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Contents / Diary of events JULY-AUGUST 2019 Bristol Naturalist News Photo © Nick Owens Discover Your Natural World Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 582 JULY-AUGUST 2019 BULLETIN NO. 582 JULY-AUGUST 2019 Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk CONTENTS HON. PRESIDENT: Andrew Radford, Professor 3 DIARY of Events; Nature in Avon; of Behavioural Ecology, Bristol University Welcome new members ON HAIRMAN H . C : Ray Barnett [email protected] 4 SOCIETY ITEMS: Mid-week Walks; HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR: Find a Bumblebee in Scotland; Dee Holladay, [email protected] ON EC 5 Bristol Weather H . S .: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528 [email protected] 6 NATTY NEWS : Bees, Feathers, HON. MEMBERSHIP SEC: Mrs. Margaret Fay 81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280 7 Bedbugs; Poisoned Birds; Fracking; Flock mechanics; Re-wilding; [email protected] HON. TREASURER: Mary Jane Steer 8 Duke of Burgundy; Fungus find 01454 294371 [email protected] 9 Westonbirt BioBlitz / BNS Survey BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before publication to the editor: David B Davies, 10 BOTANY SECTION 51a Dial Hill Rd., Clevedon, BS21 7EW. ‘Other’ meetings; 01275 873167 [email protected] 11 Botanical notes ; Meeting Reports; . 13 Plant Records Health & Safety on walks: Members 15 GEOLOGY SECTION participate at their own risk. They are Book review: Dinosaurs Rediscovered responsible for being properly clothed and shod. Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior 16 INVERTEBRATE SECTION agreement of the leader. Notes for June; Points of Interest 18 LIBRARY Books to give away; Donations; Steep Holm News 20 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION Sea Bird Safari; Swift nest petition; Meeting Report; Recent News ; 23 MISCELLANY Botanic Garden; 24 Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project; St George’s Flower Bank Fun-day Cover picture: The endangered Great Yellow Bumblebee – we are encouraged to find it in its retreat in the north of Scotland. See the article on page 4. 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 have any matters you wish to be discussed by Council, please contact the Hon. Sec. at least a week in advance. Visitors & guests are welcome, free, at our lectures and field meetings. If contact details are given, please contact the leader beforehand, and make yourself known on arrival. We hope you will enjoy the meeting, and consider joining the Society. To join, visit https://bristolnats.org.uk and click on membership. Members are members of ALL sections. JULY Thu 4 Society midweek walk: Burrington Ham Society 10.00 page 4 Sat 6 Priddy Mineries & Stock Hill Ornithology 10.00 page 20 Sun 14 Walton Common Botany 14.30 page 10 Sat 20 Portishead, Clevedon Geology 11.00 page 15 Sun 21 Dragonflies at Botanic Garden Invertebrates 14.00 page 17 AUGUST Thu 8 Society midweek walk: Goblin Combe Society 10.00 page 4 Sat 10 Lower Woods, Wetmoor, S.Glos. Invertebrate 14.00 page 17 Mon 26 Clifton & Durdham Downs Botany 14.30 page 10 OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST Till 15 Sept. Exhibitioon – Natural Selection Museum page 17 Fri 5 July Seabird Safari, Minehead Ornithology 11.30 page 20 Sat 6 July WsM Sewage works SRPG 11.00 page 10 Sun 14 July NGS Open day Botanic Garden 10.00 page 23 Thu 25 July Mammal detectives (8-12 year olds) Gorge & Downs 10.00 page 24 Sat 27 July Jazz Picnic Botanic Garden 16.30 page 23 Mon 29 July Curator’s Tour Botanic Garden 14.15 page 23 Thu 1 Aug Gorge-ous Goats (8-12 year olds) Gorge & Downs 10.00 page 24 Sat 3 Aug Spiders of the Avon Gorge Gorge & Downs 10.30 page 24 Sun 4 Aug Moth Group at Bath Moth Group 08.00 page 17 Tue 6 Aug Sun-printing for children Botanic Garden 10.00 page 23 Thu 8 Aug Minchinhampton Common GNS Plant Group 11.00 page 10 Tue 13 Aug Sun-printing for children Botanic Garden 10.00 page 23 Thu 15 Aug Secret Life of Flies Museum 19.30(?) page 17 Sat 17 Aug Insect Day Museum 10.30 page 17 Fri 23 Aug Moth trapping, Ashton Park Moth Group page 17 Nature in Avon / Proceedings of the Society Volume 78 is now published, I hope you will all enjoy reading it. Papers are now invited for Volume 79! As I write, this summer has been ideal for recording; we hope it continues! If you have never written before, now is your chance. [email protected] We welcome one new member this month: Mr. Michael Davis 3 SOCIETY ITEMS Contents / Diary