Contents / Diary of events NOVEMBER 2017 Bristol Naturalist News Discover Your Natural World Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 565 NOVEMBER 2017 BULLETIN NO. 565 NOVEMBER 2017 Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk HON. PRESIDENT: Andrew Radford, Professor CONTENTS of Behavioural Ecology, Bristol University 3 Diary of Events ACTING CHAIRMAN: Stephen Fay HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR: 4 Society Walk / Society Talk Dee Holladay, 15 Lower Linden Rd., Clevedon, 5 Lesley’s “Natty News…” BS21 7SU [email protected] HON. SEC.: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528 6 Get Published! Write for Nature in Avon [email protected] HON. MEMBERSHIP SEC: Mrs. Margaret Fay 7 Joint BNS/University programme 81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280 8 Phenology ; Book Club [email protected] Welcome to new members HON. TREASURER: Michael Butterfield 14 Southdown Road, Bristol, BS9 3NL 9 Society Walk Report; (0117) 909 2503 [email protected] Poem for the month BULLETIN DISTRIBUTION 10 BOTANY SECTION Hand deliveries save about £800 a year, so help Botanical notes; Meeting Report; is much appreciated. Offers please to: Plant Records HON. CIRCULATION SEC.: Brian Frost, 60 Purdy Court, New Station Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 13 GEOLOGY SECTION 3RT. 0117 9651242. [email protected] He will be pleased to supply further details. Also 14 INVERTEBRATE SECTION Notes for this month contact him about problems with (non-)delivery. BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before 15 LIBRARY Hand-coloured books publication to the editor: David B Davies, The Summer House, 51a Dial Hill Rd., Clevedon, 17 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION BS21 7EW. 01275 873167 [email protected] Avon Winter Bird Survey Grants: BNS typically makes grants of around Winter Garden Survey; Forward Dates; £500 for projects that meet the Society’s Recent News. charitable aims of promoting research & education in natural history & its conservation in 19 MISCELLANY Botanic Garden; the Bristol region. Information and an application Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project; form can be downloaded from bristolnats.org.uk Badock’s Wood Tree walk Email completed applications to 20 Pictures of the month [email protected]. Health & Safety on walks: Members Cover picture: Sent by Clive Lovatt – see participate at their own risk. They are his article on pages15-16. responsible for being properly clothed and shod. Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior 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. If you plan to attend please check date & time with the Hon. Sec. (from whom minutes are available to members). Any member can attend, but must give advance notice if wishing to speak. Visitors & guests are welcome at any of our 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 the sections. NOVEMBER 2017 Thu 2 Midweek walk: Oldbury-on-Severn Society 10:00 page 4 Wed 8 Life in a Noisy World Ornithology 19:30 page 17 Wed 15 Society Talk: Myths, Moths & Butterflies Society 19:30 page 4 Sat 18 Sand Point & Middle Hope Ornithology 10:00 page 17 Wed 22 Clarence Bicknell & Bristol Botanists Botany 19:30 page 10 Wed 29 The Origins of Starfish & Brittle Stars Geology 19:30 page 13 DECEMBER 2017 Wed 13 Talk Ornithology 19:30 page 18 Wed 20 Society Talk Society 19:30 page 4 Wed 27 Christmas Meeting Botany 19:30 page 11 Thu 28 Field Meeting Ornithology page 18 JANUARY 2018 Wed 10 Talk Ornithology 19:30 page 18 Wed 17 Society Talk Society 19:30 page 4 Sun 21 Field Meeting Ornithology page 18 Wed 24 AGM + year reports Botany 19:30 page 11 Wed 31 AGM + Members’ evening Geology 19:30 page 13 OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST Pliosaurus! at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery until 7 Jan page 13 Tue 14 Nov Myths, Moths & Butterflies Gorge & Downs 19:00 page 19 Thu 16 Nov Springboards etc. – Carnivorous plants Botanic Garden 19:30 page 19 Sat 18 Nov Gift Wrapping Workshop Botanic Garden 10:00 page 19 Sun 19 Nov Trees & Historic Features Badock’s Wood page 19 Sun 19 Nov Autumn bird identification (NB Date change) Gorge & Downs 11:00 page 19 Thu 7 Dec Giant Pliosaurs Museum 19:30 page 14 There will be an all-day Local BTO Conference on Sunday March 18 held at the Wiltshire Music centre in Bradford on Avon. Details available soon. Tickets about £20. The Chair is Stephen Moss. Talks: on Bristol Gulls by Peter Rock; on the Cranes by Amy King; on Swifts by Edward Mayor; on Ringing at Chew by Bob Medland and on birds of Salisbury Plain by Paul Castle. Write for Nature in Avon! Contributions are invited for the next Nature in Avon which is planned for May 2018. 