Contents / Diary of Events

Contents / Diary of events

FEBRUARY 2016

Bristol Naturalist News

Photo © Gill Brown

Discover Your Natural World

Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 547 FEBRUARY 2016

BULLETIN NO. 547 FEBRUARY 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).

HON. CHAIRMAN: Roger Steer, Winpenny 3 Diary of Events

Cottage, Bagstone, Wotton-u-Edge, GL12 8BD

4 Society Talks

[email protected] 01454 294371 Welcome to new members HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR: Dee Holladay, 15 Lower Linden Rd., Clevedon, BS21 7SU [email protected] 5 Society Walks Phenology HON. SEC.: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528

[email protected] 6 SOCIETY AGM

HON. MEM'SHIP SEC.: Mrs. Margaret Fay New Treasurer needed

81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280

[email protected] 7 Chairman’s Notes

HON. TREASURER: Mr Stephen Fay, Nature in Avon: Call for articles

81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280

[email protected] 8 BOTANY SECTION BULLETIN DISTRIBUTION Botanical notes Meeting reports, BSBI Hand deliveries save about £800 a year, so help New Year Plant Hunt, Noel Sandwith, is much appreciated. Offers please to: Brandon Hill Trees, Call for Records.

HON. CIRCULATION SEC.: Brian Frost, 60 Purdy 11 GEOLOGY SECTION

Court, New Station Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16

3RT. 0117 9651242. [email protected] He will 12 LIBRARY Proceedings online; be pleased to supply further details. Also Offer of books to BNS Library; contact him about problems with (non-)delivery. Book Club; MAMMAL items in the Library

BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before

publication to the editor: David B Davies,

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

Grants: The society makes grants of around 15 MAMMAL SECTION £500 for projects that meet the Society’s Meeting Report; Facebook group charitable aims of promoting research & education in natural history & its conservation in 16 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION the Bristol region. Information and an application Meeting Reports; Future Dates; form can be downloaded from: 18 Fieldwork; Recent News

http://bns.myspecies.info/search/site/Grants 19 MISCELLANY (and bristolnats.org.uk) Email completed ID Skills wanted; Botanic Garden; applications to [email protected]. 20 Avon Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project : Members Health & Safety on walks

participate at their own risk. They are

Cover picture: Harvest Mouse nest, by

responsible for being properly clothed and shod.

Gill Brown – see her Field Meeting Report

Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior

on the Mammal Section page.

agreement of the leader.

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 (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.

JANUARY 2016 Mon 25 Botany AGM + Talks Botany 19:30 page 8 FEBRUARY 2016 Thu 4 Walk: Frenchay Common & Frome Gorge Society 10:00 page 5 Wed 10 Talk: The Enigmatic Swift Ornithology 19:30 page 16 Thu 18 Talk: Trees (“The Good, the bad, the \ugly…”) Society 19:30 page 4 Sat 20 Walk - Blagdon Ornithology 10:00 page 16 Sat 20 Reserve visit: Hares in Somerset Mammal TBA page 15 Mon 22 Talk: St George’s Flower Bank Botany 19:30 page 8 Wed 24 Thos Hawkins – ‘mad, bad fossil collector?’ Geology 19:30 page 11 MARCH 2016 Wed 9 Talk - Steart Ornithology 19:30 page 17 Sat 12 R Bland walk: Toll Roads & Fountains Society 10:00 (see below) Thu 17 Society AGM + Talk (Bumblebees) Society 19:30 page 4 Sat 19 Walk - Blaise Ornithology page 17 APRIL 2016 Sun 17 R Bland walk: Trees of Westbury Park Society 10:00 (see below)

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST: Richard Bland’s Walks Richard Bland plans a series of 11 two-hour Downs walks through 2016, one each in March and April, six in May (part of Bristol Walking Festival) and one each in June, July and August. All must be booked direct with him: (0117 968 1061 [email protected] ).

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 exhibition Until 10 April 2016. The exhibition is at M Shed, not Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (adults £5, concessions £4, under 16s free). Death: the human experience exhibition until 13 March Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. The exhibition includes references to wildlife such as the Death’s Head Hawk-moth. Museum Winter Lecture postponed: New Dinosaur Discoveries talk by Ben Garrod. Postponed from 7 Jan. Look out for a new date to be arranged in Feb. or March, which we will publicise via the Museum website. Book via Bristol Museum website. This talk promises to be an excellent evening which will link to a BBC programme at the end of Jan. Bristol & District Moth Group 2pm Sun. 21 Feb. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery – photos & comments on 2015moth sightings. Please contact Ray Barnett if you wish to attend.

