Bristol Naturalist News

Contents / Diary of events

NOVEMBER 2018

Photo © Jonathan Mortin

Discover Your Natural World

Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 575 NOVEMBER 2018

BULLETIN NO. 575 NOVEMBER 2018 Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World

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

CONTENTS

HON. PRESIDENT: Andrew Radford, Professor

3 Diary of Events

of Behavioural Ecology, Bristol University

Nature in Avon – submissions invited;

HON. CHAIRMAN: Ray Barnett

Geological Sites of the Bristol Region

[email protected] HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR: 4 Society Society Midweek Walk Society Winter Lecture; Members’ News Dee Holladay, [email protected] HON. SEC.: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528 5 Natty News: Glyphosate; Hornets; [email protected] Wellcome Sanger / DNA sequencing; HON. MEMBERSHIP SEC: Mrs. Margaret Fay Marine Plastics; 81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280 Threats to Tropical biodiversity

[email protected] HON. TREASURER: Mary Jane Steer 7 BOTANY SECTION Advance meeting dates up to March 01454 294371 [email protected] BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before Botanical notes incl. Libby Houston on Avon Gorge Sorbus (Field Mtg. Report) publication to the editor: David B Davies,

51a Dial Hill Rd., Clevedon, BS21 7EW. 11 GEOLOGY SECTION 01275 873167 [email protected] Festival of Geology; Forward Dates; . 12 Collectors, Collections etc. - D Clegg’s Health & Safety on walks: Members recent visit, and many more to come!

participate at their own risk. They are

13 INVERTEBRATE SECTION responsible for being properly clothed and shod. Notes for November Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior Museum events: Conchological Society agreement of the leader.

and Wildlife Photographer 2018

14 LIBRARY Committee – fresh blood needed

15 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION Forward dates; Field Meeting Report; 17 Recent News

18 MISCELLANY Botanic Garden

Avon Organic Group 19 Friends of Portbury Wharf Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project;

20 Hornet – Vicious Asian or Friendly

European?

Dipsacus fullonum Cover picture: ,

Teasel, framing The Dower House, Stoke

Park – Thanks to Jon Mortin for this fine Bristol Naturalists’view Societyof one of Bristol’s more prominent landmarks. Discover Your Natural World

Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk Diary of events Back to contents

Council usually meets on the first Wednesday of each month. If you have any matters you wish to be discussed by Council, please contact the Hon. Sec. at least a week in advance.

Visitors & guests are welcome, free, at our lectures and field meetings. If contact details are given, please contact the leader beforehand, and make yourself known on arrival. We hope you will enjoy the meeting, and consider joining the Society. To join, visit https://bristolnats.org.uk and click on membership. Members are members of ALL sections.

NOVEMBER 2018 Thu 1 Society midweek walk Society 10:00 page 4 Wed 14 Wildlife Crime Ornithology 19:30 page 15 Sun 18 Eastville Park & Frome Valley Ornithology 10:00 page 15 Wed 21 Winter Lecture: Baja California Society 19:30 page 4. Wed 28 Trace Fossils of the Old Red Sandstone Geology 19:30 page 11 Wed 28 Orchids & their environmental history Botany 19:30 page 7

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST 20 Oct.-24 Feb, Wildlife Photographer of 2018 M Shed page 13 Mon 29 Oct.-Sat 3 Nov. Alfred Gillett Museum open days Geology page 12 Nov.’18-May ‘19 Lecture series “When Sea Levels Change…” Cardiff Univ. page 12 Thu 1 Nov Autumnal Antics (for children) Gorge & Downs 10:00 page 19 Sat 3 Nov. Festival of Geology Geologists’ Assn. 10:30 page 11 Sats 3 Nov-8 Dec. Intro to Garden History Botanic Garden 10:00 page 18 Tue 6 Nov Looking after Leigh Woods (Talk) Gorge & Downs 19:00 page 19 Sat 10 Nov. Conchological Society Regional Meeting Bristol Museum 10:30 page 13 Thu 15 Nov “Even Fruit Trees have Fingerprints” Botanic Garden 19:30 page 18 Fri. 16 Nov. Wildlife Photographer of 2018 – Free entry M Shed page 13 Wed 21 Nov Friends of Portbury Wharf FPWNR 19:00 page 19 Thu 22 Nov Garden Organic talk AOG 19:00 page 18

Nature in Avon 2018

What a wonderful summer! Hopefully everyone has some good photos – Reports and

Short Notes are invited for this year’s Nature in Avon.

Deadline 31 March 2019. Please send to [email protected]

Newly published Geological Sites of the Bristol Region (part sponsored by the BNS) has been published; get your copy direct from BRERC (see the BRERC website for details) or from the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery shop (£19.50p).

