Wild flowers and "Plantlife"

This is a good time to get out looking for wildflowers in our verges, hedges and nature reserves. This is an extract from Plantlife's latest newsletter.

Dear supporter, Happy Spring! Get ready to hunt for woodland flowers, learn more about how we are protecting ancient trees and help us speak up for wild flowers in Government. Read on...

Great British Wildflower Hunt 2018

The 2018 Great British Wildflower Hunt launches next week with a new list for those who enjoy a woodland walk. Help us discover where those bluebells and primroses are blooming!  Here is a link to Plantlife's web site where you can find out much more about the important work done for wildflowers :https://mailchi.mp/plantlife/plantlife-news-april-2018?e=3369987e57

Batty Piece , a natural meadow in Somerset

The  excitement of finding "ordinary" nature prospering in our meadow nature reserve.
Two visits over the last two days have found a Small Blue and Large Skipper, Grass Vetchling and most pleasing the first of this years Bee Orchid. Here are some of them yesterday. What you cant hear is that in the sunshine and with little wind there were many bees and flies buzzing around and a few butterflies. So they are still alive and well in Somerset!

Langport house building verses conservation of Somerset meadow.

All these wild flowers and grasses I photographed last June in a similar unimproved grassland location some two miles from a meadow under threat from house building. Read about it below.

Broomrape

 Bee Orchid

 Emerging Pyramidal Orchid's

 Geass Vetchling against a Goats-beard

 Bee Orchid

 Quaking -grass

Under the title “ Battle Brewing” in the 15^th March edition, the Langport Leveller reports on the way in which local residents have explained their opposition to a planning application to build 36 houses on “unimproved meadowland that has recently been used for grazing. With the extended flooding on the levels and moors in the last 12 months such grazing land is urgently required by Somerset farmers.

The site itself is described as good quality agricultural land and is a habitat frequented by roe deer,badgers,foxes, barn owls, bats and grass snakes. Other recent and close by housing developments have demonstrably caused, for example , the disappearance of moths and the range of wild plant species they feed off. For many species it has been claimed that the field is their sole local home.An official Peripherals Study prepared for the South Somerset District Council in 2008 identified the land as having the “ highest landscape sensitivity “ and “highest visual impact” when compered to other parcels of land in the study.

There are many other points of objection raised during two local Council meetings. A respected local naturalist John Bebbington asked the Council to take into account the beautiful and rare wild Orchids and butterflies found there including the Brown Hairstreak butterfly.

It any other support was needed to prevent a change in the usage of this agricultural land then the Royal horticultural Society is holding its London Orchid and Botanical Art Show on 12-13 April.

Many people these days grow cultivated orchids in their homes but here in Somerset we have our own beautiful wild plants which we should do everything we can to conserve. Plant lovers can admire in detail some of the worlds best botanic art in London this month. 

Look at :     www.rhs.org.uk/londonshows

Bees and the Rachel Carson legacy

I'm posting this item because it is a good example of how we can use the Internet to see what is going on in the world of environmental concern. In this case concern about the threat to the Bee population in the UK and of course world wide. Starting with a brief look at the Guardian Environmental website which contains many reports,reviews and news items was this headline shown here:

Science under pressure as pesticide makers face MPs over bee threat

This is a link to the item I was checking.  The article is by Damian Carrington dated Nov 28th. Its quite a long piece and takes a bit of time to read in total so I guess I speed read such material. As usual in these articles there are many links and this time I went over them all to follow them up. That opens up a treasure trove of many sources of information which given some time can give you a very full appreciation of the current status of this issue.

As a Member of the Somerset Wildlife Trust I was pleased to see and read the short write up below, buried as it was with many other such items in the Government web site reporting on the Commons Select committee activities. I've copied a very brief part of the proceedings as a taster of what can be found. I found it all of considerable interest if only to show that the Wildlife Trusts are active in this way, something  which I think they could do more to promote to their members.

You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Committee Publications > All Select Committee Publications > Commons Select Committees > Environmental Audit > Environmental Audit

Session 2012-13 

Insects and Insecticides

Written evidence submitted by The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts welcome the opportunity to submit evidence to the Environment Audit Committee (EAC) regarding insects and insecticides.

Our evidence focuses on neonicotinoid insecticides, in particular:

· The impacts of neonicotinoids on insect pollinators (honeybees, bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths)

· Half-life in soil; routes of exposure and contamination of non- target vegetation (such as that found along field margins)

· Impacts on ecosystems in the agricultural landscape

· Inadequacy of risk assessment for these types of insecticides

The Wildlife Trusts’ position

1. There is a growing body of evidence that shows that neonicotinoids have a detrimental effect at sub-lethal doses on insect pollinators. For this reason, The Wildlife Trusts believe that until it can be categorically proven that neonicotinoids are not adversely impacting pollinator populations, and by extension ecosystem health, Government should adopt the precautionary principle and place a moratorium on their use on all outdoor crops.

