field and hovered around a dozen indoors, with more when external speakers had been invited. All meetings were written up in the Bulletin. The Hon Sec and Committee were thanked by one member who had enjoyed the field meetings she attended for the variety of places, the gentle learning and the easy companionship – surely the enduring strength of societies such as ours. The Botany Committee were re-elected unchanged – Clive Lovatt as Hon Sec, with Helena Crouch, David Hawkins, David Hill, Libby Houston, Ellie Phillips and Tony Smith as ordinary members. There remains a vacancy for a Section President/Chairman. Due to illness, Helena Crouch was unable to attend and give her presentation on the year’s botanical finds in the N Somerset (VC6) part of the BNS area; so the programme reverted somewhat to the format of a members’ evening. In alphabetical order: Clive Lovatt gave a short presentation of public memorials of Bristol botanists, including the GHK Thwaites pavilion in the botanic gardens in Peradeniya in Sri Lanka where he had been curator for 30 years from 1849, and closer to home, the stained glass window dedicated to his contemporary and friend HO Stephens, in the asylum chapel, now the Glenside Hospital Museum in Stapleton. He also gave a presentation of some of this year’s VC34 finds, mainly closer to Bristol, several of which had been publicised in the BNS Bulletin. Ellie Phillips showed her small (and rare) plant finds from Cleeve Hill near Cheltenham, – Moonwort, Frog Orchid and Red Hemp-nettle. All were no larger than a fingertip. The opportunity was taken to note the recent death of Ian Howes who only last year had self-published a little book, Cleeve Common and its Wild Flowers. There is a copy in the BNS Library and Ellie has a PDF from which it should be possible to arrange a reprint. Tony Smith gave a short extemporisation on three other small plants of his acquaintance, one read from a book.

Many BNS members will be aware (either from Biology lessons at school or being shown them in the wild or the garden) that primroses and other Primulas have two flower forms: ‘thrum’ with the pollen bearing anthers visible at the top of the floral tube and the stigma which receives the pollen half way down; and ‘pin’ the other way round, with the pin-head stigma visible. As Darwin recognised, this promotes out-breeding. Classical

11 geneticists showed that that a 1:1 ratio obtains in offspring and that the ‘thrum’ allele is dominant (thrum plants heterozygous Ss and pin homozygous recessive). Contents / Diary Our member Dr Margaret Webster was part of the team that have overturned the current model of how the breeding system is controlled by several very closely linked genes published in Nature Plants, an abstract at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17561923 The gist of it is that using her ‘library’ of pure bred forms and by controlled crossings and DNA fingerprinting (the latter ‘not my bit’ as Margaret remarked) the team have shown that the recessive ‘s’ allele is non-existent. The immediately obvious consequence is that rare variants cannot arise by crossing over during meiosis as had always been assumed, but they must be mutations in the ‘S’ supergene. We were spell-bound by Margaret’s clear exposition. How wonderful is the variety of nature. Margaret also remembered the assistance and encouragement she received from Dr Mark Smith of the Bristol University Botanic Garden (CML had earlier shown a photo of his memorial stone and plaque in the new gardens) and Dr Chris Grant of Bristol University Botany Department.

An online album of lichens in Dorset – and more Sheila Quin draws attention to a stunning online resource showing the biodiversity of lichens in Dorset, many of which would be found in our area too. See http://www.dorsetnature.co.uk/Dorset-lichen.html. Jenny Seawright is the site owner who writes, “Since my return to Dorset I have been photographing some of the wildflowers, moths, lichens and fungi to be found in the county. This website will never provide an illustration of all the species to be found here but it’s a good memory aid for me that I hope will be of use to others! Species descriptions are being added - but it's a slow work in progress!” What do we have to match it round here?

Plant records I had an email and list of plants from a longstanding BNS Member John Burton, who used to work as a Producer at the Natural History Unit at the BBC in Bristol. One of the plants he had spotted was the Southern Marsh-orchid Dactylorhiza praetermissa in a small planted- up meadow beside the car-park by the Westbury-on-Trym Methodist church. “Strange place for a Marsh-orchid” he remarked. Indeed, though we’ve had it on the Bristol Downs for a decade or more, and I've seen it on a grassy bank in the Shirehampton Park and Ride. Whilst going through the AJ Willis archive of Bristol Botany I came across a letter from him with his records for 1971 on blue-green index cards, amongst them finding the same species recorded in a more obvious place- in wet fen meadow in the Gordano Valley. Thank you to John, who appears to be the last survivor of the ‘school of 1971’ for your long interest in recording plants in the Bristol region.