SOCIETY ITEMS

SOCIETY MIDWEEK WALK Contents / Diary ASHTON COURT/ABBOTS LEIGH Thursday, 1st November Organiser: Brenda Page 10:00 We shall meet at Ashton Court Golf Course Car Park/Café/Toilets, (£1.20 Car Parking Fee, Grid Ref: ST55397267) and will walk through Leigh Woods to Abbots Pool, before returning to the Ashton Court Estate. It's a walk that can be accessed by public transport and there are no stiles. Lunch could be taken at the Café in the Car Park, or we could drive to a nearby alternative, such as the Failand Inn. It's a pleasant walk and relatively easy. Please let us know if you would like to attend via, [email protected]

SOCIETY Winter Lecture BAJA CALIFORNIA – The Best Kept Secret of Wildlife Watching Speaker: Charles Kinsey 7.30pm, Wednesday, 21st November Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, Bristol BS9 3AA Twenty years ago, Charles Kinsey read a supplement to the BBC Wildlife Magazine consisting of a set of six articles written by well-known naturalists describing their favourite places on the planet for wildlife watching. All except one of these places were well known - they had featured in many wildlife programmes on TV. However, Mark Carwardine described mysterious and rather romantically named places called Baja California and The Sea of Cortez in Mexico - telling of a magical place where hardly anyone ventured. The life in the sea - whales, dolphins, sea lions, fish and exotic seabirds were apparently abundant and fascinating, as were the cacti and desert plants of all kinds, plus iguanas, birds and insects on land. Charles decided to go there and find out for himself. His first visit was in 2001 and he made two further visits, the most recent of which was in March of this year – with Mark Carwardine himself. He found that not only was Mark accurate in his assessment of this extraordinary place but also that he was able to enjoy some remarkable encounters.

This talk will cover all aspects of the natural history of the area and be fully illustrated by photographs and short videos.

Membership news We welcome new members: Miss Hannah Dominguez Rios (Interests: All sections); Mr Jeremy Ross; Dr. Gareth Parry; Ms. Tamsin Brown & Mr Barry Horton; Mr David Playle

The BNS would like to wish Mr. Phillips of Backwell a very Happy, Special Birthday.

Pam Woodbridge. We were very sorry to hear that Pam Woodbridge, who was a member of the Society for many years and actively so back in the late 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s, passed away on 1st August 2018, aged 90. Although Pam was no longer an active member in recent years due to constraints with mobility, there will be fellow members who fondly remember her, in particular in the Botanical arena and the Ornithology Section. Our sincere condolences go to her family and most especially to her daughter, Jenny.

NATTY NEWS Contents / Diary

Glyphosate is the world’s most widely used herbicide or weed killer freely available in garden centres and routinely used by gardeners, local authorities and farmers. It is sufficiently pervasive for traces of it to turn up in human urine and breast milk yet, despite this, it has always been considered to be safe for humans and bees. Latterly however, some groups have campaigned to prevent its use claiming it to be carcinogenic and battles at government level have raged over whether the chemical should be re-licensed. Now, research from the University of Texas in Austin has identified another concerning issue. They have shown that the chemical actually does adversely affect Bees, who are already struggling as a result of habitat loss, insufficient food resources and the effects of pesticides, etc. The safety of glyphosate is therefore called further into question. In, ‘Glyphosate perturbs the gut micro biota of honey bees’, Motta, Raymond and Moran found that, when exposed to glyphosate (Roundup), honey bees lost some of the beneficial bacteria in their gut which led to greater susceptibility to infection and death from harmful bacteria. The authors therefore believe that glyphosate is likely to be contributing to the decline of honeybees, bumblebees and other, native bees around the world. Read more in, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sept 2018.

Vespa velutina often called the Asian Hornet is an alien invader, which first entered Britain from France where it is believed to have been accidently introduced in a shipment of pottery from China. Questions might arise about levels of biosecurity regarding its appearance in France but now the species is present it could easily fly or be blown to our shores. It was first spotted in mainland Britain in Tetbury in 2016 where the nest was quickly found and destroyed because of the threat it poses to honeybees, which it kills, and it has since turned up sporadically with the latest sightings occurring in Fowey where the nest was destroyed, then Liskeard and Hull where individual dead Asian hornets were found. The species kills bees by hovering outside the hive and intercepting honeybees whose heads are bitten off prior to eating the body or mashing it into a pulp to feed to larvae. Destroying the nest of the invader is important since the species could devastate our local insect population and in particular our honeybees where prey is concentrated and unprepared for the alien attack, unlike occasional attacks from native hornets (Vespa crabro), which native bees have learnt to deal with by ‘cooking’ them, i.e., surrounding and engulfing them, thus raising the hornet’s temperature to the point of death. However, Devon Wildlife Trust is warning that publicity about the issue is causing our native hornets to be persecuted. Steve Hussey from the Trust said, “We’ve had several people telling us that they think they have an Asian hornet nest on their property and asking if they can destroy it. Other people have told us that they have already gone ahead and destroyed nests, suspecting them of belonging to Asian hornets. Unfortunately, where we’ve been able to do further investigation all the cases have proved to be European hornets and not the invasive species”. It is a salutary warning that identification is critical and the proper notification process is vital, as our native hornets are an important part of our biodiversity. See the poster (page 20) for comparative identification features and the address to contact should anyone spot the alien Vespa velutina.

Our native Hornet (Vespa crabro) which is a little larger than Vespa velutina often gets a bad press but is in reality a gentle giant that will only attack humans if attacked in some way itself and the species plays an important role in reducing the number of harmful pests.