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 2018. Please send to Dee Holladay, [email protected] 3 SOCIETY ITEMS SOCIETY MID-WEEK WALK Contents / Diary Thursday, 2nd November, 10am, 3½ to 4 miles The Anchor Inn, Oldbury-on-Severn. BS35 1QA This pleasant walk is on footpaths and lanes entirely within the floodplain of the river Severn, so there are no steep climbs. The published route actually includes a walk round the perimeter of the former nuclear power station but I do feel free to tailor things according to our remit, which is to explore the wildlife while trying not to disturb it. It is likely that hedgerow fruits will be on show (but we have found that fruit harvests have been early this year, so maybe not) but part of the route, because it is along the estuary footpath is liable to be rather exposed if the weather is stormy. Meet at 10am in the car park or on the road opposite the Anchor Inn. Do let me know if you are coming. Tony Smith: 0117 965 6566: [email protected] Next walk: 7th December, Cheddar circuit SOCIETY TALK Our Winter Lecture Programme includes a range of natural history topics to interest, inform and – most importantly – to enjoy. We commend them to you. We meet at Westbury Methodist Church on the third Wednesday of each month from now until March. Please make a note in your diary to join us. MYTHS, MOTHS & BUTTERFLIES Wednesday, 15th November Speaker: Matt Brierley 19:30 A Year in the Life of Bristol’s Butterfly Conservation Officer Westbury-on Trym Methodist Church, Westbury Hill, BS9 3AA Butterfly Conservation’s campaign to improve recognition, understanding and support for Lepidoptera got underway at the beginning of the year with the appointment of Matt, an all-round naturalist, as the officer to deliver the campaign in Bristol. He will be coming in to tell us of the journey so far. Expect a complex mix of film footage, anecdotes, fact and a habit of looking at questions in an unusual way. Future dates: 20th December 2017. 17th January, 21st February, 21st March 2018. 4 NATTY NEWS Contents / Diary The power of nature can be observed in many ways. The immense power of the elements, the strength of the maternal bond and the incalculable abilities of a native species to landscape a huge area without the aid of maps, computers or even a ‘bird’s eye’ view, are three of them. Hurricane Irma was the second major hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic season. It was a very long-lived, Category 5 storm that caused catastrophic damage across the northern Caribbean and Florida and dominated the news amongst claims that the ferocity of it provided evidence of climate change. Yet I received a message from Florida that read, “Lots of tree fluff everywhere. House is in great shape! I stayed up and watched it. AWESOME does not begin to explain the force of the wind. Our trees danced and the rain and wind was a white sheet racing of the roof. At the height of the storm, the most amazing sound I could hear over the wind was the thousands of tree frogs singing loudly to each other! I guess saying, “Hang in there!!!” I thought it was even more fantastic how the butterflies, caterpillars and birds were back the next day!” Furthermore, One Muscovy Duck in Plant City, Florida became a celebrity. She had laid 13 eggs at the base of an Oak Tree in someone’s garden and usually left the nest several times a day to feed and drink but when the hurricane struck with torrential rain and wind speeds of 107 mph in this area, she hunkered down and stayed put. After two days the householders took her some food and water, which she readily accepted but it wasn’t until the relative calm of the third day that she rose to reveal 13 unharmed eggs. She had been covered in branches, moss and detritus but was unharmed. She has become known as ‘Irma, The Wonder Duck’ but 100’s of catfish were not so lucky when Hurricane Nate struck the USA. They were left stranded in the streets of Biloxi, Mississippi. Beavers which were once a native species before being hunted to extinction in Britain, could be re-introduced into the Forest of Dean to control another by-product of the weather, i.e., flooding.