Bristol Naturalist News

Contents / Diary of events

SEPTEMBER 2016

Photo ©David Clegg

Discover Your Natural World

Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 553 SEPTEMBER 2016

BULLETIN NO. 553 SEPTEMBER 2016 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 ; Reading Group

ACTING CHAIRMAN: Stephen Fay

HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR:

4 Walks: ‘Mid-week’; Nature in Avon /

Dee Holladay, 15 Lower Linden Rd., Clevedon, call for articles; Hugh Boyd obituary

BS21 7SU [email protected] HON. SEC.: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528 5 University/BNS Biodiversity events [email protected] Welcome to new members

HON. MEM'SHIP SEC.: Mrs. Margaret Fay 6 Green Impact Awards: University/BNS

81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280 [email protected] 7 Roger’s Notes; Phenology ; RBland seeks Purple Sycamores HON. TREASURER: David K Clegg

42 Dial Hill Road, Clevedon, BS21 7HN 8 Reflections on August Society Walk

[email protected] 9 Volunteering opportunities

BULLETIN DISTRIBUTION Hand deliveries save about £800 a year, so help 10 BOTANY SECTION

is much appreciated. Offers please to: 11 Other events of Botanical interest; HON. CIRCULATION SEC.: Brian Frost, 60 Purdy Indoor meetings; Botanical notes

Court, New Station Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3RT. 0117 9651242. [email protected] He will 14 GEOLOGY SECTION be pleased to supply further details. Also New excavation; Section Blog;

contact him about problems with (non-)delivery. 16 INVERTEBRATE SECTION BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before Notes for September; Items of Interest

publication to the editor: David B Davies,

The Summer House, 51a Dial Hill Rd., Clevedon, BS21 17 LIBRARY New Botany Books 7EW. 01275 873167 [email protected]

Grants: BNS typically makes grants of around 18 MAMMAL SECTION £500 for projects that meet the Society’s New Recorder wanted; Facebook gp. charitable aims of promoting research & Spotted Hyenas in Frome

education in natural history & its conservation in the Bristol region. Information and an application 20 MISCELLANY Botanic Garden; form can be downloaded from: Arnos Vale; Badock’s Wood; http://bns.myspecies.info/search/site/Grants Gorge & Downs; Ed Drewitt;

(and bristolnats.org.uk) Email completed 22 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION applications to [email protected]. Meeting Reports; Forward Dates; Health & Safety on walks: Members Recent News; Fieldwork

participate at their own risk. They are

responsible for being properly clothed and shod. 24 2 Pics from an Invertebrate meeting

Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior

Cover picture: This fossil colonial coral, agreement of the leader.

Siphonodendron martini was found on a

Geology walk in the Badgers Wood

Reserve, Backwell. Thanks to David Clegg

Bristol Naturalists’ Society

for the photo. 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 (please confirm the date with the Hon. Sec. if you plan to attend). 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.

SEPTEMBER 2016 Thu 1 Society midweek walk: Arlingham Society 10:00 page 4 Fri 9 Bat Walk BNS/University 19:30 page 5 Sun 11 Clapton Moor Botany 11:30 page 10 Weekdays from Mon 12 Lower Lias excavation visits Geology page 15 Thu 22 Gloucestershire Pot Luck Recording Botany 11:00 page 10 Sat 24 WWT Steart Marshes Ornithology 10:30 page 22 Sat 24 Frome Museum & Browne’s Hole exhibition Geology/Mammal 10:45 page 14 Sat 24 Plants, Trees & Shrubs BNS/University 14:00 page 5

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST:

… are listed under Botany page 11 Geology page 14 Miscellany page 20 Botanic Garden page 20 Arnos Vale page 20 Badock’s Wood page 21 Gorge & Downs Project page 21

Wildlife Boat Trips with Ed Drewitt page 21

READING GROUP / BOOK CLUB The Reading Group welcomes new members Contact: Tony Smith 0117 965 6566 [email protected]

The reading group normally meets in the evening at 4 to 6 week intervals; please contact the above for dates, places and times. ... what matters most is not the rare but the commonplace. And what also matters is simply engaging with the natural world; finding the time to step outside our daily lives for an hour or so, and enter a world we cannot control and which is constantly able to surprise. Whether we live in the heart of a city or the remotest corner of our countryside we all need wildlife to sustain and enrich our lives. For if we lose touch with nature we will eventually lose touch with who we are. From Stephen Moss, Wild Kingdom: bringing back Britain’s wildlife, Square Peg (2016). This month’s good read.

SOCIETY ITEMS Back to contents / Back to Diary

SOCIETY MID-WEEK WALKS Thursday, 1st September Arlingham, Frampton-on-Severn, about 4 miles. Meet 10 am at the Red Lion Inn, Arlingham, ST710109, GL2 7JN. Parking at the pub or a few yards further west at the village car park. This walk is on a fairly level area within a huge bend in the river Severn, so no hills or similar difficulties. The stiles, kissing gates, etc. are in good condition and the wildlife, including plants, birds and invertebrates will be interesting to see being largely a riverside walk, with extensive landscape views, a great wide sky and, at the right state of the tide, a spectacular river. This is a 60 mile round trip up the A38 so car-sharing is advised. Keep in touch, Tony Smith. Tel: 0117 965 6566.

Next walk: Iron Acton and the River Frome on Thursday, 6th October.

Nature in Avon A reminder to everyone to consider writing up 2016 recording efforts, projects or observations for publication in Nature in Avon. Short accounts and papers are both welcome, with illustrations. The deadline is March 31 2017. Please send to [email protected]

In memoriam, Hugh Boyd ugh died on July 3rd after a long illness. He was much the most important naturalist to belong to the Society in the past fifty years. He was a lifelong member of the H BNS, and his earliest paper, one of hundreds, was a study of Coots at Blagdon. He joined Slimbridge in its earliest days , founded a duck counting scheme which became the present WEBS scheme run by the BTO and then moved to Canada to work in their Wildlife Service. There he was responsible for the North American Waterfowl management plan and his observations were some of the first to demonstrate the impact of climate change in the arctic. He merited a full page obituary in the Times, and there will be a full obituary in Nature in Avon. Richard Bland

UNIVERSITY/BNS BIODIVERSITY EVENTS

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Although each event within this award winning collaborative programme between the University and the BNS has a theme, any other items of interest spotted along the way will also be noted. The events are all located in ‘hidden gem’ venues within the University’s grounds or estates that are, in the main, not open to the public and a BNS expert leads each meeting. FIVE free places are available for BNS members on each of the events.

BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL: to claim a free place and receive further details, please contact Lesley (Sec.) on 07786 437528 or on [email protected]

BAT WALK Friday, 9th September 19:30 – 22:00 There is something truly magical and otherworldly about these fascinating little animals. They hunt like fighter pilots on steroids as they turn, bank and roll in epic flights of technical prowess to home in on a usually - but not always - unsuspecting moth for a meal against the fading light of the evening sky before typically disappearing into the darkness. Technology allows us to listen in to their ‘language’ of echolocation and will afford an opportunity for us, their fellow mammals, to identify their calls whilst briefly ‘seeing’ and sharing a moment of their lives in one of the University’s grounds and woodland. However some species, such as the Noctule, hunt in decent light before dusk; if they are present, we may be lucky to see a brilliant aerial display as well. Please bring a torch otherwise, equipment is supplied.

PLANTS, TREES and SHRUBS Saturday, 24th September 2:00 p.m. This gives another opportunity to learn something new about these life forms that bring structure to our every lives including the history behind their occurrences in the British landscape but this time amidst the autumn colour that defines the character of the trees of the temperate zone.

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Welcome to membership of BNS to those who’ve joined recently: Ms. Klara Agoston (Interests: Invertebrates, Mammals); Mr Neil James Brain (Botany, Invertebrates, Mammals); Mr Sam Hobson (Invertebrates, Mammals, Ornithology); Mr Rob A. Quinlan & Ms. Jacky A. Kingman (Botany, Ornithology, Geology, Invertebrates, Mammals); Mr. Stephen Shepherd (Re-joined) (General); Miss Emma L. Fraser (Re- joined) & Mr. Timothy J. Elliott (General)

GREEN IMPACT AWARDS: UNIVERSITY/BNS

Back to contents / Back to Diary Bristol Naturalists’ Society would like to congratulate the University of Bristol on winning a number of very well deserved accolades that recognise the skill, commitment and professionalism with which its Staff manage its gardens, parks, grounds and green open spaces and we are delighted to have played a small part in helping to achieve their success.

‘Platinum green’ Gardens

The Royal Fort has won a Green Flag Award, which recognises the best parks and green spaces across the country. It acts as the benchmark national standard to which all parks should aspire and the flag that will now fly at the site provides additional evidence, if that were needed, that this space, open to the public, is expertly managed and maintained to the highest possible standards; only a few universities have achieved its accreditation.

BNS Biodiversity Events and The Community Action Award Richard Bland with a spellbound audience at the Royal Fort Meanwhile, under the Green Impact Award umbrella, the partnership between the BNS and the University that has produced the innovative programme of Biodiversity Events has paid handsome dividends as the University has, “ … Won the ‘Community Action Award’ for establishing events, in collaboration with the Bristol Naturalists’ Society, to showcase the diverse range of flora and fauna in the historic gardens and grounds.” (Extract from a University Statement) In contrast to the Royal Fort (which is also included in the Biodiversity programme) many of the sites visited, such as Halls of Residence, are not generally open to the public but both types of settings have provided all those attending events with brilliant examples of a wide range of species, habitat and situation and this, together with other aspects of the scheme, has resulted in an overall Platinum Award being given. It is a real pleasure for the Society, whose members played an important role in the creation of the University, to be re-affirming the close links that have continued to exist between us since the 19th Century. Congratulations to the University and my thanks to all the BNS experts who have given such enjoyment to a largely new audience and led the events with such interesting, educational aplomb. My thanks, also, to those experts who have yet to star.

Lesley Cox

ROGER’S NOTES

Back to contents / Back to Diary omething a little different this time – a book review. There are lots of good books around at the moment on the various aspects of Natural History. There are excellent S field guides, accounts of species, and many complex books about the actual biology of the organisms in question. This however is not one of those. It is about life itself.

Life on the Edge by Jim Al Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden explores what life itself might actually be, not from a metaphysical viewpoint, but from a physical perspective. It is not a book about biochemistry, nor does it address nutrition or reproduction, from a mechanistic point of view. What it does do is ask the eternal question – What is it to be alive? It also addresses the other conundrum – What makes some things alive, and yet others not? Why has no one taken inanimate materials and constructed the simplest cell that then takes on life? All the materials are there. The technology allows it to be done, mechanically, but truly new life has never been made. The answer, the authors say, lies in quantum mechanics. It is a complex tale, but compelling. It’s maybe too late for a holiday read, but it could be your book for the long dark nights.’

Roger Steer PHENOLOGY Temperatures in June and July were very close to recent averages. One hot day in July reached 34C, and was the hottest day since 2006. July has also been unusually dry, the driest since 1999, and drier than the famous summer of 1976, and the foliage of the Downs is starting to show the impact of this. However the total in the past twelve months remains close to the average of 900mm. The overall pattern of first flowering dates has been the same as the average of the past decade, as, despite the impact of the warmest December yet recorded which caused some species to come into flower more than a month early, the normal temperatures of the first three months ensured that other plants were close to average or even late into flower. The harvest, as usual, is mixed. Cherries ripened rather late, and were quickly eaten. Some Blackberries have suffered from water shortage during development. The few beech trees that developed nuts have been attacked by squirrels who have also been stripping Black Pine nuts. Hawthorn and Elder look normal, though there are very few plums, and I have yet to see sloes. There are very few Ash Keys, as Ash flowers were few and very late. Laurel flowered two months early in January, but as there are few pollinators around at that time, there is a very thin harvest of laurel seeds. Portuguese Laurel has fared much better. Richard Bland

Purple Sycamores few Sycamore trees have a deep purple underleaf colour, which tends to darken as the year progresses, but is lost when leaves fall. Trees can look exceptionally A dramatic in a high wind. I have found several new ones this year, and would be grateful for any records. But beware, Norway Maples have a variety of colour forms, including deep red, but their colour is on both sides of the leaf, not the underside only. I would be grateful for any sightings, with their position established as accurately as possible. Richard Bland

Reflections on a walk from the Salutation Inn at Ham to the Little Avon River and Berkeley Deer Park. Thursday, 4th August