Contents / Diary The Wellcome Sanger Institute is a non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust, which was set up mainly to help with large scale DNA sequencing as part of the Human Genome Project to which it made the largest single, most useful contribution. To mark the Institute’s 25th Anniversary, the genomes of 25 UK species have been documented and are to become available to scientists. It is hoped that the information will lead to further studies to increase our understanding of biodiversity within the UK and to aid conservation efforts in particular cases. The first of the 25 sequences to be read was that of the Golden Eagle. That work was done in collaboration with Edinburgh University and the samples had been taken from chicks that had died naturally. All of the species chosen represent five key areas of British biodiversity, namely, Cryptic species, i.e., those that are out of sight such as the Brown Trout; Dangerous (invasive or harmful) species, such as Giant Hogweed, the New Zealand Flatworm and guess who – the Asian Hornet; Floundering (endangered / declining) species, such as the Red Squirrel, Water Vole and Turtle Dove; Flourishing (increasing in abundance) species, such as the Grey Squirrel and Roesel's Bush-Cricket and finally, Iconic (representing the British countryside) species such as, the Robin, Blackberry and Golden Eagle. The newly sequenced genomes will enable research into, for example, why some brown trout migrate to the open seas, whilst others don’t, or investigations into the magneto receptors in robins’ eyes that allow them to ‘see’ the magnetic fields of the Earth. The genomes could also help to shed light on why red squirrels are vulnerable to the squirrel pox virus yet grey squirrels can carry and spread the virus without becoming ill – and many other possibilities.

The Environment 1) In new research, The British Antarctic Survey has reported that the amount of plastic washing up on the remote shores of British Overseas Territories has increased dramatically. In, Marine Plastics Threaten Giant Atlantic Marine Protected Areas, published in Current Biology, 2018; 28 (19), Barnes, et al, point out that 30 years ago, the islands that are some of the most remote on the planet, were near pristine but plastic waste has increased a hundred fold in that time and is now so common that it reaches the sea bed and is present throughout the food chain. The largest concentration was found on the beaches where 300 items per metre of shoreline were recorded on East Falkland and St Helena, an amount ten times greater than was found a decade ago.

2) A team of researchers from Sheffield University and the National University of Singapore have also published their findings. In, Combined impacts of deforestation and wildlife trade on tropical biodiversity are severely underestimated, Symes, et al, write, ‘Tropical forest diversity is simultaneously threatened by habitat loss and exploitation for wildlife trade. Quantitative conservation assessments have previously considered these threats separately, yet their impacts frequently act together. We integrate forest extent maps in 2000 and 2015 with a method of quantifying exploitation pressure based upon a species’ commercial value and forest accessibility. We do so for 308 forest- dependent bird species, of which 77 are commercially traded, in the Southeast Asian biodiversity hotspot of Sundaland. We find 89% (274) of species experienced average habitat losses of 16% and estimate exploitation led to mean population declines of 37%. Assessing the combined impacts of deforestation and exploitation indicates the average losses of exploited species are much higher (54%), nearly doubling the regionally endemic species (from 27 to 51) threatened with extinction that should be IUCN Red Listed. Combined assessment of major threats is vital to accurately quantify biodiversity loss’. Read more in: Nature Communications; 2018; 9 (1). Lesley Cox, Hon. Sec.

BOTANY SECTION PRESIDENT:- Clive Lovatt 07 851 433 920 ([email protected]) Contents / Diary

HON. SEC:- David Hawkins [email protected]

INDOOR MEETINGS Indoor meetings are held from October to March on the 4th Wednesday in the month at 7.30pm - 9.30pm in the Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, Westbury Hill, BS9 3AA. The church is on a bus route and has a free public car park beside it.

ORCHIDS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY Dino Zelenika Wednesday 28 November, 7.30 pm Orchids (along with the Asteraceae) are one of the two largest families of flowering plants. Dino Zelenika will be giving a talk on the Orchidaceae, their environmental history as well as the present conservation situation and future of this fascinating and important family. Particular emphasis will be placed on the orchids of Myanmar and Southeast Asia, which Dino has studied (and photographed) extensively in the field. However, orchids from other regions of the world will also be considered to give a broad overview of their ecological significance.

Advance notice of indoor meetings Christmas/New Year: The date for the open meeting (with our traditional mulled fruit juice) has yet to be confirmed – the 4th Wednesday in December is Boxing Day. Wednesday 23 January: AGM and members’ presentations. Wednesday 27 February: Jonathan Briggs on mistletoe. Jonathan, a national expert on mistletoe lives near Stroud and was the author of the report “Kissing Goodbye to the Mistletoe (1995). Visit his website at http://www.mistletoe.org.uk. Wednesday 27 March: To be confirmed.

BOTANICAL NOTES Contents / Diary

Field meeting report SORBUSES OF THE CLIFTON SIDE OF THE AVON GORGE, Saturday 22 September, report by Libby Houston (Photos ©Libby Houston) Twenty Sorbuses can be hunted down in the Avon Gorge proper, with the True Service Tree (S. domestica) an outlier at Shirehampton for the persistent. The Leigh Woods (Somerset) side of the river offers the more comprehensive Sorbus foray, with an almost level start contemplating planted specimens on the Plain, and the presence of the Wild Service Tree (S. torminalis), ‘mother’ of four Gorge species (our own endemic Bristol Whitebeam S. bristoliensis, plus three naturalised aliens) and three of the four Gorge hybrids, two of them unique in the wild. So, I thought it would make an interesting change to look at the Sorbuses of the Clifton (Gloucestershire) side, which include several young, characteristic and completely approachable species representatives, and I had a delightful reconnaissance trip a few days earlier in glorious sunshine working out most of the route. 7

