Somerset Wildlife Trust, Heart of the Levels Botany Group
Feb field trip 2012.
In its third year the Groups programme
of activities for 2012 puts the emphasis on field work.
Our first session was on Feb 7th.
It was a fairly cold but luckily dry day. We met up at 10.30 am and
walked to a small private wooded area , where the owner had planted
a large variety of trees around 30 years ago.The venue was chosen to
give us an opportunity to practice our winter tree identification
skills.
There were 15 members present, all well
wrapped up against the cold, and led by Anne Bebbington. Most of us
have been with the Group since its start up with one or two recent
new members.
For this field session we worked using
an identification system published by CT Prime and RJ Deacock. We
followed their key to identify around 20 different species. They
included for example, English Elm, Crack Willow,Horse Chestnut,
Cherry and Blackthorn.
As a bonus this last species gave us
the chance to search for and find Brown Hairstreak Butterfly eggs.
After about 2 hours field work we had a
pleasant lunch at The Angel cafe and community centre in Langport.
This was followed by another
fascinating presentation by Anne using Johns very special photography
to review much of the greatly magnified detail of the buds, bark and
catkins we had found on our walk.
This first field session was a great
success.
Our next outing in March will take
place on a meadow in Curry Rivel. The aim will be an introduction to
survey methods used by Botanist to identify and record the presence
of flowers and plants in an organised and measured way. Such records
are of fundamental importance in the conservation of the natural
environment.
This is of considerable topical
interest as the Government introduces Neighbourhood Planning schemes.
Surveys of local remaining unspoilt fields and woods will be vital
in the formulation of local planning schemes. Every Parish in
Somerset needs this work to be undertaken.
DG 9.2.12
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