Back to contents / Back to Diary any years ago my first visit to Whitcliff Park, the hill where the Berkeley deer reside, was marked as special by the sudden appearance at the far end of a M narrow, tree-lined valley, of a magical, giant White Hart with wide, curving, flattened antlers and a piercing look to show he was looking at me. This was out of the corner of my eye. In a split-second it had vanished. On successive visits, year by year I failed to see this creature but this year my companions pointed my attention in the right direction, down the hillside, and there, in the distant landscape were tiny dark spots. Looking more keenly I could see brown and greyish shapes. Jane, co-leader, with only a moderate telephoto lens photographed a herd of these fully-antlered, pale grey Fallow Deer. With the proximity rendered by the lens one can see that they ‘see’ you but they don’t ‘look’ at you. Sadly I could not see ‘the’ magical one! Photo © Jane Gillard We started the walk down by the meadows in front of Berkeley Castle, beside the Little Avon River and again, many other years ago, I was here on a frosty morning. The day before the field had been flooded by the river, but not deeply, so the frost had created an icy surface among the grass blades. Overnight, the water level had fallen away from its ice, and across the field were created ‘magical’ air bubble shapes under and within the transparent ice. Today, in a still, sunny August, we found hundreds of plants in flower. On the banks Himalayan Balsam and bramble flowers were visited by their pollinators; Teasel and Small Teasel exploited the same habitat. The river’s flow was being interrupted by several islands of very tall, emergent Grey Club-rush characterised by grey-green tubular stems, rooted in the substrate. Unbranched Bur-reeds with their floating leaves in parallel lines grew just down-stream and in other parts the massive erect leaves of Branched Bur- reed nearly blocked the flow. Water Forget-me-not and Marsh Woundwort were on the banks or in damp areas, as were Fool’s Water-cress and Water-pepper. Butterflies, Green- veined White, Small White and Large White, Red Admirals, Peacocks, Gatekeepers and Meadow Brown, Hornet Hoverfly and Great Pied Hoverfly were active among the Balsam and Brambles. A Brimstone Moth was inactive in the dark herbage. Banded Demoiselles flicked into bankside vegetation and an accommodating female Southern Hawker Dragonfly sat for its portrait, wings outstretched in the sunshine. A Common Wasp was scraping a softwood fence bar for paper-making to build Photo © Jane Gillard its underground nest. Less than a year ago I was astonished at the hi-tech recording of the birds on the BNS November walk at Oldbury-on-Severn by today’s walk leaders, Jane and Steve, but today the most notable species were a pair of Green Woodpeckers creeping up the trunk of a large Lime tree, only a few feet away and at eye-level with us, a Grey Heron and a family of Buzzard that kept us company for most of the walk. The Deer Park has, with almost mathematical precision, a line of white painted posts to encourage one to hurry through to the far end, and so we ended our walk at the Salutation Inn fully fifteen minutes ahead of the deadline for ordering our delicious Sausages and Ham and Eggs for lunch.

Tony Smith 8

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

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Back from the Brink: Would any members be interested in joining the Cotswold Project that is part of the Back from the Brink National Partnership of seven charities led by Natural England aiming to carry out grassland management in a range of limestone grasslands, in our case, throughout the southernmost part of the Cotswolds around Bath, and to monitor the species present?

A Forgotten Landscape is another project, this time in South Gloucestershire, for example around Oldbury-on-Severn and Hill, that is looking for volunteers to monitor a range of species and to run the associated volunteer groups. If anyone is interested in participating in these events, please contact Lesley Cox, on 07786 437528 or [email protected] for further details.

Volunteer roles at BRERC (Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre) BRERC increasingly needs volunteers, with various levels of experience. Less experience needed: Data entry Volunteers with proven skills needed in: Aerial Photograph Interpretation of Phase 1 habitats Web-services & advanced ICT Advanced Admin GIS mapping Data Enquiries Volunteer coordination Data analysis We are also generally looking for - Data logger Data assessor Data entry Admin  Where? Most volunteers are based at our main office in St Nicholas' Church, St Nicholas Street, Bristol. We also have a satellite office at Yatton open 1 day a week. Some roles may allow you to work from home.  How often? From a few hours a month to several days a week. Some roles require training; for these we prefer commitment of one day per week.  How long will my role last? Minimum two months. Where training is needed, some roles most lend themselves well to six months or more. We welcome shorter term volunteers too, with roles tailored to their available time.  How do I find out more? Please visit our website www.brerc.org.uk . For more info or an informal chat, please ring Daniel Marshall on 0117 934 9833 or email via the Contacts page of our website. Environmental Data for the West of England area: BRERC enables a network of hundreds of recorders and volunteers across the West of England to participate in making records available to the world. BRERC stores and manages information, with over 1.9 million records on our species database and several million older records in paper format. The Team: BRERC has 2.5 members of permanent staff, two part-time casual staff and up to 30 office volunteers.

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

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FIELD MEETINGS – Discovering the wild plants of the Bristol Region On average, we hold two field meetings of our own each month in the Bristol region from April to September. Our meetings concentrate on Bristol’s green spaces and with an occasional foray into urban botany. We also hold meetings in conjunction with the Somerset Rare Plants Group and the Plant Group of the Gloucestershire Naturalists’ Society and those meetings are more likely to include botanical recording for Atlas 2020, organised by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.

For the sake of completeness, the list below includes the meetings of various groups at which BNS members will be welcome. Send me an email with BNS Botany in the subject line if you would like to be on a mailing list about BNS Botany meetings (advance notices, reports etc.).

CLAPTON MOOR Sunday 11 September, 11.30 am David Hawkins with Tony Smith and Clive Lovatt Set in the Gordano Valley, Clapton Moor is a rich site of botanical and wildlife interest. Habitats will include rhyne banks, the rhynes themselves (bring a grapnel if you have one!), hedgerows, grassland and a bit of woodland edge. This could be a good chance to see some interesting aquatic plants, as well as sedges and rushes.

Meet at 11.30am at the Clapton Moor AWT reserve car park on Clevedon Lane at ST46157335, opposite New Farm (BS20 7RJ). The car park is small so lift-sharing is advised. The celebrated Black Horse pub at Clapton-in-Gordano is a possibility for post- botanical refreshment. Contact David Hawkins on 07811 104 947 ([email protected]) with any enquiries.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE POT LUCK BOTANICAL RECORDING, Bristol Harbour Clive Lovatt Thursday 22 September, 11.00 am The meeting is open to BNS and GNS members and any other botanists with an interest in exploring West Gloucestershire this side of the Severn Estuary.

Meet by the ticket office to the SS Great Britain BS1 6TY. Contact Clive Lovatt for lift sharing and any updates during the week before. There will be an opportunity to join or leave the meeting at lunchtime.

Other items of Botanical interest to which BNS members are invited: GLOUCESTERSHIRE NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY NB: Any BNS members who are not also members of GNS should contact Clare or Mark Kitchen on 01453 810958 or [email protected] for an invitation. MINTS OF THE FOREST OF DEAN Clare and Mark Kitchen Thursday 15 September Meet at the New Fancy View car park (SO628095) 2 miles south of the Speech House Hotel (which is on the B4226 midway between Coleford and Cinderford). Moving around to try to sort out as many of the species and hybrids of mints as possible.