The forecast for the meeting was rain whichever website you visited: heavy, or light and heavy, it was rain all day long. And it did. I wondered slightly hopefully if everyone would have been put off; but no – there were four stout takers (including our Botany Section President and Hon. Sec., and a GNS member from Tewkesbury) who persisted as resolutely as the rain. Contents / Diary DNA analysis has shown the so-called Grey-leaved Whitebeam (Sorbus porrigentiformis) to be the ‘father’ of many of the rare, apomictic, species including at least six here. A Nationally Scarce tree, more widespread than some, it is seldom common. Unusually frequent then in Quarry 3 across the river, on the east side it occurs at each end only, with a group of at least 18 on Bridge Valley Buttress under the mesh and a single survivor of three trees at the north end of Sea Walls – where the meeting began. A very small tree (usually 5m at most), it is in its typical habitat here, growing out above the cliff- edge, free from any competition for light. Back along the edge a fine just-reachable Common Whitebeam (S. aria), demonstrated its more robust growth, its crowded less- shapely leaves, and, this year, a grand crop of longer-than- wide fruits. We took to the Gully by FOD+AG’s lovingly-restored Victorian Steps as the most stable descent route in the wet, but we left before the bottom for a conspicuous mature Orange- berried Whitebeam (Sorbus croceocarpa), so twisted its leaves and fruits were just in reach (and its part-horizontal trunk could have accommodated a group lunch on a drier day). With the parents of its species Common Whitebeam and Wild Service-tree, it is close cousin to Bristol Whitebeam; all the species of this group show similarities accordingly, e.g. sharp- pointed leaf-lobes and sparse or no tomentum below. Among the outcrops of the south side of the Gully we could also reach leaves and fruit of a Bristol Whitebeam, and contemplate the goats’ merciless chewing of Wilmott’s Whitebeams (Sorbus wilmottiana) where they could reach over the protective fencing; and our President pointed out the limestone heath patch at the top of the slope, via a not impossible slither. Now and again the sky lightened a little. Near the mouth of the Gully we could have a dry if otherwise comfortless lunch in the solid brick-built roadside ex-quarry hut, before heading south for the base of the Great Quarry. At its north end are 3 reassuringly healthy young White’s Whitebeams (Sorbus whiteana, left). This species seems particularly susceptible to a currently fatal but as yet unknown Sorbus disease which has wiped out several of them, including the type. Nearby, a tree well- coppiced perhaps during scrub-clearance has been identified as one of only two Leigh Woods Whitebeams (S. leighensis) on the east side of the Gorge. This is interesting as it is surprisingly prolific not so far away in Leigh Woods Quarries 2, 3 and 4. Sorbuses can be more or less difficult to identify.

Contents / Diary On a bad day I personally find Leigh Woods Whitebeam hard to distinguish from Avon Whitebeam (S. avonensis), and this particular tree the hardest! It itself seemed confused, with 2 twigs bearing blossom (right) among the many with fruit. The Great Quarry is the site for Sharp- toothed Whitebeam (Sorbus sellii), formerly known as S. decipiens, but in a sorting of taxonomy renamed for Peter Sell who first distinguished it. Our President told us that 4 such trees had been planted here beside the old tennis courts, and the present healthy population represents survivors or descendants. On the edge of the broken rocky slope below the open cave formation, a good example can be seen roughly embraced by its cousin Broad-leaved Whitebeam (S. latifolia), allowing easy comparison of leaves and berries (those of S. sellii more orange, of S. latifolia browner). Lower down is a fine young Wilmott’s Whitebeam unharassed by goats and fruiting well this year. Like Leigh Woods Whitebeam, Wilmott’s seems to reproduce easily, with many saplings in Quarry 4 and otherwise scattered but widespread throughout the Gorge: a characteristically upright tree, branches held up at a narrow angle, and leaf-sprays held up in open situations. It must have been the weather that made me forget to visit the type on the edge of the Downs above. Our next port of call was the area of the Great Fault, where a flight of restored old steps leading up from the bottom of Bridge Valley Road gave us the closest safe view of the only known Robertson’s Whitebeam (Sorbus x robertsonii), precariously rooted in a steep slope given to landslides, beneath a rockface of loose blocks. Hybrid between Common and Round-leaved Whitebeams (S. eminens), it was named for Ashley Robertson who identified it while he was carrying out the invaluable DNA analysis of Sorbus species’ parentage here at the beginning of the century. While Grey-leaved Whitebeam is frequent on the meshed Carboniferous limestone face above the Fault, with an unusually large- leaved version on the adjacent slope, both face and slope are the only site for Round- leaved Whitebeam on this side of the Gorge (bar one tree north of Sea Walls), but difficult and hazardous to access. Luckily one example, known to Philip Nethercott and well- coppiced for safety inspections, grows close enough to the steps’ railings to reach a leaf. I had not been able to recce this final part of the trip, but the group gamely followed up a ladder of ash-roots to see perhaps the most northerly Observatory Whitebeam (Sorbus spectans) close-to. It’s not unlike Wilmott’s Whitebeam, its leaves slightly shorter and wider, as if Wilmott’s had been compressed down – with a twist in the tip reminiscent (to me) of the blue-paper twist of salt in old Smith’s Crisp packets. They are noticeably dark on the upper side, their almost pale bluey-green underside turning to grey when the leaves are dead. Finding odd leaves that kept their shape and had the same grey underside as Wilmott’s on the Observatory Hill paths one autumn convinced me that, if not Wilmott’s Whitebeam, this must be a species in its own right, as DNA analysis later bore out.

Contents / Diary

I judged it too wet – and late – to make a detour to the as yet un-named or -recognized Bridge Valley Road Whitebeam, so far found only on the down side of the Dolomitic Conglomerate outcrop of Bridge Valley Road, two of whose tiny population of five had already succumbed to the dread Sorbus disease last time I made the tricky scramble via slippery mesh to see it. The rain came on heavily again. We bade farewell where we began, at Sea Walls, where our President (right) wrung out his sunhat for the last time.