If you've found some interesting plants in the Bristol area, let me know.

Clive Lovatt, Shirehampton, 8 February 2017

Correction: Len Wyatt writes that the Feb. Bulletin (p11, New Year Plant Hunts) said the walk led by Alex covered Novers Common, whereas it only visited 2 other parts of The Slopes - The Bommie and Glyn Vale. For more on this fascinating area see www.northern- slopes-initiative.co.uk

GEOLOGY SECTION

Back to contents / Back to Diary PRESIDENT: David Clegg [email protected] HON. SEC.: Richard Ashley, [email protected] Tel: 01934 838850

LECTURE MEETING Lecture meetings take place in the S H Reynolds lecture Theatre, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol, BS8 1RJ. For those unfamiliar with this venue: Enter the Wills Building via main entrance and walk ahead between the two staircases. Turn right when you reach some display cases. The lecture room is on your left.

THE ORIGINS OF DOLOMITES Wed. 29 March 2017 at 7.30pm Professor Maurice Tucker Dolomite is a common sedimentary rock - plenty in the Bristol district and South Wales in the Carboniferous and Triassic, but there is a problem in explaining its origin. Seawater is supersaturated with respect to dolomite but it does not precipitate there; dolomite appears to increase in abundance back through time, being especially common in the Precambrian; to dolomitise a limestone needs much Mg and through-flow of water - but how does that work? Dolomites are very important as reservoirs for oil and hosts of lead-zinc sulphide deposits, so understanding their origin and geometry is important. This talk will examine dolomites from around the world and up and down the geological column and discuss the hot topic as to whether microbes provide the answer.

FIELD MEETING

LULWORTH COVE TO MUPE BAY Saturday 8 April Leader: Professor Maurice Tucker Bath Geological Society Field Meeting Anyone interested in joining this field meeting to a fascinating section of the Jurassic Coast please contact Bob Mustow of Bath G.S. [email protected] or telephone him on 01294 4403019

LIBRARY

Back to contents / Back to Diary HON. LIBRARIAN: Jim Webster [email protected]. BNS Library at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, BS8 1RL. Open: Wed. 1.15pm-2.15pm, Sat. 10.15am-12.15pm. Committee member on duty: 0117 922 3651 (library opening hours).

Access to the Society’s Proceedings and Nature in Avon online We are grateful to the Biodiversity Heritage Library and its participating institutions (Harvard and the Natural History Museum in particular) for digitising our Proceedings and Nature in Avon without charge and making them publicly available. To access them you can google “Biodiversity Heritage Library” and use the search facilities, or you can go direct to our own index pages at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/98898#/summary (for the Proceedings, i.e. up to 1993); and http://biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/99328#/summary (for Nature in Avon, from 1994 to date)

An invitation to the Library his is an article about the BNS Library and an invitation for all to come and visit. I am Cathy and I and others on the library committee have spent the last years cleaning T up the library. Today we have a library that is a wonderful place to visit. Before the cleanup it was equally wonderful and in some ways it was a shame to lose the higgledy-piggledy arrangement of books which required some degree of determination to find any book that one considered taking out of the library. In the process one was aware of the dust on the books and some of the leather bound catalogued books caused the hands to become covered in old rotting leather. Today that has all been swept away. All books are newly catalogued and easy to find (more or less). There are five main sections on Botany, Geology, Ornithology, Invertebrates and Mammals but also sections on General Reading, these being books that are not of a scientific but of general interest on subjects related to the natural world and one would read one of these books just out of general interest on a new subject. Good bedtime reading! Natural History is another section that gives the reader a more general appraisal of a subject. But the best way to find out what it is all about is to go and visit the library. The committee member on duty will make you welcome. The library is in the Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery. Go up the main stairs and keep going, until you reach the giant dinosaur (can’t be missed, large and black skeleton) then turn left and GO AS FAR AS YOU CAN, past all the geological specimens, down some steps and then you come to a pair of locked doors. On the wall to the left there is a phone & bell, pick up the phone, ring the bell and the library committee member will answer the phone and release the door lock. Push the door open, go to the left and down the steps. One is descending into a basement, accept that it is at floor level! Once down the steps go right and the library door is on the left. There it is, the treasure house of the BNS Library. It's not just about visiting the library. The Museum & Art Gallery are well worth a visit and there is an excellent café in the building. If visiting on Saturday, for the energetic, a tour of the Wills Tower and a climb to Big George is also possible. For those not so energetic one can hear Big George chiming the hour in the library. The library is open on Saturday 10.15 - 12.15 and Wednesday 12.15 - 1.15. These hours can be varied by arrangement with the librarian. Jim Webster [email protected]. To go up Wills Tower, you have to book through Bristol University.