Back to contents / Back to Diary SOMERSET RARE PLANTS GROUP (SRPG) NB: Any BNS members who are not also members of SRPG should contact Liz McDonnell on 07732 689703 or [email protected] for an invitation. CASTLE CARY Liz McDonnell & Helena Crouch Sunday 25 September This will be a general recording meeting in a very under-recorded area with habitats including urban, green lanes and grassland. Meet at 11am in Catherine’s Close free car park, Castle Cary BA7 7HP (ST641325).

INDOOR MEETINGS Indoor meetings are normally held from October to March, traditionally on the 4th Monday in the month at 7.30-9.30pm. However, we now have new arrangements for the 2016-17 indoor meetings. We will be using Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, which is on a bus route and has an adjacent car park. This will require a change of meeting day to a Wednesday, starting on 26 October. The full list of dates and details of the meetings will be published in the October Bulletin.

BOTANICAL NOTES Field Meeting Reports

EVERCREECH, Liz McDonnell & Gill Read, Sunday 12 June 2016 A full report of this meeting will be issued in the Somerset Rare Plants Group Annual Newsletter for 2016. A dozen or so SRPG and/or BNS members split into two groups to record urban and adjacent Evercreech. Particularly memorable was a large plant of Buck’s-horn Plantain Plantago coronopus on the old market cross, the only record within ten miles of the spot.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE BOTANICAL RECORDING, Shepperdine, Clare and Mark Kitchen, Thursday 16 June 2016 We had a group of about eight on an intermittently wet day, seeing plenty of the target species Sea Clover Trifolium squamosum. The highlights were seeing Yellow-vetch, Vicia lutea, at its only extant site in Gloucestershire (known to one of the party for several years but not confirmed until now) and several patches of silvery-white Sea Wormwood Artemisia maritima. Rough Hawk’s-beard Crepis biennis is sufficiently infrequent in Gloucestershire to have puzzled several of us, being confirmed by the sparsely hairy insides to its involucral bracts – and thereafter being identifiable at a distance.

ST GEORGE’S FLOWER BANK LNR, PORTBURY, Bob Buck, Tuesday 21 June 2016 As promised, and following on from his lecture to the Section in February, Bob led a dozen of us carefully along ‘his’ linear roadside reserve, which surely has given passing pleasure 11 to thousands of motorists and their passengers, briefly glimpsing the seasonal display of Primroses and Cowslips and later various Dactlyorchids. Thank you so much for showing us your inspirational reserve on Tuesday evening. In the words of one of us thanking Bob, “I am sure I can speak for all in saying that we were very impressed by the species diversity which you have achieved through careful management. It was particularly inspiring to learn that nothing has been introduced (apart from your few trees) and the diversity is achieved entirely through good management.”

Back to contents / Back to Diary Botanists tending to alight upon such things we added three grasses and three sedges to the site list, although one of each was adjacent to the flower bank itself. Two grasses were invasive species which also occur close to the Motorway exit on the Avonmouth side of the river, Compact Brome Anisantha (Bromus) madritensis, and Sea Fern-grass Catapodium marinum.

DYRHAM PARK MEADOWS (NT BIOBLITZ), Clive Lovatt, Saturday 2 July 2016 As no-one arrived to join him, the leader went his own way and after listing 80 or so plants on the meadow ranged more widely, finding Venus’s Looking Glass Legousia hybrida in an arable margin just outside the park and Opposite-leaved Pondweed, Goenlandia densa in one of the stately home ponds, one of only two sites currently known in W Gloucestershire.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE POT LUCK BOTANICAL RECORDING, SW of Doynton near Wick, Clive Lovatt, Thursday 14 July 2016 The leader and a companion from the Somerset Rare Plants Group recorded the plants in each of the 1 km squares in one of the BSBI’s tetrads with no records (ST7272), briefly dipping into an adjacent square (ST7483) and seeing Bee Orchid, Ophrys apifera and the arable weeds Round-leaved Fluellin, Kickxia spuria and Dwarf Spurge Euphorbia exigua. In the target tetrad we made about 500 records including the too rarely recognised Pale Willowherb, Epilobium roseum.

LONG ASHTON, Pam Millman and Dee Holladay, Sunday 17July 2016 A dozen of us met for this joint meeting under the auspices of the Somerset Rare Plants Group, recording in the 1 km square ST5370. With the sun shining, the close attention of so many eyes and the exceptional variety of habitats, (urban, amenity, arable, woodland, a limestone exposure and old meadow) we not only listed over 250 species, but gave an opportunity to newer (and older) members to learn some new plants. The full day meeting ended with refreshments in the garden of The Miners Arms.

HIGHRIDGE COMMON, Ellie Phillips Sunday 31 July 2016 Highridge Common is very accessible from Bristol and proved to be well worth a visit. Seven of us – six botanists and one entomologist – met to look at the grassland of Highridge Common on this sunny Sunday morning. The Common is managed in two halves; the southern part is kept short for amenity use and the northern part is managed as a flowering meadow. Although tightly mown, the trip across the eastern half had some interest, including Strawberry Clover, Trifolium fragiferum, Common Knapweed Centaurea nigra, and Agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria.

The northern part of the Common had a good variety of grasses in flower, including species indicative of old pasture such as Meadow Barley Hordeum secalinum and Quaking Grass Briza media. We puzzled over a Bromus which had gone over (making identification even more tricky), later deciding it was referable to B. Racemosus. (Some experts say B. commutatus cannot be separated from it anyway.) We were pleased to find Heath-grass Danthonia decumbens. Herbs such as Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil Lotus pedunculatus, Tormentil Potentilla erecta and Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor were frequent, and finding 12 a flowering specimen of wild onion Allium vineale was unusual: this species very rarely flowers and more commonly puts up only bulbils.

Back to contents / Back to Diary We also did well for sedges and rushes, recording six species of each, and possibly Juncus x surrejanus, the hybrid between Sharp-flowered Rush J. acutiflorus and Jointed Rush J. articulatus. Carnation sedge (Carex panicea) was a good record: in the 10 km square this plant is otherwise only known on the Dundry slopes. An area of recent scrub clearance gave us something different to look at, with plants of damp habitats including small sweet-grass (Glyceria declinata), toad-rush (J. bufonius) and water mint (Mentha aquatica), along with five different species of willow-herb. The stars of the show though were Pale Flax Linum bienne, and a picturesque stand of Betony Betonica officinalis, flowering vigorously. Two of us stayed on to inspect a verge disturbed by road improvements and cable laying, and were rewarded with a solitary plant of Small Melilot Melilotus indicus, apparently a first post-2000 record in N. Somerset.