PLANT RECORDS White’s area of coverage for his Bristol Flora, based on Sanders’ map of the Bristol Coal- field and Country Adjacent which had been adopted by BNS as its area of interest, extends to “a point two miles NE by N from Dursley”. This just takes in Cam and Dursley Station and, having recently moved to Stroud, a short foray there was almost my only bit of plant recording in the Bristol area. Due to efficient spraying, there were no plants on the railway lines, where one rather expects to find tomatoes (e.g. Stroud) and Sticky Groundsel (e.g. Temple Meads, Tewkesbury, Gloucester). Nonetheless, the rather dull square, SO7502, now has 174 different plants recorded this millennium, more than all but two of the 30 squares in the vicinity. I've had two interesting Bristol plants reported to me. Robert Muston had obtained permission to collect in the ponds in the Botanic Garden and sent me excellent microphotographs of the Stonewort, Chara vulgaris. These green algae have large cells (5 cm or more), especially between the nodes of the ‘stems’ and Robert has made a short video of the cytoplasm (cell-sap) streaming unidirectionally around. Because of their size stoneworts or charophytes are included in BSBI’s scope of plant recording. Robert’s was the only recent record we have for ST57. It is quite plentiful in the more recently renovated parts of the canal near me. John Martin was pleased to find the attractive little Field Woundwort (Stachys arvensis), not in a cornfield, but at the back of the Cathedral near College Green, by the Pelican crossing towards the Millennium Square. This seems to be the first urban Bristol record. If you’ve found any interesting plants, please let me know.

Clive Lovatt, Stroud, 7 October 2018

GEOLOGY SECTION

PRESIDENT: David Clegg [email protected] Contents / diary HON. SEC.: Richard Ashley, [email protected] Tel: 01934 838850

LECTURE MEETINGS Lecture meetings take place in room G8, 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 left when you reach some display cases and follow the corridor round. Room G8 is on your right.

TRACE FOSSILS OF THE OLD RED SANDSTONE Professor Susan Marriott 7.30pm, Wednesday 28 November Susan Marriott is Professor of Geology at the University of the West of England and has extensively studied the Old Red Sandstone and its trace fossils. The Old Red Sandstone of the Anglo-Welsh Basin comprises predominantly continent- al red bed deposits of Late Silurian to Early Devonian age. Body fossils of terrestrial faunas in these deposits are poorly preserved and often fragmentary but a diverse assemblage of trace fossils is preserved giving an insight into faunal behaviours. This talk will concentrate on the trace fossils preserved in fine-grained components of alluvial facies that include: perennial and ephemeral rivers, floodplain lakes and alluvial fans. The associated ichnocoenoses (assemblages of trace fossils made by members of a single community) reflect the activities of aquatic and semi-aquatic fauna and include meniscate backfilled burrows and arthropod trackways, resting and foraging traces. The stratigraphic distribution indicates an increase in diversity from the Late Silurian into the Early Devonian.

It is intended that a Field meeting next summer to examine the Old Red Sandstone rocks in the Llansteffan area of Carmarthenshire will follow the talk.

ALSO OF NOTE: Contents / Diary FESTIVAL OF GEOLOGY 10.30 till 4.30, Saturday 3 November University College, Gower Street, London, WC1 6BT A fabulous day of talks, walks & activities for both adults and children, organized by the Geologists’ Association. Fossils, minerals and rocks galore! A ‘special’ this year is a presentation of the Moon Rocks on loan from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Lots to see and do: Rockwatch will have activities for children in the Discovery Room with Jurassic dioramas and fossil plaster-casting. The Kent Geology Group will be there with their fabulous microfossils. Look at the tiniest fossil imaginable through a microscope and make your own slides to take home. At the other end of the spectrum you can even put on goggles and have a go at being a stone mason! For adults and older children there are four talks throughout the day – one of them is ‘A Geological Tour Around the Early Solar System’ by Tim Gregory from BBC Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?! He’ll be able to answer all your Moon Rocks Questions! The Festival of Geology is a free event and is open from 10.30 till 4.30.

Newly published Geological Sites of the Bristol Region (part sponsored by the BNS) has been published, get your copy direct from BRERC (see the BRERC website for details) or from the Bristol & Museum & Art Gallery shop (£19.50p). 11

Collectors, Collections and the Geology of Southwest Britain David Clegg writes on a recent experience: Contents / diary Gordon Hobbs, Wendy and I recently attended a fantastic day in the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution. It was a joint meeting of the Geological Curators Group (GCG) and the History of Geology Group (HOGG). They had opened their meeting to interested individuals and over 100 people attended. Speakers and topics included:  Steve Etches talking about the opening of his new museum  Speakers from the BGS & Natural History, Oxford, Bristol, and other museums  Rediscovering lost geological sites where significant finds originated from  Maurice Tucker on the source of the stone for Roman Bath  Plymouth’s lost Pleistocene sites, and what happened to finds, many lost during WWII, the rest spread around the country, but NOT in Plymouth! A case of the Elgin Marbles?  A comparison of early French and UK geological mapping, and had there been any cross fertilisation of ideas

There were also field trips the following day including:  A fascinating tour of a cemetery, looking at the amazing rocks used for the gravestones  Moons Hill Quarry (Mendip volcanics)  Brown’s Folly, looking at the Bath Oolite and evidence of Roman quarrying techniques.