Meadow photographs

Here are some of my photos taken this afternoon in a break in the showers.

All seen in our meadow or in the adjacent hedge.

Burnet Moth (possibly Five-spot)

Broomerape

Bee Orchid

Very fresh Pyramidal Orchids

Goats Beard with a Grass Vetchling

Quaking Grass

A caterpillar!?

Wild Plant Conservation

A favourite botanical charity of mine has written to me with a new scheme and I think it could be useful for anyone concerned about the state of wild flowers and plants in their own area. As with any other project it will only be successful if more people get involved. As a small step I'm including details as a post on my Blog. I'll download the parish record form and try to make use of it here in my own Parish. Think about it. Give it a go! You could also sign up for their free newsletter. If you happen to live in Somerset we have our own Botany Groups who carry out identification surveys and they would be pleased to hear from you and you dont need to be an experienced botanist. You can contact me through this Blog.

Dear Parish Pioneer reader

The Wild About Plants team need your help!  We are keen to reach many more people and have prepared the attached article which we would like to ask editors of local parish and village newsletters to consider including in their publications this spring.  Would you be able to approach the relevant person local to you and ask them to do this?  In this way we can all spread the message about the importance of wild plants in our countryside and hopefully recruit lots of new readers for the Parish Pioneer newsletter too.

If you are successful, could you let us know how you've got on and which newsletter has published the article?

Thank you

The Wild About Plants Team.

Attached write up.

Are you Wild About Plants in your parish?

Wild Plant charity, Plantlife, which conserves wild plants on the ground, is interested in your wild plant memories, foraging tales and recipes to find out just how connected our lives still are to wild plants and whether they continue to be important to communities and individuals today. Parishioners can write in to the Wild About Plants team with their memories, poems and photographs which will be added to a plant anthology on the website, www.wildaboutplants.org.uk

If you have more time available, it would be great if you could complete a parish record form, which as well as asking about how local people use wild plants, also asks you to record whether certain wild plants grow in your parish. A parish record form can be downloaded from : http://www.wildaboutplants.org.uk/wp-content/themes/plantlife/content/PP%20parish%20record.pdf

Plant enthusiasts can also subscribe to a lovely free quarterly newsletter called Pioneer which aims to inspire the amateur botanist and nature lover with useful tips, facts and plant ID help – readers are encouraged to provide content and feedback regularly making for a real hands on friendly and fun newsletter! Email: wildaboutplants@plantlife.org.uk to sign up!

Ragwort identification

Towards the end of last summer I was trying to decide what form of Ragwort was growing in our meadow and requested help from Anne and  John Bebbington. It may be that we have both Hoary and Common Ragwort. To help John has sent me these photos and as they look so bright and cheerful on this very wet, gloomy and windy January day I thought I would show them here.

First Common or Senecio jacobea

Next is Hoary Ragwort or Senecio erucifolius

And finally both together.

I'm sure you can tell which is which?

All photos by John Bebbington.When summer arrives again I'll report back on my identification efforts!

Curry Rivel Community Website | Further discussion on the natural environment. April 2011

Click on the link below to visit the web site to read my letter.

Go to this web link:

http://www.curryrivel.org.uk/community-groups/wildlife/item/203-further-discussion-on-the-natural-environment-april-2011


 Before reading on via the link here are three photos taken in our garden last week. After first identifying a  red Cardinal Beetle ( Pyrochroa coccinia) I now think it was a Lily Beetle (Lilioceris lilii) and the seed case for a Winter Aconite.

                                                               Lilly Beetle ( Lilioceris lilii)

                                                   Winter Aconite  ( Eranthis hyemalis )

                                                   Winter Aconite  ( Eranthis hyemalis )

Photography of wild flowers

Last Sunday we held a very successful and enjoyable walk in Beer Wood to check out the spring flowers.

To follow that we have organised a one day workshop on May 1st to help people improve their photography of plants.
The details are all on our Heart of the Levels Diary Blog.  Link here

We have a limit of 20 people for the workshop and now have 15 paid up attendees. So hurry if you're interested. Below is a John Bebbington photograph of the Yellow Archangel flower. ( Lamiastrum galeobdolen )

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Wildflower Meadow

Our meadow is really starting to come to life after its winter rest. Here are a few "ordinary" pictures taken today showing some of the early signs. It was also good to see two species of butterfly in the field close to the tall hedge on the Eastern side, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell. The latter was feeding on the Celandine.