TREEGAZING IN CLIFTON – CANYNGE SQUARE, Tony Titchen, Sun. 7 August 2016 Unfortunately the leader, a faithful servant to the Botanical Section for very many years, was unable to come due to health reasons, and indeed – we’ve all seen him sitting beneath a tree on his shooting stick – he suspects it will not again be possible for him to travel to Bristol from the Forest of Dean and to lead another meeting for us. Tony duly provided his site notes, with a tree map and notes made on three different dates in the last 15 years. As it happened, only three of us came so we duly took note of a few street weeds (the now rather ubiquitous Water Bent, Polypogon viridis and the flowering-basket plant Lobelia erinus) and headed off to find more.

Plant Records Two good (but rather un-photogenic) street weeds were recently found in Bristol. Whilst walking home from Clifton rather than taking the bus Rupert Higgins chanced upon Four- leaved Allseed Polycarpon tetraphyllum on Purton Road near the Arches on the Gloucester Road. It is new to W Gloucestershire with only one preceding record in the whole county – and that on introduced granite chippings in Gloucester Docks. It is quite well established over 15 metres of cobbled gutter so must have been there a few years. Long known in the Scilly Isles and W Cornwall it seems to have invaded the SE from the continent and is turning up on transport routes. Here, on a narrow residential road, one wonders if it came with sand used for bedding down an adjacent brick driveway, though there were no plants growing there. Perhaps seeds came on car tyres. The only site in Somerset (Weston super Mare) was also found by Rupert Higgins.

In a similar way, I found myself ‘between trains’ at Clifton Down station and took a walk in the nearby streets and was rewarded with Spotted Spurge, Euphorbia maculata also new to VC34 W Gloucestershire, and with one old record in E Gloucestershire VC33. This is a prostrate spurge with a dark spot on each small leaf and it has a reputation in USA for being difficult to eradicate. It probably came in with garden plants and ‘jumped’ over the wall. It now grows below the wall, on the pavement and kerbstones and in the gutter in front of three houses on a bend in Hurle Crescent.

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

Clive Lovatt, Shirehampton, 15 August 2016

GEOLOGY SECTION

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

FIELD MEETINGS

FROME MUSEUM BROWNE'S HOLE EXHIBITION Sat. 24 Sept. Joint Field Meeting with the Mammal Section Leader: Simon Carpenter Meet: Frome Museum at 10:45am BNS member and amateur geologist, Simon Carpenter is involved in an exhibition at Frome Museum telling the story of a cave (Browne's Hole) that was excavated over 60 years ago by a Frome family - the Brownes. They discovered a large number of Pleistocene animals bones as they dug into the floor of the cave. We now think it was an active Spotted Hyena den thousands of years ago. The exhibition showcases the cave discoveries, how they were found and identified and what these animals tell us about our changing climate. Simon is a volunteer curator at Frome Museum and will take this opportunity to provide a behind the scenes tour of the museum as well as discussing the Browne's Hole exhibition. Refreshments will be provided. The visit should last 2 - 3 hours and participants are then free to go off and explore Frome.

Getting there: Frome has a train station (15 minute walk to the town centre). From Bristol Temple Meads (09:06) arrives in Frome (10:06). Its a very pleasant train journey if you are travelling from the Bristol and Bath direction. Alternatively, if you are travelling by car, there is ample parking in the town centre close to the museum. The Cheese & Grain car park is reached via Justice Lane that runs down the side of Frome Museum. Frome Museum is located in the very centre of the town. Simon had hoped to take participants to the cave site at Stoke St Michael near Frome but this part of the day has been cancelled.

BATH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY FIELD MEETING Sat. 15th October Fieldtrip to Clevedon and Portishead Leader: Professor Maurice Tucker, University of Bristol & BGS On this excursion to the Somerset coast we will look at Devonian, Carboniferous and Triassic sedimentary rocks and the structure. Travel by car; car-sharing should be possible. Itinerary: 10.30 am Portishead: Meet at the end of Pier Road near the Royal Inn (BS20 7HG), parking in the road there or in Woodlands Road close by. In the small bay below the Inn, by the new lifeboat station, the Carboniferous Black Rock Dolomite and Pennant Sandstone are exposed, overlain by the Triassic Dolomitic Conglomerate and dolomitic sandstones. There are many sedimentary and tectonic structures here. After this locality (around 11.30/12), we shall drive 2 km to the coast at Woodhill Bay and park along the Esplanade Road near the lake (BS20 7JA). Parking is free there along the seafront. Lower Carboniferous limestones and dolomites around Battery Point and at the north end of Woodhill Bay near the swimming pool will be visited. The locally fossiliferous limestones show well-developed folds. After lunch, we will walk along the cliff section in Kilkenny Bay to the south where there are spectacular exposures of the Old Red Sandstone. We will see the Woodhill Bay Fish 14

Bed (but I cannot promise any fish – maybe scales though), and fluvial sandstones and conglomerates. Depending on the time, we could visit Ladye Bay at Clevedon, 6 km to the south. From Portishead drive south on the B3124 and near to Clevedon turn right into Holly Lane (brown sign to Golf Course); after I km turn right into Bay Road and park (free) in the lay-by or road, near post-code BS21 7BT. Ladye Bay is a delightful secluded beach with good exposures of oolite deposited around a Triassic lake, resting on Devonian sandstones. Safety: we will be walking along the beach where there may be slippery stones, so walking boots best. There are ~50 steps down to Ladye Bay. BNS members are welcome to attend. If you wish to do so please send an email to [email protected] to let him know that you are coming.

Back to contents / Back to Diary Welton Hill, Midsomer Norton, Excavation in September 2016 Director: Simon Carpenter The Welton Hill excavation planned for September 2016 will expose the Lower Lias Clays (Lower Jurassic: Charmouth Mudstone Formation). A section was published by D.T Donovan and G.A Kellaway in the BGS Memoir ‘Geology of the Bristol district: the Lower Jurassic rocks’ (pages 42 & 43). The excavation site will be at Grid Ref 366855, 155950 (close to the junction of Broadway Lane and Water Lane), north of Midsomer Norton and west of Clandown, Bath & NE Somerset. The excavation will commence on MONDAY 5th SEPTEMBER 2016 and will finish on FRIDAY 30th September. There will be opportunities to help on site once the excavation is established. Volun- teers are welcome, to help record and collect fossils, photograph or sketch the excavation, helping to supervise visits by schools and other groups. If however you simply want to visit to observe and not get involved with on-site activities – you are still very welcome.