I found out about this meeting from http://geologywestcountry.blogspot.com/ , the South West Geology Blog; I recommend that you sign up to this to find out what is happening in our area. Their next meeting is later this year in Cardiff, and so is easily accessible to us. Inspiring Volunteers - Promoting Collections, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 4 - 5 Dec. 2018. This year’s winter seminar showcases the enormous part volunteers play in the modern museum ecosystem, through a series of talks and demonstrations. The meeting will also include the 45th AGM of the group. Details: www.geocurator.org/events

The Alfred Gillett Trust Museum in Street has a week of open days, 29 Oct. to 3 Nov. A great place to take grandchildren at half-term! See https://alfredgilletttrust.org/whats-on/

“When sea levels change...” Cardiff University have monthly open lectures between now and 14 May 2019 on the subject of sea level change. See below. The Tuesday evening lectures in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences will be held in the Wallace Lecture Theatre (0.13), Main Building, Cardiff University, Park Place, CF10 3AT. Lectures begin at 18.30. Booking is not needed. Current concerns on effects of temperature increases on sea levels today have drawn attention to the recognition of past changes, the consideration of processes involved and the consequences of such changes, all of which have resulted in predictions of future impacts. The lecture series will cover some of these issues.

13/11/2018 When water levels change; stories of floods & tsunamis. Sanjeev Gupta (UCL) 11/12/2018 The Big Antarctic Freeze: ice sheet stability & sea-level change. Carrie Lear (Cardiff) 8/01/2019 Sea level change & global warming: lessons from the past to inform the future. 12/02/2019 Of Darwin & dwarfs: sea levels, ice ages & evolution. Adrian Lister (Nat. History Museum) 12/03/2019 Neanderthal landscapes of the Channel River Valley - title tbc 19/04/2019 When the sea-level rises… UK villages lost to the sea. Claire Earlie (Cardiff) 14/05/2019 Flooding today & tomorrow--- title tbc Ceri Davies (Natural Resources Wales)

National Geological Repository BGS (British Geological Survey) is progressively digitalising their collection, it’s worth having a look at https://www.bgs.ac.uk/opengeoscience/photos.html?src=topNav http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain3d/index.html

INVERTEBRATE SECTION PRESIDENT: Robert Muston 0117 924 3352 Contents / Diary Hon. SECRETARY: Moth Broyles [email protected] 07809 281421

INVERTEBRATE NOTES FOR NOVEMBER 2018 The uptake of social media by naturalists has meant that suddenly not only are opinions on the correct identity of insects happening rapidly (in response to posted images) but also news is spreading fast of exciting new records. The only downside of this is keeping tabs on it all. Records are being posted on all sorts of Facebook pages, on Twitter accounts, Instagram and WhatsApp, to name just some. Piecing things together I reckon moth recorders in the Bristol region have reported 9 instances of the Clifden Nonpareil being found at light traps this summer. That may not sound many but given how rare this species has been in the past it is a large number and given what a tiny sample of the actual numbers moth recorders must make, it represents a sizeable population of immigrant moths (or even now resident ones?). The other species noted in numbers away from previous locations include the Box Tree Moth and L-album Wainscot moth. The former has turned up all over the region suggesting that if you have box growing in your garden, you should be prepared to see lots of larvae eating it next year. (See the RHS website on how to control it.) The last week of September also saw a sudden flurry of Clouded Yellow butterfly sightings around the region, confirming that migration of several species was taking place.

Point of interest Contents / Diary CONCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY of Great Britain & Ireland, Regional Meeting 10:30-16:00 Saturday 10 November 2018 Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) is hosting this year’s Regional Meeting of the Conchological Society. The day starts with talks at M Shed harbourside museum (Wapping Rd. BS1 4RN. Car parks: The Grove. BS1 4RB; Wapping Wharf BS1 4RH (can be restricted by building works)). Exhibits and behind-the-scenes visit to the natural history collections at BMAG itself (Queens Rd., BS8 1RL) led by Biology Curator Rhian Rowson. Shells or other molluscan exhibits can be brought along for identification or discussion. Short talks on any molluscan subject are welcome – we would be especially pleased to hear from anyone based in the south west of England, or on subjects relating to the region. Speakers include Jakob Vinther (Bristol University: The origins of molluscs--a molecular and palaeobiological approach); Charlotte Outhwaite (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology/UCL: Mollusc distribution data and UK biodiversity indicators) and Imogen Cavadino (RHS Wisley: Garden Gastropods: Slug and Snail Diversity in UK Gardens).

Please let Rhian ([email protected]) or Ben Rowson ([email protected]) know if you would like to attend.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018 exhibition opens at M Shed on 20 October and runs through to 24 February. Admission: £6 adult*, £5 concession*, Under 16s free. (* Includes £1 voluntary donation to Bristol Museums Development Trust. Standard entry £5 adult / £4 conc.) Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. 50% off with National Art Pass Free Wednesdays: Free entry for students and 16-25 year olds every Wednesday (with valid ID). Free days for all: Friday 16 November, Friday 18 January Ray Barnett, 07/10/18

LIBRARY BNS Library at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, BS8 1RL. Contents / Diary HON. LIBRARIAN: Jim Webster [email protected]. Committee member on duty: 0117 922 3651 (library opening hours). Open: Wed. 1.15pm-2.15pm, Sat. 10.15am-12.15pm. IMPORTANT NOTICE: The library will in future be closed on Saturdays connected with all Bank Holiday Mondays, in addition to New Year, Christmas and Easter.