Across the middle of the field following the route of a hedge which was shown on the 1839 tithe maps is a line of Lessor Celandine ( Ranunculus ficaria) The petals glistening bright yellow in the afternoon sunshine. They don't appear anywhere else in the field

This display of Blackthorn blossom is gradually appearing on more and more of our 3 year old hedge plants as each day passes.

Looking like gold nuggets  this picture shows a  branch in a nearby hedge. I assume its a form of lichen but have no idea what its name is so any suggestions are welcome.

Finally a view along half of our new hedge which if you look carefully is now gradually coming into leaf Amongst the first plants to show leaves are the privet and Hawthorne.

wild flowers

Yesterday on March 11th I noticed first flowering of our 3 year old hedge. Blackthorn is flowering on one of the 1000 hedge plants we planted nearly 3 years ago and at the edge of the field in just one small area were the first cowslips flowering. The photos are not brilliant partly because the sky was overcast and the light poor.

Dandelions

Very soon we will treated to fields and verges glowing golden with millions of dandelions.
If like me you tend to ignore them because they are so common then it is a surprise to find out that there are some many species.One of my guide books, Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland lists them as part of the Daisy Family, Asteraceae,  It tells me that the  Daisy family is the largest family of flowering plants and usually called composites because their flowers are packed into a compound head.
The Dandelion is a group of about 240-250 diverse short perennials, some very common, some rare, the great majority difficult for the non expert to distinguish! I feel better reading that because even looking at the yellow flowers in our lawn it is clear there are several varieties.
But the reason for this post is to include a You Tube video of a dandelion flowering in slow motion. Not something most people would sit and watch. Its impressive to see the way it moves through the stages of growth to finally disperse its seeds. Its dispersal technique is another story. I found this on the Wildlife Trusts national web site as part of its Watch Club page. Here is the video.

Hoodia gordonii

Happy new year everyone!

To start the new year off, try this link to a  photograph of something not ever seen in Somerset. I'm pretty sure of that!

ARKive - Hoodia videos, photos and facts - Hoodia gordonii

BBC News - 'Green light' for global biodiversity science panel

Whats all this about! It seems that world governments have actually agreed on something ,which is a pleasant change. I assume that includes the USA?
On Friday 11th June at 10:51 local time in the South Korean port city of Busan a new international organisation was set up to monitor biodiversity and to advise governments in the same way as the IPCC has been doing for climate change.

 Read more about it here:


BBC News - 'Green light' for global biodiversity science panel

Obviously this is a Yellow Iris! I found a multitude of them in a damp gully on the north Cornwall coast last week. Beautiful. I also saw a Green Hairstreak butterfly. First time I've seen one in the countryside.

Today I received an invitation to attend a Somerset County Council Forum titled, "Post 2010. What next for biodiversity in Somerset" . That should be interesting with looming Gov cutbacks on spending.

Wildlife Watch Club

Our new Watch Group  could do worse than admiring  beautiful wild flowers like the ones I photographed in my garden yesterday. Although they are similar I am fairly sure the first is Rough Hawbit and the second is Goats Beard which I had to catch in the morning before the flower closes up at noon! Hence its old name of Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon.

Now for a happy announcement.

A new Wildlife Watch Club will be launched on May 30th. Described by the Somerset Wildlife Trust as a fantastic club for nature lovers and their families to explore the wonderful world of wildlife.
Our Heart of the Levels Area volunteer Group is proud to be supporting this new venture. We have long wanted to boost our educational involvement in South Somerset and this is our big opportunity. We wish the club's leaders every success.Plese contact me through this Blog if you would like to find out more about this initiative.

Woodland wonderland

A walk organised by the Private Nature Reserve Network, run by the Somerset Wildlife Trust proved to be a wonderful experience as we walked for some 2 miles through mixed deciduous woodland, surrounded just about everywhere by Bluebells.The only minor blemish on the day was the mostly cloudy sky and the chill in the North East wind. To give a taste of woodland here are a few photographs.They show one of the groups of visitors, a fallen tree surrounded by Bluebells, an orchid (Early Purple I think) and a mystery plant. Can anyone identify it for me please.

Election Night

While the tv political pundits mull over the results coming in from the polls here  are  some  photos I took recently in our local reserve. Above is the Common Vetch and this is the Germander Speedwell and the lower one is Ground Ivy

   

Botany for Botanical Artists , Art and Wildlife

 

You are unlikely to recognise the subject in this photograph. It is showing grains of pollen attached  to the stigma of an ordinary Crocus plant  which are in flower in most of our gardens. The photograph was taken by John Bebbington FRPS and kindly made available for us to use for our Wildlife Group on this Blog.

John and Anne Bebbington came to live near Langport a few years ago and have become valuable supporters of our local group, giving talks, leading walks and giving us tremendous photographs of wildlife.We have supported Anne in starting a Botany Study Group based in Langport which has proved very successful and popular.