When to visit – the excavation will last for one month. Please do not attempt to enter the site outside these times unless agreed with Simon. There is no access to the site on Saturdays or Sundays. Week 1 (Monday 5th Sept - Friday 9th Sept): NO ACCESS DURING THE FIRST WEEK. This is will allow the site to be prepared. Weeks 2, 3 and 4 (Weekdays from Monday 12th September until the end of the month. Access afternoons only (between 12 Noon and 4pm). This will provide a safe period when visitors can get close-up to the excavation.

The excavation site is on private land so it is important that we respect the concerns of the landowner and avoid trespass or obstruction of farmland or machinery. The lanes in the immediate vicinity of the site are narrow and there is limited parking. This is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to record and document a fascinating section in the Lower Jurassic of the Radstock district, to give some well-documented fossils to our local museums and to get parts of our local community involved. If any member is interested in visiting the site or helping either practically or financially please contact Simon. Tel: 01373 474086, email [email protected]

Geology Section Blog: The Geology Section blog has moved. You will now find it at: http://bristolnats.org.uk/geology/geology-blog/

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 SEPTEMBER 2016

The summer of 2016 has continued to be a very poor one, low numbers of common resident and migrant insect species being recorded. As always though there are some interesting finds to report despite the overall disappointing nature of the year. The Orache Moth Trachea atriplicis is a rare migrant to the UK mainland (although resident on the Channel Isles). Ray Cottrell photographed one in his moth trap at Severn Beach on 8 July, the first record for our region and an excellent find. Other good records, although not as rare as the Orache Moth, were two reports of Brussel’s Lace moth, one from Clevedon by Bob Fleetwood on 6 July and another at Chew Valley Lake by Lucy Delve and Mike Bailey on 9 July. Previous records of Brussel’s Lace in our region amount to just 6, one in 1980 and the others since 2006 suggesting it is on the increase as a visitor, perhaps a new resident?? Together these records of rare moths point to migrant activity in this first/second week of that month. In other insect orders, Jane Cole reported a male glow worm attracted to the green glow of her bat detector at Long Ashton bypass on 25 June 2016 (ST552 704), an unusual way to record these localised beetles! Males are of course winged (unlike the females) and seek out the glowing females and perhaps surprisingly they glow slightly themselves. The summer edition of the magazine for pest control officers ‘Pest Control News’ contained three articles worthy of note. Firstly on whether the Zika virus, currently making news in S America and Florida could potentially become established in the UK, fortunately we do not have the relevant vector – the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Closer to home, there are new sightings of the ant Lasius neglectus from locations in southern England. Resembling the common garden black ant, it is a species which is drawn in large numbers to electrical equipment and has been blamed for causing fires in some other countries, no records yet from our region. I have reported in these pages previously the arrival in our region of the Brown Ant Lasius brunneus a species of trees and bushes. It seems this ant is also being found in some parts of the country as a pest in timber in houses, in some instances causing a problem by weakening structural beams. Not a cause for immediate concern but it is interesting to see the invertebrate world from the other side of the fence sometimes, as seen by those who are combating rather than conserving our fauna, often with good reason. Our society section meetings have turned up the goods this year and those who visited Collard Hill (7 July) were witness to the end of the flight of this year’s Large Blues. Those who visited Avonmouth (16 July) were able to sample some unusual and specialist insects to be found on the saltmarshes along the estuary.

Ray Barnett 07/06/16 Jon Mortin has sent 2 photos from the 10 July field meeting – see on the back page.

ITEMS OF INTEREST: (All listed under Miscellany) 3-4 Sept. Bee & Pollination Festival at Botanic Garden 16 Sept. Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project, Bats and Moths evening

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 very 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)

New Botany Books in the BNS Library As a result of the continuing generosity of the BNS Council we are able to keep the library up to date with the more important reference books for naturalists as they appear, either identification guides or works covering the Bristol region and its hinterland. Suggestions for purchase are always welcome, preferably through the Library Committee member representing your section. We’ve recently obtained copies of two ‘paperback’ books, one in each of the two categories mentioned above. Cleeve Common and its Wild Flowers is a photographic guide to about 70 of the more attractive plants of this glorious common (which my parents, living below, much loved). It was written by Ian Howes, who for some time lived in Bristol, and it is already out of print. Five of the photos are by our botanical committee member Ellie Phillips, who used to work there, including the rather elusive and strange fern, Moonwort. The book, with a Bee Orchid on the cover, is a good example of a site flora and allocates points for spotting each plant, using a ‘Found it’ box under each photo, one point for ‘easy to find’, two for ‘not so easy’ and three for the 10% graded as ‘hard’. It’s the sort of thing that could be contemplated for the Downs which was the other reason for getting a copy for the Library. Evening-Primroses (Oenothera) of Britain and Ireland by Rose J Murphy, no 16 in the series of BSBI handbooks, most of which the Library holds, is a technical guide to the identification of these difficult alien weedy plants, most of which have a tall stiff stature and quite large soft yellow petals. They have a bizarre breeding system as the chromosomes form rings instead of all matching up in pairs during meiosis (production of pollen and egg cells). This tends to result (in the same way as with the whitebeams but by a different mechanism) in true breeding lines and occasional hybrids. Thus the book has different keys, for lumpers and splitters. Detailed descriptions of 18 different entities are given, and line drawings and distribution maps of many, so we may be able to progress with reasonable confidence beyond the four or five sorts otherwise recently recorded locally. Clive Lovatt, 4 May 2016

MAMMAL SECTION

Back to contents / Back to Diary PRESIDENT: Gill Brown [email protected] 01275 810420 SECRETARY: Mike Meechem [email protected]

MAMMAL RECORDER: VACANT

FIELD MEETING SEPTEMBER MEETING There is no Mammal Section Meeting in September but members are invited to join the Geology Section meeting, on 24th September, which has mammal related content – as shown in the Frome Museum press release on the page opposite.

Mammal Recording Changes Roger Symes writes:- I have produced a report on Mammals in the Bristol District in 2015 which is being published in Nature in Avon, but I am now standing down as BNS Mammal Recorder. The surge in interest in mammals inevitably means that there will be an increase in numbers of records for 2016. I struggled to process and review the 1000+ records for 2015 and it is unrealistic to think I would be able to produce a report in future in the timescale allowed. It is important that information on our wild mammals continues to be collected, analysed & reported so I ask all who have contributed records to continue to do so but to send them to BRERC ( www.brerc.org.uk ) or the National Biodiversity Network (NBN - http://nbn.org.uk/ ), or specialist survey groups. I hope that others will come forward to take on the task of reporting on mammals sighted during each year. My special thanks to everyone who has contributed records over the last three years. I am now collating all information I have so that the Mammal Society’s distribution maps due to be published in 2016 will be as up to date as possible.