SOCIETY ITEMS Back to contents / Back to Diary

SOCIETY TALK 7.30pm, Thursday, 18th February THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY AND THE ARBORIST Speaker: Carl Pedley NB - Venue: Frenchay Village Hall, Beckspool Road, Frenchay, BS16 1NU There is a car park attached to the Hall and plenty of parking on the street outside the Hall. Buses 18, 46, and 319 go to Frenchay Hospital but there is then a walk to the Hall. If you require a lift from the bus stop please contact the Secretary.

hat links an organism, a species, a population, a community, an ecosystem, a biome and a biosphere? One answer might be a tree. W Carl is an Arborist; a highly trained tree surgeon and plant health specialist who studies, cultivates and looks after the trees and shrubs of our rural estates, gardens, parks and hedgerows, i.e., the extremely complex ecosystems that are rather dismissively, called “Amenity Trees”. Using evidence from the tree research lab where appropriate, he will be examining the tree as a set of ecosystems within an ecosystem and its links and functions connecting the tree to and with the wider environmental stratification system. He will look at issues such as the importance of trees as habitat and for the environment; their requirements for good health; measures to keep trees healthy; how trees cope with the demands placed upon them; some of the diseases, both the old and the new, that our trees are increasingly falling victim to and how these are being tackled - or not - as the case may be; the mechanisms by which these are transmitted; the political or economic decision-making affecting bio-security, such as importing Ash trees from areas suffering from what was originally called Chalara Fraxinea but which, as it became better understood, was re-named twice to become Hymenoscyphus Fraxineus; problems occurring when populations get out of control and become pests; homogeneity and resistance; parasites, hemiparasites, symbiotic relationships … and/or anything else that you want to ask him about.

Welcome to membership of BNS to those who’ve joined recently: Mr. Clive Burton (Interests: Botany, Invertebrates); Mrs. Melanie Cooper; Mr. Steve Hale (Ornithology); Mr. Mike Townsend & Mrs. Margaret Townsend (General, Botany, Invertebrates, Mammals, Ornithology); Ms. Monique Brocklesby, Mr. Eugene Byrne & Ms. Lauren Byrne

Back to contents / Back to Diary SOCIETY MID-WEEK WALK Thursday, 4th February 2016 Frenchay Common and Frome Gorge, 3 miles. uses, nos. 18, 46 and 319 stop outside the former Frenchay Hospital (the venue is directly behind the hospital). Parking for cars is available on the B common near St John the Baptist parish church (BS16 1LJ) on Begbrook Park/Beckspool Road, grid ref. ST637775. Meet at 10am on the common near St John Baptist parish church. The walk is within the bounds of Bristol and contrasts an old-fashioned village with its church and village green surrounded by cottages and other houses for the gentry with the wildness and renowned scenic splendour of the valley of the River Frome. Even after heavy rain there is surprisingly little mud to contend with. The church and all the cottages are built of the locally quarried Pennant sandstone. Our route takes us down to Frenchay Bridge over the Frome and up through woodland, seeing the remains of the many quarries, then across a field of grass before descending back to the river and its gorge. There are opportunities to do bird watching and winter twig identification and all sorts of interesting insects and plants, returning to the village along the gorge. We finish with a walk round the village and seek refreshment at the White Lion Inn with its gleaming white “citified” Edwardian scrollwork. On the walk there will be some ‘mud’ but one finds that it is, mostly, very different from the ‘normal’ glutinous stuff, being largely composed of leaf mould. As usual, wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the weather and the conditions and note that if the weather is poor we can meet at the same time and place one week later, on 11thFebruary. Please keep in touch: Tony Smith; telephone 0117 965 6566

PHENOLOGY ovember was the second warmest November since 1853, and the dullest month since December 2006. December was the warmest December since N 1853 beating 1918, the previous champion by a whole degree. The warmest day, on 20th , reached 16C, the same as July 24th. It had a fraction less sunlight than November. As a result 2015, though cooler than 2014, was still the fourth warmest year since 1853. There have been eight warmer autumns since 1853, including 1865, but the past decade has had warmer autumns than any previous decade. One result was that a number of tree species came into flower for a second time including Holly, Dogwood, Privet, and for a month Dog Rose.. My new year’s day count on the Downs was second highest, to 2012. The impact may come in an early spring .As I write at the start of January Celandine and Hazel are already in flower, on some Hawthorns bushes the buds are already broken, and in my garden the daffodil buds are ready to open. Richard Bland

Back to contents / Back to Diary SOCIETY AGM 7:30pm, Thursday, 17th March 2016 The AGM will be followed by a talk “The Plight of the BUMBLEBEE”

Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, BS9 3AA

Most Council Officers & Members are required to stand for re-election. Any member of the Society wishing to nominate a fellow member for election should inform the Secretary now.

Council Nominations are: - (David Hill: President - in post until next year) Roger Steer (Chairman/Member) Lesley Cox: Hon Secretary. Ray Barnett (Member) Steve Fay: Hon. Treasurer (Until July 31st). Richard Bland (Member) Margaret Fay: Membership Secretary Tim Corner (Member) Jim Webster: Librarian. Mandy Leivers (Member) Dee Holladay: Proceedings Receiving Editor. Robert Muston (Member) David Davies: Bulletin Editor. Tony Smith Vacancy: Publicity Secretary.