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

Library Committee The library committee meets four times a year to arrange the rota and discuss the management and development of the library, including deciding on the purchase of recently published books. While we are a dedicated group who love books and appreciate the need to maintain our special BNS library, time takes its toll and we gradually lose committee members, who then need replacing if we are to remain fresh and active. If you feel you may wish to become actively involved with the BNS Library, please contact me for a discussion to see if you would like to attend a committee meeting to find out more about us. Apart from attending committee meetings, committee members carry out library duty on a purely voluntary basis, on average about once a month. For myself, there is the added pleasure after finishing library duty of exploring the Museum or admiring the paintings in the Art Gallery. In addition, there are the special Museum exhibitions: currently – ‘Fabric Africa: Stories told through textiles’, ‘Clowns: The eggs-hibition’ and ‘Masters of Japanese Prints – Hokusai and Hiroshige landscapes’. Jim Webster, Hon Librarian [email protected] Tel no. 01275 472818

ORNITHOLOGY SECTION PRESIDENT:- Giles Morris, 01275 373917 [email protected]

HON SEC.:- Lesley Cox 07786 437528 [email protected] Contents / Diary

Listen out for the Robin, which is one of the few birds to sing throughout the year, only falling silent during the moult and Redwings which are winter visitors that migrate at night and have a distinctive ‘tseeep’ call that tells of their presence as they fly overhead under cover of darkness. Tawny Owls are also best heard now, as courting is under way ready for early nesting in the coming year.

FIELD MEETING EASTVILLE PARK & FROME VALLEY Sunday, 18th November Leaders: Mike Johnson and Richard Scantlebury 10:00 Meet at 10am at the Snuff Mills Car Park, River View, off Broom Hill, Stapleton. Grid Ref: ST 6226 7650. Post Code: BS16 1DL. We will walk through parts of the Frome Valley and Eastville Park looking for resident and wintering passerines and water birds. Dipper, Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher frequent the area and there have been sightings of Otter. The meeting will end about 1pm. If you plan to attend please contact Mike Johnson: 07530 981 106 or [email protected]

INDOOR MEETING Contents / Diary WILDLIFE CRIME: The Work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit & NGOs Speaker: Martin Sims (Ex-Head of the NWCU). Wed., 14 November Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, Bristol BS9 3AA at 19:30 Wildlife Crime is an abhorrent ongoing issue perpetrated for personal or commercial benefit. Individuals, businesses or organised criminal gangs cause untold damage to the world’s wildlife and it requires specialist strategic and investigative skills to intervene and, wherever possible, to prevent its continuance. As head of the National Wildlife Crime Unit, Chief Inspector Martin Sims, was honoured with the prestigious Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award for his, “Leadership of one of the world’s most outstanding police units dedicated to combating wildlife crime”. To be recognised for his achievements at an International level for his work with the NWCU was exceptional. During his tenure of office, he also regularly worked with non- governmental organisations under whose auspices he now continues to utilise those special skills of investigation following his recent retirement from the Police Force. In this unusual and interesting talk, he will be outlining the nature of his work as a detective and investigator in both arenas and describes how we can all be alert to the signs of wildlife crime.

Forward dates: Contents / Diary Wednesday, 12th December. Prof. Peter Barham. th Friday, 28 December: Return to Chew Valley Lake (different hides).

Field Meeting Report: Chew Valley Lake. Saturday, 8th September Contents / Diary Ten of us met at Woodford Lodge on a cloudy but still morning. From the car park we could hear the calls of a Chiffchaff and Blue Tit and the winter song of Robin. A Cormorant flew over the Lake to join a substantial flock on the foreshore at Denny Island. We discussed the habit of Cormorants holding their wings outstretched. The common theory that they were drying their wings was questioned as they commonly dive back into the water immediately afterwards. Perhaps it is as an aid to digestion. A walk along the side of Herons Green Bay produced a nice mixture of both common woodland and water birds. From the Stratford Lane hide some of us had a brief view of a Black-necked Grebe before it disappeared from view behind some reeds. A Great White Egret stood motionless ready to strike at some aquatic prey and it was nice to compare its size with the much smaller Little Egret. A female Marsh Harrier glided into view and we were treated to a display of aeronautics from a dashing Hobby. At Herriots Bridge we viewed the differences in plumage between Green and Common Sandpiper. Forty-four species were either heard or seen during the morning. Mike Johnson Species List Hirundines. Tufted Duck. Wren. Robin. Cormorant. Heron. Long-tailed Tit. Great Tit. Mute Swan. Canada Geese. Coot. Carrion Crow. Black Tern. Common Tern. Great Crested Grebe. Chiffchaff. Great Black-backed Gull. Hobby. Moorhen. Little Egret. Gadwall. Herring Gull. Lesser Black-backed Gull. Black-headed Gull. Green Sandpiper. Mallard. Pochard. Wigeon. Common Sandpiper. Black-necked Grebe. Marsh Harrier. Raven. Cetti’s Warbler. Shelduck. Great spotted woodpecker. Great white egret. Lapwing. Snipe. Jackdaw. Teal. House Sparrow. Blackbird. Blue Tit. Goldfinch. Plus: Emperor Dragonfly (2). Bumblebee (2); sp. undefined. Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly and Bistort