INVERTEBRATE SECTION

Back to contents / Back to Diary PRESIDENT: Robert Muston 0117 924 3352 SECRETARY: Tony Smith 0117 965 6566 [email protected]

INVERTEBRATE NOTES FOR MARCH 2017 he Field Studies Council has recently published its latest AIDGAP fold out leaflet which this time is a key to the pseudoscorpions of Britain. This series of publications T which is now very comprehensive and includes ladybirds, caddisflies, common spiders, bumblebees – the list goes on, continues to impress with the quality, ease of use and excellent value for money, £3.80 in this case. Authored by Gerald Legg and Francis Farr-Cox (the latter lives on our doorstep in Burnham-on-Sea), it covers the 27 species on the British list with a diagrammatic key, photos and information on each species and general notes on life history and biology.

If you are not sure what pseudoscorpions are, they are small (often about 5mm long) members of the arachnids with large appendages reminiscent of a scorpion’s but without the sting in the tail. They are not often encountered unless you are searching for them. I like the description of putting some woodland leaf litter on a white sheet and then waiting to see what runs out – ‘They will usually start to move when all the other invertebrates have run off the sheet and you have decided to start again with another load of leaves!’ Pseudoscorpions are predators of other even smaller invertebrates. Although leaf litter is a good place to start, there are species which even prefer garden compost heaps so why not have a look and see if you can find any (and perhaps also the Lesser Earwig which also likes compost).

The annual moth recorders meeting in Birmingham on 28 January had as usual an excellent series of talks. Butterfly Conservation is gearing up for publication of their national macro-moth atlas in 2018 with last year the final one from which records will be incorporated. Over 21 million records are now on their database. Other talks covered topics such as conservation of the Dark-bordered Beauty, moths breeding in birds’ nests, work on hedgerow species, rediscovering ‘lost’ micro-moths not recorded for decades and the possibility that several species long considered single species may be shown by DNA analysis to actually be species complexes. (The latter by BNS member David Agassiz.) The most eloquent talk of the day came from a non-insect specialist. Michael McCarthy (journalist on the Independent) spoke about his book ‘The Moth Snowstorm’ in which he recalled the nights of his youth when driving on a balmy summer’s evening would reveal snowstorms of moths in the car’s headlights. His evocation of such a scene no doubt hit a nerve with many of us who remember also swirls of moths around moth traps and also the numbers of dead insects from driving by day that would be splattered on windscreen and radiator grill. This phenomenon just does not seem to happen anymore and highlights the huge decline we have witnessed in invertebrate abundance over the last 40 years. Sobering stuff.

Ray Barnett 08/02/17

ORNITHOLOGY SECTION PRESIDENT:- Giles Morris, 01275 373917 [email protected] HON SEC.:- Lesley Cox 07786 437528 [email protected]

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Field Meetings continue as usual with one or two every month. Our Winter Lecture Programme offers the opportunity to explore related practical and / or research based subject areas. Talks take place on the second Wednesday of each month until March and provide a varied schedule of stimulating and informative topics to enhance our understanding of Ornithological issues. They are held at Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church; visitors are welcome to join us. The Committee looks forward to seeing all their old friends from the Section and across the Society; make a note in your diary to join us!

FIELD MEETINGS . SEVERN BEACH & NEW PASSAGE Saturday, 4th March Leader: Giles Morris. Tel: 01275 373917 10:00 am Meet at 10am - at Beach Road, Severn Beach, (ST539852, BS35 4PE). NB – this is the northern part of Beach Road next to the park below the Sea Wall. We will walk north along the sea wall towards New Passage and the Pilning Wetlands. As usual, how far we travel will depend on the time spent looking at wildlife along the route. The date and time have been selected to coincide with high tide so that the waders and wildfowl should be more easily seen at roost on the saltings. We shall also check out the Pilning Wetlands which has been turning up a good variety of interesting species. Anyone with a telescope will find them very useful. The path is flat but could well be muddy especially beyond New Passage and is also exposed if the weather is inclement; appropriate footwear and clothing is advised. The meeting will end around 13:00. Please make sure to contact the leader by Fri. 3rd March if you intend to join us.