Section Representatives: - Clive Lovatt: Botany Richard Ashley: Geology Mark Pajak: Invertebrates Gill Brown: Mammals Giles Morris: Ornithology

NEW TREASURER NEEDED tephen Fay has done an extraordinary job of tidying up and simplifying our accounts over several years, but is now planning to stand down. If you think S you might be interested in taking over from him, please contact him as soon as possible for details: 81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280. [email protected]

Back to contents / Back to Diary CHAIRMAN’S NOTES s I write this, another year has just started. Most of us make New Year resolutions, and I am no exception. I am pleased to say that I kept last A year’s resolution fairly well. I resolved to start a new bird list – 2015 only, starting from scratch. The result was not a very long list: One or two surprises – An early entry for Lesser-spotted Woodpecker – I’d not seen one for years. What it did tell me was what I had not done – Almost no waders. OK I had been to Chew a few times, and to Slimbridge, but for some reason, not to the coast at the times that waders were about. Most of my birds were wetland, and lowland dwellers. This year I must resolve to go to different places. Considering the warm, but very wet, weather, I am off to a slow, but promising, start – A Raven, only a mile from my home, is my best bird, so far. Another way to see more species is to keep a ‘patch’ diary. Choose an easily visited site. Your garden, if you have one, is a good choice. Local parks/nature areas and favourite all-weather walks are also good. Don’t aim to just record your specialist subject, but all the species of other organisms that you are able to. Trust me. You will see far more than you ever thought was there. How are you going to identify these new groups? Tech-savvy individuals can access the internet from a desktop computer – not ideal. Those with laptops/tablets and even smartphones, can take those with them into the field. You could also buy a book – but books can be expensive, particularly those above the ‘popular’ level. You have, however a rich source of information, including field guides. It’s free of charge, because you have already paid for it in your Society subscription. The Society Library is open twice a week and is situated in the City Museum and Art Gallery in Queens Road, just at the top of Park Street (details in this Bulletin). In the Library we have a treasure-trove of information, much of which available for you to borrow. When you have made your records, what can you do with them? You can report them directly to the relevant body – BRERC is a good first choice. You can report them to the relevant section of the Society. What you might also consider, is writing a short account, covering say 5 years, maybe 500-1000 words (1-2 sides of A4) and offering it to our Proceedings – Nature in Avon (see below). I am sure that members would be interested – I know that I would! Roger Steer

Write for Nature in Avon !

Contributions are invited for the next Nature in Avon (Annual Proceedings of

the BNS) which is planned for May 2016. Do consider writing up any

interesting finds, projects or events either as a short report or a longer article.

We would also be glad to receive photos to illustrate your contribution. The

deadline is 31 March. Please send to Dee Holladay:

[email protected].

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

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INDOOR MEETINGS Indoor meetings are held from October to March, normally on the 4th Monday in the month at 7.30pm at the Guide Association Hall, Westmoreland Road, Westbury Park, Bristol BS6 6YW. In March, the 4th Monday is Easter Monday and we will not have an indoor meeting. As the Guide Hall is in the process of being sold, we will have a new venue for the 2016-7 indoor meetings. 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).

AGM followed by Talks on SOME BRISTOL FUNGI (Jean Oliver) and on N. SOMERSET PLANTS RECORDS FOR 2015 (Helena Crouch) Monday 25 January, 7.30pm Note the change in the previously advertised talks. Liz McDonnell kindly gave her talk on digitising the Taunton herbarium at the December meeting (see below), thus allowing Helena Crouch to fulfil family engagements over Christmas.

25 YEARS MANAGING ST GEORGE’S FLOWER BANK, PORTBURY Bob Buck Monday 22 February 7.30pm Bob Buck gave a short talk about the St George’s Flower Bank at the BNS 2015 AGM. Half an hour wasn’t enough, we thought, and Bob has kindly agreed to give a full evening’s presentation. The site, on roadsides on the Abbots Leigh road (A369) just north of the Gordano Services on the M5, occupies a mere 1.44 hectares, was declared a Local Nature Reserve by the North Somerset District Council in 2007. Originally a cutting through farmland made when a new road was made to by-pass Pill, Bob and the Friends of St George’s Flower Bank have by a consistent process of mowing and removal of scrub (together with hedgerow management) created a meadow habitat in which 219 naturally occurring flowering plant species have been found – no wild flower seed mixes here! These include five orchids: Pyramidal, Bee, Common Spotted, Southern Marsh and the hybrid of the last two. We hope have a guided tour of the site during the field season. See https://flowerbank.wordpress.com/ for further information about St George’s Flower Bank.