ORNITHOLOGY RECENT NEWS Contents / Diary September is 'the month when binoculars must not be forgotten', which I think is a quote from 'Birdwatcher's Year'. Sure enough it got off to a flying start when a birder who had just moved to Severn Beach found a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling in the back garden on 1st. It had gone the next day, the previous two Severnside records also both involving one day birds. Next day a Glossy Ibis arrived at Blagdon joining a good selection of birds taking advantage of the low water levels there: 10 Great White Egrets and a nice selection of waders including over 100 Black-tailed Godwits. Also on 2nd a migrant Nightjar was discovered roosting in a Nailsea garden. On 5th Chipping Sodbury Common produced a briefly showy Wryneck. Like buses, after potentially our first Ortolan flew over Sand Bay in August, a second flew over Northwick Warth on 13th, landed and zipped briefly around the pill area at New Passage before vanishing. The hope that we'll get a nice co-operative one remains. A juvenile Purple Heron flew through at Chew the same day - maybe the bird from the nearby levels. Next day there was another Rose-coloured Starling in Bath, which again stayed only briefly. An exceptional autumn field record was of a Savi's Warbler around the Grebe Pond at Northwick Warth on 15th - it's a national rarity these days and would be our first for well over a decade if accepted. Strong westerlies on 19th brought a Pectoral Sandpiper to Blagdon and a brief Leach's Petrel to Severn Beach. Next day there was the first of a run of Grey Phalarope (culminating in six in our area on 22nd) and an outrageous 28 Cattle Egrets roosted at Chew. In continuing windy conditions a Balearic Shearwater was an exceptional bird for our area at Sand Point on 21st. This is without even mentioning a host of other scarce birds such as Spoonbill, Marsh and Hen harriers, lots of Great White and Cattle egrets, Black Terns and so on. To forget one’s bins during the month could indeed have been a costly error, although the general feel after an average day in the field was not so good, with poor numbers of passage waders and passerine migrants at most places. Let's hope October brings more of both the rare and the common to keep us busy. John Martin

MISCELLANY

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL BOTANIC GARDEN

Contents / Diary The Holmes, Stoke Park Rd, Stoke Bishop, BS9 1JG. Booking: 0117 331 4906. www.bristol.ac.uk/botanic-garden Email: [email protected]

Saturdays, 3 Nov. – 8 Dec. 10am-1pm. Introduction to Garden History. Dr Audrey Gerber. The history of cultivating plants goes back to our first settlements. Gardens, as we know them now, are a celebration of the beauty of plants, and respond to our emotional and physical reactions to design. Changes in size and style of gardens through the ages reflect the influences of politics, art, social agendas, and even fashion. This course uses case studies of historic gardens to illustrate trends in style, and explains what defined each change in style and design philosophy. The course is a series of lively and interactive lectures, offering a chronological approach to the influences that shaped western European gardens. Week 1: Introduction to gardens and their evolution through the Middle Ages. Week 2: Dramatic gardens of the 15th and 16th centuries. Week 3: Inspirations for 17th century gardens; plant introductions and science. Week 4: The Landscape Garden that had influence abroad. Week 5: Changes through the 19th century; Victorian times to Arts and Crafts Week 6: Twentieth Century Gardens, and the concept of historic significance. There is an optional afternoon visit to an historic garden. £150 http://www.bristol.ac.uk/botanic-garden/events/2018/introduction-to-garden-history.html

Thursday, 15 November, 7.30- 9pm Even fruit trees have fingerprints Dr Matthew Ordidge, Scientific Curator, National Fruit Collection (Brogdale) As part of the work by the University of Reading with these collections, genetic fingerprinting is used to compare between accessions and re-propagated collections. Genetic marker work can also be used in the attempt to gain an insight into some of the genetic traits held within varieties, and to begin to compare with collections around the world. Venue: The Frank Theatre, Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1TL. Free to Friends on production of membership card. Visitors are asked for a donation (suggested £5). http://www.bristol.ac.uk/botanic-garden/events/2018/lecture---even-fruit- trees-have-fingerprints.html Attendees can use any University car park: the nearest are in University Walk and The Hawthorns (no booking is necessary). Please note that after recent changes there is now a charge of £3 for parking after 6pm on Tyndall Avenue.

AVON ORGANIC GROUP http://www.groworganicbristol.org/ All meetings at The Station, Silver St., BS1 2AG (in the Dance Studio) Visitors £5 Members £2. Thu. 22 Nov., 7pm. “A Healthy Garden Needs Diversity ". Maggi Brown, Former Head of Education & Senior Advisor with Garden Organic

Avon Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project Contents / Diary Booking and further information: Contact the Project on 0117 903 0609 or e- mail [email protected] . Pre-booking essential for all events.

Details of meeting points are given on booking.

Thu. 1 Nov. Autumnal antics (Children’s holiday event for 8 – 12 year olds)

Using seeds, leaves & berries, create colourful autumn art. In the afternoon make an autumn leaf lantern to take home. Drop off children 10am, pick them up 3.30pm. £15 per child.

Tue. 6 Nov. Looking after Leigh Woods (Talk)

For over 1,000 years Leigh Woods has been managed for timber. A rich variety of wildlife thrives here. Tom Blythe reveals how the Forestry Commission manages the northern part of Leigh Woods and Paradise Bottom for conservation and recreation as well as timber production. 7 - 8pm £4.

Friends of Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve (FPWNR) "A WILD LIFE" Talk by Martin Hughes-Games Wed 21 Nov., 19:00 Gordano School, St Mary's Road, Portishead BS20 7QR An entertaining and informative evening with one of the UK's most popular and respected naturalists and zoologists. Possibly best known as a presenter on BBC's Springwatch etc., Martin has a wealth of other tales to tell. Followed by a Q&A session, and book signing. Tickets £10. Profits support The Friends of Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve. Refreshments, Tickets from Morgan Westley, 28 High Street, Portishead. Or online from Event Brite

HORNET – Vicious beast or gentle giant? Contents / Diary

As described in Natty News, page 5