RSPB ARNE RESERVE Sunday 4 June, 08:00 An invitation from Bristol Ornithological Club BOC invites BNS members to join a coach trip leaving 8am from the Water Tower on the Downs, going to Arne. In the morning RSPB will take us to an area not open to the public; for the afternoon we’ll be independent on the Reserve. Return to the Water Tower around 7pm. Cost around £16. Anyone interested should contact the Hon. Sec. for more details.

INDOOR MEETING WILD ETHIOPIA Wednesday, 8th March Speaker: John Sparks 7:30pm … home of the Queen of Sheba but a country plunged into periodic famines, causing humanitarian crises. That is the only thing that most people know of Ethiopia. However, nestling in the ‘horn of Africa’, this is a richly diverse country boasting a treasure trove of wildlife. Two years ago, John Sparks satisfied a longstanding ambition to visit the remote Bale Mountains, some of the lakes cradled in the Great Rift Photo © John Sparks Valley, and the breathtaking High Simien Plateau. His photographic record bears witness to some of the dazzling birds and unique mammals that give Ethiopia such great appeal to the naturalist.

FIELD MEETING REPORTS Back to contents / Back to Diary Wednesday 28th December Chew Valley Lake welve members left home in bright sunshine from all points of the compass to descend into the Chew Valley to find the Lake shrouded in fog. We met at Herriotts T Bridge where there was just sufficient visibility to admire a smart pair of Goosander in the channel to the main part of the Lake. A Little Egret appeared from the gloom and Shoveler and Shelduck loafed on the water. A Reed Bunting was seen and also heard calling with its thin contact note and a Great Crested Grebe dived for a fish breakfast. Two Snipe jetted overhead. We then moved to the Moreton area of the Lake by which time there was an improvement in the visibility. Looking across Herons Green Bay it was good to compare a Great White Egret close alongside another Little Egret. From the Moreton Hide, Cormorant, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Gadwall, Coot and Moorhen were added to the list. A short debate ensued as to whether a small bird that kept flying to a distant post and then disappearing was a Robin or a Stonechat. The problem was solved when both species eventually popped onto two close posts. The last part of the morning was spent walking on Nunnery Point in glorious sunshine. The highlights were the flocks of winter thrushes, mostly Redwing, but also Fieldfare and Mistle Thrush. A Green Woodpecker “yaffled” at the end. Forty-six species was not a bad count in challenging conditions. Mike Johnson

Ham Wall, Saturday 21st January 2017 he big, new car park at RSPB Ham Wall was bathed in bright sunshine as we arrived, but the forecast cloud cover was beginning to threaten as we gathered. T Undaunted, we decided to go across the road to see if the Firecrest was still showing in the trees around the Shapwick Reserve car park. We missed the Firecrest, but fortunately we did find the 3 members who had been waiting anxiously for us in the wrong carpark! With numbers swelled to 15, we returned to Ham Wall, walking along to the first viewing platform and then on to the new Avalon hide. Good numbers of wintering duck were on show and we picked out some wonderfully cryptic snipe feeding in Waltons. Great and Little Egrets obligingly provided an easy size comparison and 4 Marsh Harriers put on a good display in front of the Avalon hide. The first flocks of Starlings overhead prompted a rapid return to the main path to see the arrival of several hundred thousand at their nightly roost site in the reeds. No big aerial display, unfortunately, but an impressive sight and sound nonetheless. Unusually the roost has occupied the same patches of reed all winter thus far – not good for the quality of the underlying water! No real rarities on the day and a relatively modest number of species seen, but a very enjoyable afternoon of quality birds. Ham Wall seldom disappoints! Giles Morris

FIELDWORK Contents / Diary Breeding Bird Survey This National BTO survey, which began in 1994, monitors the populations of all our common birds with considerable accuracy. In 2016 we surveyed 223 kilometre squares, about 15% of the surface area and counted 73,708 birds. We are, almost certainly, the best region in the nation for our coverage. Anyone can participate who can identify common birds, preferably by sound as well as by sight, and the requirement is to do two standard transects through a one-km square between April and the end of June, recording every bird seen and heard. Free training will be provided in March. You can choose your own square to do, or take on a random one selected nationally. Locally it is organised by Dave Stoddard [email protected] or 0117 924 6968. Please contact him if you are interested.