BOTANICAL NOTES Indoor meeting reports Coastal Plants of Somerset, Helena Crouch, 23 November 2015 bout 20 members heard Helena’s talk, which as usual was expertly prepared with lovely photos and pertinent distribution maps. For details of the content see the last A Bulletin. JW White referred to Mrs Sandwith as a “plucky lady” after the manner in which she climbed St Vincent’s Rocks looking for plants a century ago. It has been longer since the Sea Spleenwort had been seen on Brean Down but the same courage and determination was required by Helena when she and Fred Rumsey refound it in 2014 by 8 clambering on the rocks at low tide to the point – and then for safety’s sake forcing a way through the gorse to the path on the top.

Back to contents / Back to Diary Members’ Evening and Christmas Cheer 28 December 2015 fter drinks and mince pies and seasonal chat and distribution of some surplus books on flowering plants and fungi, a dozen of us sat down to enjoy three short A presentations. Liz McDonnell spoke about her work with Somerset Rare Plants Group members photographing the herbarium of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society at Taunton. High resolution images will ultimately be indexed and placed on the Herbaria at Home website http://herbariaunited.org/atHome/. The talk was illustrated with several images of specimens collected near Bristol: on one the Bristol botanist H Stuart Thomson complained that he only later found out that the site of his 1918 re- discovery of Hornungia petraea (Hutchinsia) under Leigh Woods had in fact been known to Mrs Sandwith and Mr Green for some years. Such is the value of making the herbarium accessible.

Richard Bland showed us fresh specimens and pointed out the differences between common Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) and its hybrid relative Tall Tutsan (Hypericum x inodorum). Both are now as regularly seen as escapes around Bristol, especially in alleyways. Although the Flora of the Bristol Region (2000) shows the latter as unrecorded since 1953, it makes a fine show on the retaining wall at the junction of Redland Hill and Redland Road and Richard reckoned it had been there for decades. He then delivered (without his notes) and account of 15 years of New Year’s Day plant counts on the Downs, coupled with a consideration of December weather over the past 150 years: as he said the recent variation from year to year is particularly high, but the average temperatures don't seem to move much.

Finally, Margaret Webster gave an illustrated talk on the wild flowers of the western coast of Cyprus. Not that she and Jim had gone specifically for the flowers but how we enjoyed seeing what they had encountered, for instance Autumnal Squill in profusion (but less so in the Nature Reserve) and a purple-stemmed prostrate spurge which Mark Kitchen identified as Euphorbia peplis, a strand-line species extinct in Britain since 1949.

Back to contents / Back to Diary BSBI New Year Plant Hunt everal BNS members took part in the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt, now in its 5th year. Last year in the statutory three hours Clive Lovatt and Liz McDonnell had found 60 S species in flower around Shirehampton. This year, following the same route, the total was 78, of which half had not been found the previous year. Most of these were familiar members of the urban flora of Bristol, but there were some surprises. Moth Mullein, Slender Sandwort and the rare Early Meadow-grass were flowering on the Lamplighters Marsh Local Nature Reserve and there was the Spotted Hawkweed in somebody’s front lawn. At the time of recording, this total was the highest found by anyone on the New Year Plant Hunt.

Richard Bland went out on each of the four permissible days (1-4 January) and recorded 56 species in all with 24 on his standard Sunday morning walk from the top of the Great Quarry southwards and into Clifton. This, he reports, was his second highest total over a decade and a half – he found 33 in 2012. A third of Richard’s total list didn’t appear on the Shirehampton list despite being only a few miles distant. Some are shrubs and trees (holly, Laurustinus and brambles for instance) which Richard probably looked closer at, but the 9 early sightings of Primrose, Rock-rose and Wild Strawberry must have been a source of pleasure.

The Somerset Rare Plants Group with a party of 17 found 65 species in Sand Bay and on Sand Point including Tree Mallow (which was tweeted with a photo by one member) and Ivy Broomrape. Elsewhere, John Mortin was also active on social media and there also seems to have been recording at Tyntesfield. Maybe next year BNS should have a formal meeting, perhaps around the Cumberland Basin and harbour side.

Back to contents / Back to Diary NOEL SANDWITH and the declaration of Rodney Stoke Woods as a National Nature Reserve oel Sandwith who with his mother was a leading light in Bristol botany for many years, came to Bristol just in time to get a record into White’s Bristol Flora of 1912. N At Clifton College, judging by the records in his Wild Flower Society Diary, he would pay more attention to the range of grasses in the outfield than to the bat and ball. Asked rather rudely by a young botanical artist why he never married, he replied “Because I so loved the flowers”. The obituary photo of him in front of a herbarium cabinet where he worked at Kew shows him bespectacled and surprised out of his shy concentration. Stories I've heard from Ray Harley who knew at Bristol and Kew him go along with that image. A warmer account, displaying his local knowledge of plants and places in our area, and his early support for nature conservation, has now come to my attention.