FACEBOOK GROUP The Mammal Section has a Facebook Group where members can post useful information, or anything relevant they would like to share. We hope BNS members interested in mammals will join and suggest ideas for field meetings, talks and other initiatives. To join the group you need a Facebook account. Once logged in, type 'Mammal Section, Bristol Naturalists' Society' into the search bar Image©Philippa Foster and you should find it.

Spotted hyenas at Frome Museum

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This press release from Frome Museum elaborates the background, and may whet members’ appetites to join the 24 Sept. visit. Simon Carpenter is an ex-President of BNS.

t’s hard to imagine an animal as ferocious as a spotted hyena roaming the countryside in Somerset. These bone-crushing animals are more often associated with Africa. But I believe it or not, thousands of years ago, they were here and hunting woolly rhinoceros. In September, Frome Museum will be telling the story of how hyena bones were found in a cave close to Frome alongside other carnivore remains and some of the animals they were feeding on. The cave was excavated by a local family, the Brownes, who discovered the bones of long extinct animals as they were digging to unblock a cave at Stoke St Michael, near Frome, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Helped by friends, the Browne family found a large collection of bones including hyena, bear and wolf. We now think the cave was used as a den by hyena and bear. The gnawed bones of some of their prey are also found in the cave. Simon Carpenter and Jo Squirrel, volunteer curators at Frome Museum have been working on the collection over the last year to prepare it for display. Simon Carpenter says, “The collection had been languishing in the basement store at the museum for some time and was in quite a sorry state. As we cleaned the bones, it quickly became apparent how important and interesting the collection was. Although parts of the collection have been displayed before, this is the first time that a dedicated exhibition has been attempted. The exhibition will tell the story of the Brownes and their helpers and will showcase the different animals they were finding and what this tells us about our changing climate over thousands of years. It’s a truly fascinating story and I very much hope the exhibition will catch the imagination of the people of Frome”. Jane Brayne, a Somerset artist has been commissioned to create an original diorama based on the cave setting and the animals that were found associated with it. The cave is depicted as an active hyena den with our main star, the spotted hyena, taking centre stage. The exhibition will run at Frome heritage museum from September, through October and will finish on Saturday 12th November 2016. For more information, please visit the museum website.

MISCELLANY

Back to contents / Back to Diary 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]

Sat. 3–Sun. 4 Sept. 10am-5pm, BEE & POLLINATION FESTIVAL. Giant Amazon water lilies, live hive demonstrations, beekeepers’ annual ‘honey show’, University research displays on pollinator behaviour, nurseries with bee & moth friendly plants, talks & willow weaving, wildlife exhibits, free tours of the Botanic Garden. Admission: Adults £4.50.

Children, Friends of the Garden, University staff & students FREE.

FLOATING BALLAST SEED GARDEN Wed. 7 Sept., 6.45 to 8.15m, Boat Tour with Dr Talya Hackett. Tour meets at Arnolfini Box Office. The transport of ballast across oceans may not have only contributed to the migration of plants, through seeds carried in the earth, but seeds themselves may also have carried stowaway insects. Dr Talya Hackett explores relationships between plants, pollinators and pests all of which depend on each other at some level and can contribute to each other’s welfare in often unexpected ways. Working across sites across SW England and Wales she researches ecological networks between plants and pollinators including leaf miners, seed feeders, caterpillars and the parasites they themselves carry. Tickets: £8/£6 concessions. W. www.arnolfini.org.uk E. [email protected] Wed. 21 Sept., 6.45 to 8.15m, BALLAST SEED BOAT TOUR with Dr Richard Stone, Teaching Fellow in Early Modern History, University of Bristol. Using the ‘Port Books’ as his starting point, a set of customs records which record every consignment of goods entering or leaving the country, Dr Stone will explain how medieval development of the harbour led to Bristol’s trade and influence developing to rival any port in England. An economic and maritime historian, he will conjure up a picture of the original homes of the plants that form the Ballast Seed Garden and the routes that brought them back to our city. Tickets: £8/£6 concessions. W. www.arnolfini.org.uk E. [email protected]

Thurs. 22 Sept. 7.30pm. GARDENS OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Speaker: Mike Nelhams, Curator, Tresco Abbey Garden. A Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture and an Associate of Honour of the RHS, Mike Nelhams regularly leads garden tours to South Africa, Australia, Japan, St Lucia, South America, California, New Zealand, Italy and the South of France. He is an RHS judge and a frequent lecturer throughout the English speaking world. Venue: Frank Theatre Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1TL. Admission 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.

Arnos Vale – www.arnosvale.org.uk - 357-359 Bath Rd, BS4 3EW Sun. 18 Sept., 11-12.30. Mary Wood leads a WALK, focusing on summer plants, but including other wildlife along the way. £5. For queries see website or contact Mary Wood: 07900 121 527

Back to contents / Back to Diary Friends of Badock’s Wood (FOBW) www.fobw.org.uk We meet quarterly and all our meetings are free and open to all. For info visit website.

July's Moth Trapping Event. Gathering round the light trap we were rewarded with 34 species. Ray Barnett was particularly pleased to find the Dark Umber (Philereme transversata (Hufn.) ssp. britannica Lempke).

Coming up in Autumn / Winter: Bat Talk & Walk / Owl Prowl / Owl pellet investigation / Fungi Foray / Autumn Berries / Tree Dressing / FOBW Quarterly Meeting: Tues. 13 Sept., 7.30 p.m. Greenway Centre (see website for papers) Litter Picking: Next litter pick is on Saturday September 17th at 10.00 a.m. For more information please contact [email protected] Himalayan Balsam - Invasive Species Avon Invasive Weeds forum is working to tackle this weed in the Blaise area and may extend work further in the Trym valley. For more information see http://www.aiwf.org.uk Stoke Park Sculpture Trail Fans of the sculptures in Badock's Wood will be interested to see the latest sculptures Andy O'Neill has made in Stoke Park. The Trail leaflet and Activity Sheet are just a couple of info sheets you can download from the Bristol City Council's Parks website.

Avon Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project 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.

