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Contents JULY-AUGUST 2020 Bristol Naturalist News Photo © Gary Thoburn Discover Your Natural World Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 592 JULY-AUGUST 2020 BULLETIN NO. 592 JULY-AUGUST 2020 Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk CONTENTS HON. PRESIDENT: Andrew Radford, Professor 3 SOCIETY ITEMS AGM on Zoom of Behavioural Ecology, Bristol University Notices: e-Bulletin, Library, Nature in Avon ON HAIRMAN H . C : Ray Barnett [email protected] 4 Society AGM 5 Members’ Letters; BNS on Facebook HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR: Dee Holladay, [email protected] 6 Bristol Weather HON. SEC.: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528 7 NATTY NEWS : Sea level rise; Fossil bird skull [email protected] 8 Call me Bird-brained HON. MEMBERSHIP SEC: Mrs. Margaret Fay 9 Ash Dieback; Bees force flowering; 81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280 Scarce Chaser [email protected] 10 BOTANY SECTION Uley Bury visit; Botanical notes; HON. TREASURER: Mary Jane Steer 12 Plant records 01454 294371 [email protected] 15 Moments on the Bristol Downs 16 Water-moss: Microscopic study BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before publication to the editor: David B Davies, 17 GEOLOGY SECTION 51a Dial Hill Rd., Clevedon, BS21 7EW. Congresbury Allotment finds 01275 873167 [email protected] Canadian geology . 19 INVERTEBRATE SECTION AGM; Notes for July-August; The Emperors have New Clothes Health & Safety on walks: Members LIBRARY The BNS Library remains participate at their own risk. They are necessarily closed for the immediate responsible for being properly clothed and shod. foreseeable future. The situation will be reviewed after the Museum opens Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior agreement of the leader. 21 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION A Tale of two Warblers; 22 Hoopoe; Recent News; 23 MISCELLANY Pavement weeds; St. George’s Flower Bank; 24 Mystery; Old Sneed Park NR Cover picture: Grateful thanks to Gary Thoburn for this fruit of his 6 hours or so spent at New Passage! See the write-up Bristol Naturalists’by RupertSociety Higgins on page 22 Discover Your Natural World 2 Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk SOCIETY ITEMS IMPORTANT NOTICE Contents New arrangements for the Society AGM 2020 The 2020 Society AGM was scheduled for 18 March but was postponed due to the Coronavirus emergency. Currently there is no known date when a traditional AGM could be rearranged. Consequently, your Council has decided that a virtual AGM should be held to allow the necessary business of the Society to be concluded for this year, especially the election of this year’s officers and Council members. This AGM (see next page) will not be the exact same event as originally planned for March. There will be no guest speaker, but just official business. This is important to maintain appropriate governance of the Society but is also an opportunity for the membership to hear about the activity of the Society and to ask questions. The date and time selected for this meeting is 7.30pm on Wednesday 29 July 2020. To be quorate we require at least 20 members of the Society to attend this virtual meeting and we hope you will be willing to participate. If you would like to attend the meeting (details on the next page), which will be held using the ‘Zoom’ programme, you need to e-mail [email protected] by Wednesday 15 July using the heading BNS AGM. We will then send out to you an appointment link with which to log in to the meeting. In this way we will ensure that only BNS members will be able to attend and it increases the security of using the system. You will not need to have downloaded any software prior to receiving this invitation. We will also be able to tell whether the meeting will be quorate and so can go ahead. We hope and assume that in future we will be able to return to the traditional style and format of meetings. However this trial of new technology also may offer us the opportunity to offer more services to our members. For example, delivering talks in this way could enable members who have difficulty getting to talk venues to be able to attend virtually. Please do consider attending our virtual AGM and e-mail us to receive your invitation. NOTICES: Receive the Bulletin a week or so early and save the Society postage! Would you like to save BNS print and postal costs? To receive it as a pdf, please email the membership secretary (details on page 2). BNS Library closure Please see the notice on page 2. Nature in Avon / Proceedings of the Society Members will by now have received Vol. 79, for 2019. Full of learning – and with no lack of enjoyment along the way – you could well find it an inspiration for your own contribution to Vol. 80. About nature under lockdown? The editor’s details are on page 2. Or for something more immediate and brief, write for the Naturalist News. Authors’ instructions are on the inside back cover of Nature in Avon; for this bulletin the editor asks for text in Word (please not pdf!), under 400 words, jpeg photos (“worth a thousand words”!), relevant to the Bristol Nats. area (or at least to your own experience). Enjoy writing! 