I’ve recently been reading The Bird of Time by NW Moore, who had been a Nature Conservancy Regional Officer for SW Britain. Moore uses the Mendip woodlands as an example how, back in the 1950’s, National Nature Reserves were selected. Moore enlisted the help of Noel Sandwith to help shortlist ten or so woods from the 200 on maps before they went to look at them more closely. They wanted a wood with Purple Gromwell, Small- leaved Lime and Autumn Crocus. As Moore says, “the brunt of the work fell on Noel Sandwith since it soon became clear that botanical interest was paramount” – even though they wanted a warm limestone exposure for special snails. They would have liked to designate Asham Wood (Lily-of-the-Valley instead of Purple Gromwell) or Cheddar Wood but the economic value of quarrying to the owners was prohibitive - in Asham’s case, it would have cost the annual income of the Conservancy. In Rodney Stoke’s case, it was convenient for the seller to add in some adjacent meadows, which came as a welcome bonus.

Brandon Hill Tree Trail Attention is drawn to the free leaflet available on site, published by the Friends of Brandon Hill. The assistance of our members Tony Titchen and Richard Bland is acknowledged on the leaflet. They point out that the Wellingtonia although planted 13m down slope from the base of the Cabot Tower, is likely in due course to over-top it.

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

Clive Lovatt, Shirehampton, 9 January 2016

GEOLOGY SECTION

Back to contents / Back to Diary PRESIDENT: Roger Steer [email protected] 01454 294371 HON. SEC.: Richard Ashley [email protected] 01934 838850

LECTURE MEETINGS 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.

THOMAS HAWKINS AND HIS SEA DRAGONS – a mad, bad fossil collector? Stephen Locke 7:30pm, Wednesday 24 February Stephen Locke, who has previously spoken to the Section on ‘The Geology Town of Lyme Regis’ will give a talk on the controversial 19th century fossil collector Thomas Hawkins. Thomas Hawkins (1810-1889) was the son of a Somerset Farmer/Cattle Dealer who lived at Glastonbury. He inherited a considerable sum of money with which he was able to indulge his passion for collecting fossil marine reptiles from his local area and Lyme Regis. He was undoubtedly a highly eccentric character and was considered by some of his contemporaries to be mad. He wrote several books on the subject of “Sea Dragons” in a style that has been described as lurid. Stephen’s talk will attempt a reassessment of the life and character of Thomas Hawkins who was a fascinating local naturalist. It will be of interest to a wide range of BNS members and previous knowledge of geology will not be required.

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)

The Offer of books to the BNS Library he BNS Library has been actively obtaining books for 150 years. All newly published books are considered by the Library Committee for purchase at T quarterly meetings and the BNS now holds a truly comprehensive library of books on Natural History and Geology, which are of relevance to Bristol and the surrounding area or of national significance. Therefore when from time to time generous offers of books are made to the BNS Library, the Library Committee has to carefully consider whether or not they would be useful to the collection. If you are considering donating any books it would be helpful to have a list of titles for consideration, or if you have a large number one or two members of the Library Committee would be willing to visit to assess the value of any books to the library. For further detailed information or guidance please contact me by e-mail or telephone 01275 472818. Jim Webster Hon Librarian

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

The reading group normally meets in the evening at four to six week intervals; please contact the above for dates, places and times. Our current book is George Monbiot’s Feral: Rewilding the land, sea and human life and we are continuing with this. The library service issues sets of books for the use of book clubs and we are availing ourselves of this free facility.

Back to contents / Back to Diary Mammal Items in the BNS Library Collection he BNS Library Committee has worked very hard to achieve an enhanced structure to the housing of the Library collection and to get the database up to date and T accessible. Unfortunately no on-line access to the internet is available for the Library computer in the Museum basement, but despite this an enhancement of the Library computer package is expected to be made available shortly and this should enable us to produce useful current listings of Library stocks of books, reports, pamphlets and similar publications. Those lists would be added to the website for perusal by interested members and other libraries. The computer database does not currently list holdings of journals and magazines, those are still held in manuscript records. The Library Committee has decided to run a series of items in BNS News on the contents of the Library and this one will focus on mammals. There are 109 items listed on the database as mammal books etc. The earliest specifically on British mammals date from the 1800’s. The latest will be available in April 2016 when the newly published WildGuide to British mammals will arrive. Other Books on all British mammals include the comprehensive Handbook of British Mammals (the original version of this “Bible” plus revisions), distribution atlases, guides to field signs such as mammal skulls and droppings, instruction on live trapping, as well as various New Naturalist mammal publications. There are many books on individual species of British mammals. The latest are on hedgehogs and polecats but a wide coverage of our fauna is available. As well as books there are significant numbers of official reports on mammals. These include badgers, bats, deer, seals, otters, whales, wild boar. There are publications in our overseas collection which include mammals, such as in North America “Wildlife in the Rockies”, and various “World” wide reviews. The latest books on mammals are superb. The photographic content of so many wildlife publications has increased amazingly and those of mammals are startling brilliant. It is one benefit of a library collection dating back more than 150 years that we are able to compare then and now. Looking at knowledge of distribution clearly shows the benefit of the structured approach to recording taken by national schemes, and locally by BRERC. So much in the early years depended on what one or two prominent persons saw or were told, albeit on very local areas. Information is available on the way wild animals were treated or used (“hedgehog hats”, payments by parishes for mammals considered harmful) before legislation changes took place, and the paucity of scientific understanding, such as on how “blind” bats steered in the dark! A comparison of the illustrations then and now brings home the benefits of modern technology. The BNS subscribes to the Mammal Society publications which include Mammal News and their journal Mammal Review. Other regular information on mammals comes through the subscription to British Wildlife magazine which has a column with mammal news. All these, and most books, are available on loan. If you have ideas for publications on mammals which the Library might consider purchasing do please let me know. Particularly of interest also are formal Government and other organisations’ publications on mammals. Most of us do not have access to these, and our collection is important because of that. If you have any such reports which are looking for a home, or can obtain them without incurring high costs, then do please let me know. Roger Symes, BNS Library Committee representative on mammals, and BNS Mammal Recorder. [email protected]. Tel. 01275 399190.