RECENT NEWS January he run of good birds continued into January when a young drake American Wigeon, our first for a number of years, was found at Littleton Warth on 2nd. With a big flock T of Wigeon here (over 500 on my WeBS and Low Tide counts recently) it was a surprise when it was not seen again, either here or with any more of our Wigeon flocks (notably on Northwick Warth-Aust). I think our last three records have all been seen on a single date with the last long-staying bird as long ago as 1978-79 at Chew (which I missed by a day on a student birding trip from Cardiff!). Cattle Egret looked to be colonising our area a few years ago, with breeding taking place in Somerset, but two cold winters really set them back. At last they seem to be on the up again and two appeared in roadside fields at Wick from 10th and remained all month. The reservoirs held an excellent collection of rare and scarce birds: Chew had a drake Ring-necked Duck, up to 13 Scaup (very good numbers for us), two or more Bitterns, Black-necked Grebes, a couple of Great White Egrets and Bewick's Swans; Barrow Gurney had a Long-tailed Duck and Blagdon up to five Great Whites and Bewick's Swans (commuting to Chew at times). Rarer gulls at Chew were typically unpredictable with Ring-billed, Caspian and Kumlien's all noted once or twice. Waxwings stole the show in Bristol with a few roving bands showing up, the most popular and reliable being in Bradley Stoke. Photographers are all hoping they stay until we get a bit of sunshine!

John Martin

MISCELLANY

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL BOTANIC GARDEN The Holmes, Stoke Park Rd, Stoke Bishop, BS9 1JG. Booking: 0117 331 4906. www.bristol.ac.uk/botanic-garden Email: [email protected] Back to contents / Back to Diary

Thursday 16 March (after AGM at 7pm) ROMANS & ROSES: a personal history of Italian gardens. Speaker: James Bolton. James specialises in garden history in England from 1600 and the history of French and Italian gardens. His lecture explores the development of Italian gardens from the Emperor Hadrian’s 2nd century garden at Tivoli, via the Renaissance to the early 20th century. Perhaps the most spectacular garden in Italy remains Ninfa, where the Caetani family created a gardener’s dream within the walls of a ruined medieval Italian town. Venue: Frank Theatre Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1TL. Free to Friends on production of membership card. Visitors asked for a donation (suggested £5) Attendees use any University car park; nearest are in University Walk and The Hawthorns.

Sunday 19 March 2017 10.30am-12.00pm. Curator’s Tour of the Botanic Garden. A 2-hour tour of the Garden with the Curator, Nicholas Wray. With luck the stunning Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata 'Lanarth' will be flowering in all its glory, along with our daffodil collection, early spring blossom and emerging woodland bulbs. Then, see treasures of the Amazon rainforest in the glass-houses; orchids, bromeliads and tropical food and medicinal plants. Free to Friends & students. Visitors £5.50. Meet outside the Welcome Lodge, The Holmes, Stoke Park Rd., BS9 1JG. Photo © Andy Winfield

Avon Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project contents / diary Booking and further information: Contact the Project on 0117 903 0609 or e- mail [email protected]. Pre-booking essential for all events. Details of meeting points are given on booking.

Tuesday 14th March. OUR LOCAL RAPTORS – or are they? (Talk) Speaker: Ed Drewitt. We may be familiar with hobbies and honey buzzards coming to the UK for our summer but what about our more common raptors? Join Ed for a stimulating insight into the largely unknown migration of some of our common and familiar birds of prey. 7–8pm. £4. At Bristol Zoo Gardens. Venue accessible to wheelchair users. Hearing loop in place.

Arnos Vale – www.arnosvale.org.uk - 357-359 Bath Rd, BS4 3EW Sat. 4 March, 10:30-12:00 Winter Tree Identification walk. £5. For queries see website or contact Mary Wood: 07900 121 527

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Jon Mortin sent in this unusual sighting – “…a Grey Seal high up on the saltmarsh near Severn Beach (21/01/2017). Not quite sure

what it was doing there...seems quite an unusual sighting: they are normally seen in the

water.”

Jonathan Mortin

Photo

Giles Morris made it to the Bradley Stoke hotspot for Waxwings on 30 Jan. See page 18

Tony Smith’s walk (page 9) turned up colourful fungi: here, Scarlet Elf Cup fungus Sarcoscypha coccinea Photo © Clive Burton