3 SOCIETY AGM Contents 7.30pm, Wednesday, 29th July Election of Officers Officers of the Society and Members are required to stand for re-election annually. Section Representatives are elected at individual Section AGMs. The Presidential Term of Office also comes to an end this year. Consequently, the current President, Professor Andy Radford, will be stepping down from the role. The Society would like to thank Andy for his support and welcome the new President elect, Ray Barnett. Nominations are: Ray Barnett: Member Members Lesley Cox: Hon. Secretary Tim Corner Mary-Jane Steer: Hon. Treasurer Robert Muston Margaret Fay: Hon. Membership Secretary Steve Nicholls David Davies: Hon Bulletin Editor Jim Webster: Hon. Librarian Section Representatives Dee Holladay: Hon. Proceedings Receiving Editor Botany: Vacant Clive Lovatt: Hon Archivist Geology: Richard Ashley Alex Morss: Hon Publicity Secretary Invertebrates: Mike Hutchinson Ornithology: Giles Morris Mammals: Vacant Any member of the Society who would like to stand or wishes to nominate a fellow member for election should inform the Hon. Secretary as soon as possible. Many thanks, Lesley Cox 4 MEMBERS’ LETTERS Contents Just a quick note to thank you for your work as Editor of the Bulletin and to say that the last two editions especially have been excellent and are setting a very high standard for the future! Thank you for such good, wide ranging and informative reads, particularly during these difficult times with no meetings or field visits. Best Wishes and thanks again, to all the contributors and especially to yourself. (GH) I do enjoy reading this (Bristol Naturalists News) David. Having for many, many, years been a member of BOC and Somerset OS, I thought I ought to join BNS last year in order to go to the ornithological lectures. However, there is a lot to interest me in the Bulletin and it is a "good read". Thank you for your work. (JC) Lesley, what an interesting Newsletter for June. You do us proud. Thought you might enjoy seeing a regular visitor on the birds’ feeding station. (Wood Mouse) Sometimes we have two mice at the same time until one of them sees off the other one. (A&DJ) Wood Mouse © Anne Jewell Thought you might like the attached from this morning (Young Robin). We sat and glared at each other over the moth trap! (JO) Young Robin © Jean Oliver BNS on Facebook Contents Come and join the BNS Facebook Group via the internet. The BNS has a thriving Facebook group. In these times of restricted operations, this group has been a lifeline of communication, sightings, questions and general chat about all things ‘Natural History’ in the Bristol area. Why not give it a try? If you do not have a Facebook account, you need to go to www.facebook.com. There, you will be prompted to register a new account. It needs only your name, email address (or mobile number), birthdate, gender and a password of your choosing. Now you have a Facebook account, or if you already have one, just search on ‘Bristol Naturalists’ Society’ in the Facebook search box. When you are sent to the BNS page, click on the box marked ‘Join’. The moderators (I am one) will receive your request and will approve it. When that has happened, go back to the BNS page and select a level of notification (next to the Join box). There are three choices ‘All posts’ (I would choose this in the first instance), ‘Highlights’, ‘Friends’ posts’ or ‘Off’. When a new post is received, you should get an email to tell you. If this proves too often, just amend the ‘Notifications’ setting. I look forward to approving your join request. Roger Steer 5 Bristol Weather: Contents May 2020 At the end of May spring moves into summer meteorologically speaking. These rigid seasonal dates are useful but seem to have little in common these days with what is actually happening on the ground, or should one say in the ground? So-called spring this year has been more like some summers with high temperatures, unbroken sunshine and practically no rain. Some spring records have tumbled and others have been pushed close. The recent spring was exceptional with regard to sunshine, temperature and rainfall, or rather lack of it.
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    G. M. DAVID OBE FREng INFRASTRUCTURE CHAIRMAN, AERIAL FACILITIES LTD T ern unn ev e S l he estuary of got up by the Great the river Western Railway TSevern had consulting engineer always been an John Fowler. The obstacle to trade plan was for a new between South railway entitled the Wales and the west Great Western of England which Railway and South was overcome to Wales Direct Railway some degree by which would be double shipping arrangements: a track mixed gauge of forty very good trade built up miles in length from Wootton between Bristol, Gloucester Bassett to Chepstow crossing and the South Wales ports, the Severn estuary at Aldbury Sands although it should be remembered that via a bridge or viaduct not less than 2.5 Cardiff was only a village in 1830 and Brunel miles long and 100 feet above high Barry and Penarth were only hamlets. A Brunel had been very active in getting water. very heavy trade existed, however, the broad gauge into South Wales and The addition of standard gauge rails between Cardigan, Milford, his tubular bridge at Chepstow was between Didcot and Wootton Bassett Carmarthen, Burry-Port, Swansea, evidently a practice run for his great and between Chepstow and Cardiff Briton Ferry and Bristol: the Severn Saltash bridge. But by the time the was to be arranged with the Great Trows did a brisk trade up the Severn railway had reached Swansea in 1850, Western Railway. This plan was called and Wye estuaries far above what is Brunel had already embarked on other ‘Fowler’s Line’ and duly authorised by now considered as navigable water.