SOCIETY MID-WEEK WALKS BURRINGTON HAM Thursday, 4th July, 10am Leader: Alastair Fraser – [email protected] Meet at the car park below the Burrington Inn at 10:00 for a walk through woodland to limestone upland (ST 476 590; Satnav:51.327760-2.752322). There will be some ascent and descent with an uneven, rocky path. There is a public toilet on the far side of the pub car park which is free but a donation is requested. Lunch, if required will be at the Burrington Inn. Offers of lifts or car sharing welcome. Please notify the leader if you intend to come on the walk. GOBLIN COMBE Thursday, 8th August, 10am Leader: Alastair Fraser – [email protected] Goblin Combe Grid Ref: ST 459654, Postcode: BS49 4PQ, Satnav 51.384547- 2.778410. From Bristol take the A370 to Cleeve. Turn left onto a minor road signposted ‘Village Hall, Environmental Centre’. Park by the old quarry. Mainly mixed deciduous woodland, some conifer, farm and open areas. No stiles, one steep ascent, one gradual descent with two steeper sections. Can be quite muddy in parts. Please notify the leader if you intend to come via [email protected] Society Walk Report: Collard Hill, 6th June It was a disappointing turnout for the Collard Hill walk with only four walkers enjoying a fine, sunny day with a cool breeze. Sadly, there were no Large Blues sighted but it might have been a tad early despite the bout of warmth earlier in the year that seemed to give so many species a boost or, perhaps it was simply too chilly on the day. Nevertheless, butterflies such as the Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Small Skipper and Small White were a delightful sight over the orchid fields resplendent with Common Spotted, Pyramidal, Lesser Butterfly Orchids, Common Twayblade and a Bee Orchid Altogether a very enjoyable day. Clive Burton GOING ON HOLIDAY TO SCOTLAND? If so, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust is looking for volunteers to look for our rarest Bumblebee, The Great Yellow Bumblebee, Bombus distinguendus, pictured on the cover, which sadly is now only to be found in the far North of Scotland having been forced northward as a result of climate change. Details of how to get involved can be obtained from https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org and if you decide to get involved please do let me know. Many thanks. Lesley Cox. [email protected] 4 BRISTOL WEATHER Contents / Diary MAY 2019 ith the end of May also comes the official end of spring meteorologically speaking, so what can we make of the spring of W 2019? As with most recent measurements of temperature, the spring of 2019 was another warmer than average one. The average temperature for the 3 months was 11.2°C when the 30-year average, 1980-2010, is 10.3°C. This made 2019 the joint 8th warmest (with 1990 and 1999) spring in 129 years of data for Bristol. The rainfall difference from the average was less notable but it was a drier than average spring being in fact the 38th driest spring in 138 years of data, with 146.3 mm of rain for the three months when the 30-year average is 188.0 mm. So, what of the month of May itself? It was actually an ‘average’ month temperature-wise with regard to the 30-year average at 13.3°C. Daily maximum temperatures struggled in May with the highest being 22.2°C, jointly with 23rd May 2015 and this was the lowest daily maximum for May since 21.1°C was recorded on May 12th 1994. Rainfall was less than the long-term average at 33.4 mm which is only just over half of the average for the month. It was the driest May since 2010 when only 32.4 mm was recorded. The air pressure in May was unusually high with the average pressure at 09:00 GMT being 1020 mb. This is the highest for a May since 2001 when the pressure was 1022 mb. The high pressure of 1039.4 mb at 09:00 on 13th May 2019 was the highest May recording since 1041.0 mb, recorded on 1st May 1994 and probably goes some way in explaining the low rainfall for the month. Barry Horton 5 NATTY NEWS Contents / Diary Bees: The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is looking for volunteers who might be holidaying in Scotland to look out for our rarest Bumblebee, the Great Yellow Bumblebee and has also published the results for the Bee Walk Programme of 2018. The Trust reports that: On the whole, 2018 was not a great year for bumblebees. The cold weather of the ‘Beast from the East’ in late February and early March pushed the start of the season back, and most species only really got going with a spell of good weather in mid-April.