INVERTEBRATE SECTION PRESIDENT: Mark Pajak [email protected] SECRETARY: Tony Smith 0117 965 6566 [email protected]

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Invertebrate Notes for February 2016 ollowing on from the mild October and November came an almost balmy December. With the press picking up on the daffodils, snowdrops and even F lesser celandines in flower, insects were also being fooled by the spring-like conditions. A Poplar Hawk in Wiltshire on 18 December was remarkable, presumably fooled into hatching from the pupa by the relatively high day and night temperatures. Other native moth species usually seen in February and March were also being recorded in the region. In addition, the immigration of moths which had been seen in previous months continued. Rush Veneer, Dark Sword- grass and Silver Y were some of these migrants and more excitingly the gelechiid moth Syncopacma polychromella. Known from just a couple of British records before 1999 (and these thought to be accidental introductions) there have been a handful of migrant records over the last 16 years but now several recorded this winter, including at least one in Bath trapped by Robert Kelsh. In addition to moths there have been butterfly sightings (eg Painted Lady at Chew on 29 December by Rich Mielcarek) and also bumble bees noted on the wing. Fascinating as these occurrences are, it does also make one wonder how our invertebrate populations will cope with these environmental conditions. The oscillations of the jet stream appear to be becoming less predictable with consequent rapid swings in weather conditions from unseasonably warm to the reverse possible. This year of course, the El Niño effect has added into the mix assisting in creating the warmth and wet we have witnessed over December. Last month I asked for comment on the occurrence of the Devil’s Coach Horse in recent years locally. Bob Fleetwood and Roger Symes have both fed back that it is of regular occurrence around Clevedon, perhaps the coastal strip of our region favours it? The winter months are that time when specimens collected in summer months that defied identification at the time can be sweated over. As a result Bob Fleetwood has reported the finding of the small false click beetle Microrhagus pygmaeus from Tyntesfield on 10 July 2015. The male of this species has splendid feathery antennae, the female less obviously. I too found one this year but in the Gully in the Avon Gorge on 7 July, there is some suggestion that this beetle (listed as UK Red Data Book category 3 – Rare) may be becoming commoner so one worth looking out for again in 2016. Again I would ask that you do send me any invertebrate sightings from 2015 asap so that we can aim to publish ‘Nature in Avon’ earlier than in 2015. Ray Barnett 06/01/16

MAMMAL SECTION

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

MAMMAL RECORDER: Roger Symes [email protected]

FIELD MEETING HARES IN SOMERSET Saturday 20th February We will be visiting a reserve in Somerset. Our primary aim is to see brown hares, but there will be plenty more of interest should our quarry prove elusive. Please visit the BNS website or contact Mike Meechem ([email protected]) for further details.

FIELD MEETING REPORT Harvest Mouse Survey Strawberry Line, Yatton, Sat. 21 Nov. n a cold sunny morning, which was a great improvement on the weather in the previous week, O twelve of us gathered at The Strawberry Line, Yatton to look for harvest mouse nests. We were the guests of YACWAG (The Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group) who manage this part of the line as a nature reserve on behalf Photo © Gill Brown of North Somerset Council, and own several reserves nearby. The group was made up of Bristol Naturalists, YACWAG members and members of Bristol Nature Network. Richard Croucher from YACWAG guided us to an area where harvest mouse nests had been found in previous years, and we had only been searching for a few minutes before a nest was found. I was surprised by its superficial similarity to a dormouse nest, but closer inspection revealed the characteristic way the grass used in construction had been shredded, and a soft lining of downy reed seeds, leaving me in no doubt as to the architect. Nobody seemed to mind that this was the only nest we found. Our continuing search, along the Strawberry Line and in the YACWAG Ten Acre reserve, showed plenty of runs in the grass and feeding remains, indicting a healthy vole population. This came as no surprise, given the breeding success that the YACWAG barn owls have had over the years, but it is still good to see. It was a very enjoyable morning and I would like to thank Richard Croucher for his help in arranging this meeting and acting as our guide. Gill Brown

NEW FACEBOOK GROUP The Mammal Section has created 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 the group and suggest ideas for field meetings, talks and other initiatives. To join the group you will need a Facebook account. Once you are logged in, type 'Mammal Section, Bristol Naturalists' Society' into the search bar and you should find it. This replaces the Google Group. Many people now have Facebook Image ©Philippa Foster accounts, and we hope it will be easier to use and manage.