Anne combines expert knowledge of plants with great skill as an artist but most importantly an excellent teaching ability

Dr Anne Bebbington PhD,  is a botanist, natural history illustrator and formerly  senior ecology tutor for the Field Studies Council.  Anne is now starting a new venture in setting up and running a much needed course for botanical  artists.

The course starts in September 2010 and will combine botanical tuition with an opportunity to develop and practise illustration techniques.

 Working with Anne is Mary Brewin MSc PGCE Cert HE Botanical Illustration and also formerly senior ecology tutor at the Field Studies Council.

Anne and Mary will be the Course tutors.

The programme will consist of 10 linked workshops over a 12 month period. Between sessions participants will be given help and encouragement to complete an illustration based on the subject of the workshop.

The course will take place at " Nature in Art" , Twigworth, Gloucestershire. The workshops will run from 10.00 to 16.00 on one Saturday each month excluding December 2010 and August 2011. Here is a link to the venue. Click here

The course fee for the 12 month course covering tuition, support and use of the venue will be £398.

For more information call Anne at  ajbebbington@ukonline.co.uk or Mary at geoffreybrewin@btinternet.com

Closing date for applications is 30th April.

Bats

These photos from Kids Zone web site, link here.



The internet provides an amazing ability to link subjects together. Here is how I recently found myself reading about bats!


A few days ago I found a bright yellow flower, size about 10 or 15 mm growing on a grass trail round a local meadow. I tried to remember enough details about its size, petals, stamens and leaf arrangement to identify it at home with books such as Wild Flowers by Blamey and Keeble Martin. Bearing in mind that it is now mid Dec I decided that it must be either the Creeping or the Spring Cinquefoil. I asked a friend for an opinion and went back to check. Naturally the flower had disappeared and I had little luck trying to pin down where I had seen it. There were no other specimens around either.
I've been persuaded that it is the Creeping form and as a final check I searched the web for any further guidance.

I came across a new web site run by Natural England called, "Gardening with Wildlife in Mind" .

Their web site says: "Natural England's Gardening with wildlife in mind aims to help people choose plants likely to attract wildlife. It also shows what eats what in the garden." It seems to be a joint venture with a private company called, " The Plant Press", publishers of books and CD's on gardening.
So with the help of Plant Press you can search for a range of wild animals and find out what they eat and other data. This is where I found my way to Bats!

I tried it out with bats and that is the point of this post, here is an extract from the site. Read more at this link.



I find it interesting to read that:

The pipistrelle bat was thought to be a single species until around 1998, when it was found that there are two genetically distinct species, the larger common pipistrelle and the smaller Pipistrellus pymaeus or 'soprano pipistrelle', so-called because its echolocation call is at a frequency of 55kHz as opposed to the common pipistrelle, which echo locates at 45kHz. New research into these two species is showing that they also have different preferences for food and habitat. The 55kHz bat prefers wetland and lives up to its German common name of 'midge bat'.

In future I must remember to talk about 45 or 55kHz bats which sounds very much more interesting!

I had to follow up this article by clicking on the link to the Bat Conservation Trust which I recall visiting some time ago before posting an item on bats. This time their web site , as usual gives a lot about bats but here is an extract on bats and biodiversity, the latter subject I had posted about recently.
Read more at this link:

Protecting our Biodiversity

The United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 committed member states to conserve their biological diversity and set a global target 'to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss'. In Europe however the goal is that 'biodiversity decline should be halted with the aim of reaching the objective by 2010' known as the Countdown 2010 initiative. We are now less than 600 days away from the end of 2010 and there is still a lot of work to do.

Throughout the UK, BCT is working to maintain our bat biodiversity. We have 17 species of bat and we wish to see the populations of all these conserved and, where possible, enhanced.

All of our bats and their roosts are protected by law. Legislation is one way of maintaining bat biodiversity and shows that the Government thinks that conservation of bats is important.

BCT's Bat Biodiversity Project delivers a whole range of actions in conjunction with the Statutory Nature Conservation Organisations, volunteer bat workers, other environmental charities, sectors of trade and industry and government departments to help ensure that bat biodiversity is maintained. Further details of our work on policy and lobbying can be found on the consultation and lobbying pages.

The work of the Biodiversity Officer is supported by Natural England and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

A final interest in all this is that I have been trying to persuade our Group to purchase a bat detector for some time now. I might just have to buy one myself!
Out of this bit of research several outcomes might be generated:

• We organise another meeting about Bats or a bat walk to support the Countdown 2010 event.
  
• We write to all our local authorities : parish and town councils, to ask about their interest in the environment and what they are doing about their responsibilities in respect of biodiversity etc.
• We continue to promote wildlife gardening.