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Fri. 16 Sept. 7.15 - 9.30pm Bat & moth night. Meet some of the Avon Gorge and Downs’ nocturnal residents on our special evening stroll. Experts Ray Barnett, David Brown and Kay Snowdon will be on hand to identify and tell us about these fascinating animals. £5. Please book in advance but pay on the evening. Sun. 25 Sept., 2.30 - 4.30pm Autumnal plants of the Avon Gorge. The Gorge is internationally famous for its rare and interesting plants. Discover some of its seasonal delights with botanist Libby Houston. £5. In the Avon Gorge. A long walk with very, very steep slopes, uneven ground and steps. Friday 30th September 7.30 - 9.30pm Owl prowl on the Downs. Join owl conservationist Ian McGuire for a fantastic evening on the Downs learning all about British owls. If we're lucky, our resident tawny owls might put in an appearance! £6.

WILDLIFE BOAT TRIPS WITH ED DREWITT On Sunday 25th September (12.15pm) and Sunday 8th October (8.45am) Ed Drewitt will be showing people wildlife from a Bristol Ferry Boat as it travel downs the Avon Gorge - a wonderful way to experience the journey from the docks to the River Severn. A chance to see wading birds close by such as redshanks, common sandpipers and lapwings, roe deer, foxes, peregrines and beautiful landscapes. To book or find out more contact the Bristol Ferry Boat Company, 0119 927 3416/ www.bristolferry.com.

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

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FIELD MEETINGS Welcome to all following the August break. Field meetings take place at regular intervals throughout the year with one or two typically being held each month. They offer varied locations, optimum opportunities for seeing the best range of avian life and some fun and good company along the way. We look forward to giving a warm welcome to all our fellow members and visitors are also always welcome. Please let the specified leader know of your intention to attend.

WWT STEART MARSHES Saturday, 24th September Leader: Mike Johnson Tel. 01179532545 10:30am Following our indoor meeting in March in which Tim McGrath gave us a detailed overview of this huge, creative project - including the problems that it was designed to solve and the additional problems that had to be overcome to achieve it - we all agreed that a site visit to enable us to see the Reserve first hand and to enjoy the species being attracted to it, was one of two follow-up field meetings from the indoor series that we definitely needed to arrange. Meet at the WWT car park, Grid ref. ST 252442 Post Code TA5 2PU at 10.30am From Bridgwater take the A39 towards Minehead. Do not take the bypass at Cannington but go into the village towards Combwich and Hinckley Point. Follow signs for Steart. Watch for the right turn to Steart which is now well signed. The car park is on the left hand side of the road. The meeting will finish about 1.15p.m although some may wish to visit the adjacent English Nature Reserve at Steart in the afternoon. If so, bring a packed lunch. The walk is flat although stout waterproof footwear is advised. We should see a variety of ducks, waders and raptors with resident and migratory passerines.

‘Booking’ is essential with the Leader so please inform him if you intend to come by Friday 23rd September

FIELD MEETING REPORTS Westhay: Saturday, 4th June Seven members met in the Somerset Wildlife Trust car park at Westhay Moor on a bright warm morning. We walked down Dagg’s Lane Drove to the main hide where we saw a male Cuckoo flying to its calling post. The much rarer sound of a female Cuckoo calling with its rather explosive ‘bubbling’ trill was heard in response. The sounds of summer migrants filled the air including Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat and on the walk to London Drove we called in at a small hide where some of us caught site of an otter swimming into the reeds. The sound of Bittern ‘booming’ was heard several times together with the squeals of Water Rails and the uncommon Royal Fern was identified growing in an area of remnant bog together with a Sundew. A Garden Warbler sang on our way back and it was good to compare it with the more numerous Blackcaps. Mike Johnson 22

Marshfield: Wednesday, 20th July

Back to contents / Back to Diary Five members arrived for this walk around farmland of cereal and root crops, separated by narrow lanes with low stone walls and banks of wild flowers growing in profusion. Members identified many of these plants. The weather was warm and sunny with a slight breeze. We took our usual route, making our way first to Castle Farm, recording the usual suspects en route; Robin, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Corvidae, Gulls, Pheasant, Magpie and Skylark. Little was recorded around the Farm itself, apart from Blue Tit, Sparrow and a Pied Wagtail brood on the wing. It was pleasing to see further along the route ahead, towards Rushmead Farm, the adjoining fields had been returned to corn and not maize as of last year. A cropped field was the centre of activity with Gulls, two Buzzards and a family of Kestrels busily hovering in search of prey (voles) that had now lost their cover and an adult Kestrel dropped to the ground and made a kill. Swallows were now evident, flying around feeding, and moving south together with their young, and also a few House Martins. A couple of male Yellowhammers were seen and heard as well as up to three Corn Buntings singing and moving around their territories before fluttering down into the corn crops; two Whitethroat were a bonus. We returned to our cars at 9pm with low sun and fast fading light, although dry for a

change! Many thanks to all members for their attendance. Paul Farmer

Forward dates: Wednesday, 12th October; Sunday, 16th October; Wednesday, 9th November; Wednesday, 14th December; Sunday, 20th November; Sunday, 28th December

RECENT BIRD NEWS July is a month when the return passage of adult waders is well underway and when the diversity of species can be very high. The Pilning Wetlands (as it seems it must be called, even though it's not actually in Pilning) at Northwick Warth are developing into a very nice wader site. Thanks to careful tweaking of water levels it remained attractive to shorebirds throughout the month. Highlights were a Spotted Redshank on 3rd, four adult Little Stints on 20th and excellent numbers of Little Ringed Plovers. The last didn't breed here but presumably did quite nearby, most likely on temporarily cleared and largely inaccessible sites around the nearby Western Approaches distribution park. The proportion of juveniles was good so a number of successful pairs were presumably involved. The month ended with an elusive Bee-eater heard near the old Severn Bridge in Aust on 31st. The reservoirs remained rather full and the few reports from there included three Common Scoters at Barrow Tanks on 29th and one at Chew the next day. July is one of the peak months for this species inland, with April and November also being good. There were a few reports of calling Quail from the usual areas in the Cotswolds but none elsewhere. John Martin

FIELDWORK Winter garden bird watch. This will start in October and be run in future by Jane Cummings. She will be sending details in good time to all those who sent in records last winter. This very simple survey, begun in 1973-4, has plotted huge changes in the way birds use gardens in winter, and always needs new recruits. Anyone interested in helping should initially contact me at [email protected] or 0117 968 1061.

Jon Mortin kindly sent two photos after the Invertebrate Section meeting on 10 July.

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Ruddy Darter Sympetrum sanguineum by Jon Mortin

Longhorn Beetle Rutpela maculata by Jon Mortin

Thanks to Steve Hale for this picture of a Hare at Blagdon, taken 15 July.