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

Back to contents / Back to Diary INDOOR MEETINGS

Field meetings take place at regular intervals throughout the year. Typically, one or two are held every month and our Winter Lecture Programme continues until the end of March. N.B. Please take note of the venue for each event.

THE ENIGMATIC SWIFT: One of Nature’s Marvels Wed. 10 Feb. Speaker: Mark Glanville 7:30pm Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, 46, Westbury Hill, BS9 3AA There is a large car park immediately next to the Church and several buses stop nearby Many members may know that the BNS and RSPB are working jointly on the Bristol Swift Initiative, which opened during Bristol’s Green Capital Year with a major Conference targeting architects, developers, builders and local authorities to include Swift bricks within all buildings being built or refurbished. The need is pressing as Swifts have suffered badly from loss of nesting sites as buildings (www.bristolswifts.co.uk) are ‘done up’ or modernized. It is important that BNS members and their friends and neighbours now play their part, if they can, by agreeing to have Swift boxes on their houses and there is no one in Bristol with more experience of encouraging Swifts to nest than Mark who, with his wife Jane, set up Bristol Swifts. Since he first noticed a Swift ‘disappear’ under his roof whilst painting his windows in May 2005 he has observed Swift behaviour, experimented with nest box design and become a highly respected authority on the subject. From that single Swift, noticed 10 years ago, his house supported a colony of 16 birds, including 7 breeding pairs last season. His story is inspirational, his work fascinating and his data has not only taught the experts but is playing a significant role in supporting the declining population of this mysterious bird.

FIELD MEETING BLAGDON LAKE Saturday, 20th February Leader: Nigel Milbourne 10:00am. Contact: Secretary Meet at the South (Blagdon) end of the dam at the junction between Station Road and Park Lane (ST 5042 5976). We shall be walking around the South side of the Lake in the company of “Mr. Blagdon” so; we can almost guarantee that we shall see much more than ‘the usual suspects’ on and around the lake.

Back to contents / Back to Diary FIELD MEETING REPORTS A further note on our Migration Watch. A summary of six other watches along the estuary in the BOC news sheet revealed that what we a saw at the Severn bridge was typical. The migrants were overwhelmingly Chaffinches, and they were moving up the estuary at a rate of around 500 an hour. Richard Bland

Chew Valley Lake Saturday, 14th November he weather was so bad that morning, continuous heavy rain, that the Leader was surprised that he was joined at Woodford Lodge by one hardy and keen member; the T Section Secretary. (Mike was wearing his rose tinted specs that day! Sec.) The planned visit to a number of sites around the Lake was abandoned in favour of the dry of Stratford hide where it would be possible to use our optics. A good selection of water birds were seen including Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Pochard, Great Crested Grebe, Lapwing and Grey Heron. We also noticed a small wader on the immediate foreshore. The bill appeared to be almost straight, unlike Dunlin and appeared to be Stint sized. The indistinct supercilium and uniform brown-grey plumage seemed to indicate a Temminck’s Stint rather than a Little Stint but it would have been good to have another opinion as there were no other birders there. The identification debate was certainly the highlight of the morning and we later learned that there had been a Temminck’s Stint at Blagdon Lake a few weeks previously. Mike Johnson

Ham Wall NNR, Saturday, 12th December rather overcast but thankfully dry afternoon saw six of us enjoying varied bird life at Noah’s Lake. There was a good variety of ducks here – Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, A Mallard, Shoveler, Tufted Ducks, Mute Swans, a Canada Goose and several Great Crested Grebes. We had two sightings of Great White Egrets and there were plenty of Lapwings balancing on the waterweed and flying up calling. On the way back along the railway track we saw a Marsh Harrier, a charm of Goldfinches and in the wooded area, which floods, a flock of Long Tailed Tits, Goldcrest and a Treecreeper. It was now time for the Starlings to come in so we crossed to the Ham Wall side. Here we heard Water Rails and Cetti’s Warblers. Then the aerial ballet began! At the moment, there are believed to be around half a million coming in to West Walton Marsh. What a treat; so many shapes. Then the noise began, as they dropped in to the reeds, then rose again. More came in and then they settled. Superb! Sue and John Prince

FUTURE DATES: Talks: March 9 – Steart (End of Winter Lecture Programme.)

Walks: March 19 – Blaise. May 1 – Leigh Woods June 4 – Somerset Levels April 2 – Lawrence Weston 14 - Velvet Bottom 18 - Uphill 16 – Frome Valley

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FIELDWORK Breeding Bird Survey training he Breeding Bird Survey is the principal method used by the British Trust for Ornithology to monitor the changes in the population of common birds. It began in T 1994, and locally there are some 150 individuals who participate, covering some 10% of the region’s surface every year. The requirement is to do two parallel 1,000 metres timed walks through a one kilometre square chosen by the observer between April 1 and June 30th, one of them before May 15th, and the other after, counting all the birds heard and seen on the walk. The walk must start before 9.00am, and is usually done from around 7.30, and typically takes about ninety minutes, depending on terrain, bird density and so on. It is designed to record common birds, so that if you can recognise your garden birds by sight and sound, you will not find many problems. The survey simply compares your results one year with the same walk done at roughly the same time the following year, so that it does not matter if there are some species that you cannot identify. The golden rule is “if in doubt leave it out”. There is free training on what is involved on Sunday 3 April at 8.00am meeting at the Westbury on Trym library on Falcondale Road. Anyone interested in attending should contact Dave Stoddard at [email protected] or 0117 924 6968

RECENT BIRD NEWS t was an astonishingly mild December with unseasonable migrant moths and many flowers still in bloom through the month. The mild winter weather should mean I reasonable survival rates for overwintering birds if it continues, but we can't expect any influxes of wildfowl unless it gets colder. Numbers of White-fronted Geese at Slimbridge barely reached 100 by the end of the month so any strays to our area become less likely as this wintering population continues to decline. We did have three Bewick's Swans at Blagdon Lake early in the month, but this species too is declining with us (as is its World population, due to a combination of factors including a run of poor breeding seasons, illegal hunting on its migration route and lead poisoning). Blagdon also hosted 3 Black-necked Grebes, Great White Egret and, on 7th, a Red-crested Pochard. A Black-necked Grebe at Newton Park Lake on 29th was much more unusual. Chew also hosted one or two Great White Egrets through the month along with a juvenile Red-throated Diver early in the month, a Lesser Scaup from 16th, 2 Greater Scaup, at least 1 Water Pipit and one or two Siberian Chiffchaffs. On the coast an adult Pomarinua was off Severn Beach on 1st and a Great Northern Diver flew over Aust on 6th. Short-eared Owls were seen occasionally at Aust and OPS but fewer than might have been expected after a big autumn influx nationally. John Martin

MISCELLANY

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What’s that? ID skills wanted by Dr. Bill Dixon I have a website with several thousand natural history images. I wonder whether any expert members may be interested in checking my identification or assisting with ids (or just looking at some of my images) - in particular UK diptera, hymenoptera etc. Also moths from Honduras, Panama, Ghana etc. + other bugs from these areas, also wild flowers from abroad (very few identified) To see the images visit www.drbilldixon.co.uk and pick your way through the images. To offer identifications – or to ask questions – please email [email protected]

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] Thu. 18 Feb. 7.30pm. Lee Hale, Curator and Head of Winterbourne House and Garden. Winterbourne House is set in a 7-acre site owned by Birmingham University. The Arts & Crafts house was refurbished in 2010. Lee talks about the property, its history & its restoration. The unique grade II listed garden, with varied glasshouse range, sandstone rock garden and Gertrude Jekyll inspired nut walk is a highly rated attraction in the West Midlands. Venue: Frank Theatre, Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1TL. Free to Friends. Visitors are asked to donate (suggested £5.) Sun. 14 Feb. 10.30am-12.00pm. Wing your way to the tropics without leaving home Join Curator Nick Wray on a tour of the Botanic Garden in winter. In February fragrant plum blossom of Prunus mume will welcome visitors to the entrance; look out for snowdrops, winter aconites, crocus. In glasshouses see flowering orchids, bromeliads, S. African bulbs. Free to Friends. Visitors £6. Meet at Welcome Lodge.

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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. Thu. 11 Feb. Bird box bonanza (Children’s holiday event for 8 – 12 year olds). At this time of year birds are setting up home. A morning of games & activities to discover more about birds and their nests. In the afternoon make a nest box to take home. At Bristol Zoo Gardens and on the Downs. Drop off children 10am; pick them up 3.30pm £15 per child (includes nest box kit). Children need to bring packed lunch. Sat. 13 Feb. Meet the Avon Gorge goat keeper (Walk) Search for goats on a strenuous walk in the Gully. Find out how they help to make space for the Gorge’s rare plants. In the Avon Gorge. 10.30am – 12pm £4. NB: Very, very steep slopes and uneven ground. Tue. 16 Feb. Bennett’s Patch & White’s paddock (Talk). Discover stories behind transformation of a derelict sports ground into Bristol’s newest nature reserve. Avon Wildlife Trust’s Julie Doherty reveals how this haven for wildlife was created. 7–8pm. £4. At Bristol Zoo Gardens. Accessible to wheelchair users. Hearing loop in place. Sat. 27 Feb. Identifying lichens on the Downs (Walk). Explore lichens growing on trees on the Downs with local enthusiast Sheila Quin. 10.30am– 12.30pm. £5. On the Downs.