Blog update. E-mail contact: levelswildlife@tiscali.co.uk , for comments, photos, and information on wildlife activities

Trying a simpler format for the blog to hopefully
show the content clearer and a contact e-mail for comments.








Adding a couple of "ordinary" photos of an ordinary bug and a moth. The bug was on an allium flower head in the garden and the moth was hiding in a hanging basket until I watered it! Can anyone tell me what species they are? A member recently reminded me that as a group we must be just as interested in the ordinary as in the rare and exotic.

Dragonfly identification

Heart of the Levels Wildlife Group

A member has emailed me to tell me that my dragonfly shown above and in the photo in my last post is:

"a female Broadbodied Chaser (Libellula depressa). It is one of the earliest species to emerge (normally early May) and numbers tail off through July and August.
L. depressa is mainly found by small ponds and is often the first species to colonise a newly created water body. The males have a blue abdomen when mature, but when young look like this female."

Its a prompt that I will have to start planning my next garden project- a pond!

Its very encouraging that the blog provides an ideal way for us all to share our wildlife knowledge and experiences.

Recent photos and improvements to the blog

Here are two photos taken in the last two days.
Into our conservatory this monster flew, clung to the blind long enough for me to photograph it through the glass from the outside and then was good enough to take the open door to freedom. Its wing span was at least 7 cm and its body was about 4 or 5. Can anyone identify it please? The other was in an unimproved grass meadow near Curry Rivel.

This looks like half a dozen Burnet moths on a single Field Scabious.

Making this blog as easy to use as possible is essential if it is to serve its purpose of helping us develop contacts with our local members.
Today I've added a counter which appears right at the start before the first post. I.E. at the bottom of the blog.
The Trust has added a reference to the blog on its main web site which is good publicity for our group.
I've added my email address so that readers can more easily comment or contribute by email including photo's. Its shown in my profile and I hope on the web page itself. I cant always tell if I've made the change successfully for a day or so!
I've been finding out a bit more about how to register as a user of the blog which will help if anyone wants assistance.In the next post we can now add our programme of events up to Xmas.

Good news

I said there would be good news and there is! On June 22nd seven members who attended our coordinating group meeting agreed to form a committee. I expect others will join in soon.
We now have a chairman,treasurer,minutes sec,press sec and an events organiser. That is good news.

Last time I mentioned TV programmes on wildlife, now we have the Independant newspaper starting a campaign to support conservation for wild plants and bugs. Here are links to the two organisation being supported with 20p from the sale of every paper on 24th June: http://www.buglife.org.uk/ and http://www.plantlife.org.uk/. Plantlife has two nature reserves in the area within reach . One at Bawdrip in Somerset and another in Dorset not far from Crewkern. Both are managed on similar lines to our Wildlife Trust wild flower meadows and should be worth a visit.The Big Switch campaign has been running this week and hopefully will encourage a growing number of people to be careful with their use of energy. The web site is: http://www.bigswitch.org.uk/ The largest number of pledges currently showing on the web is for buying local food with a significant number of people switching to a green tariff for electricity. Here's a web site to compare tarrifs: http://www.uswitch.com/info/compare-electricity.asp

Back to our committee which has also started trying to put together a programme of visits to reserves and evening meetings for members on a range of topics. We must submit our programme for printing by July 10th and also a write up for the SWT magazine.A big task for us is to communicate with our 550+ local members only a small proportion of which have given us an email address. We will try to use the next SWT magazine to write to them with local news. Perhaps including the reference to this blog!
We are hoping to get together a collection of photographs of wildlife on our local reserves so all offers will be considered.
Dont forget that if you just register with "Blogger" you can post comments on this blog diary. Dont forget either that the whole world can read what you put! ( I havn't told many people yet so we are reasonable private at the moment!).
Thats all for now.
PS. The photo I took late in the evening on the Gt Breach Wood Nature Reserve on June 20th.
It is, I believe, a Butterfly Orchid- platanthera chlorantha.

Busy times

Heart of the Levels Wildlife Group

Since my last post on June 4th there have been plenty of opportunites to learn more about wildlife.

David Attenborough presented his latest TV programmes covering evidence to support the view that humans are at least contributing to global warming to the extent that he now believes we need to change our ways if we wish to limit the damage mankind is doing to our planet.

Bill Oddie has completed this years Springwatch series of fascinating live TV coverage of bird and mammal activites in the UK Impressive liveTV shots of otters in the ShetlandIsles and from cameras in Devon fixed in bird nesting boxes and nests elswhere will probably encourage people to buy their own specialist cameras to watch bird life in their own gardens.

I was able to visit more reserves at Catcott Heath and two reserves near Cheddar Gorge at Cheddar Wood and Black Rock. To visit these widely spread reserves we need to arrange car sharing and provide details of access arrangements. The range of habitats and variety of flora and fauna is remarkable.

In grassland meadows we can now find orchids flowering. Early purple , pyramidal and bee orchids have all been seen in the last few weeks. The picture above ( showing a Pyramidal Orchid I believe) was taken at Catcott Heath reserve on 6th June this year.

The Wildlife Trust is running its Big Switch campaign and members and the public are being urged to find ways for a week to reduce their energy consumption in four areas. Buying local food, switching to low energy light bulbs, switching to an electricity supplier who can provide electricity from renewable sources such as Good Energy Ltd and by reducing their use of cars as far as possible. I have made pledeges on all four areas but will find it difficult to meet all my self imposed targets. For information go to: http://www.bigswitch.org.uk/

The next meeting of our coordination group is on 22nd June and I hope we can formalise our committee and set a programme for the next 12 months. We also need to find ways to organise communication with our 550 local members hopefully by hand delivery to avoid high postal costs.

Next weeks blog posting should be full of good positive news!

The 20km walk and other things

Heart of the Levels Wildlife Group

The Walk.
Going on from my last post we weren't able to organize a stall at the Langport International Festival of Walking on the 3rd June. I have to admit that my lateness in confirming the arrangements for a table, the display boards and most importantly a rota of members to be present led to a decision to abandon the idea. Nobody was too disappointed by this I'm sure. As it turned out it was not a good venue for catching peoples attention since most walkers were more concerned with rest and recuperation after a very hot day in the sun and some steep hills. My offer to walk to raise money for our group met with some success! I completed 20km in the sun and should have raised about £40 for wildlife. I have a stamped certificate to prove my completion of the walk.
Next committee meeting.
Trying to find a date for our next meeting is a little difficult due to other commitments and holidays. However we must meet to formalize our committee structure and start to draw up our programme for the next 12 months.
I am now going for Thursday June22 nd and waiting to hear from members as to their availability!

A successful first meeting and other news

My last post looked forward to our first open meeting on May 19th for members and the public (if interested). By all accounts it was a considerable success. A team of speakers from the Trust gave a series of short presentations on many aspects of the work of the trust. Its was informative and equally important for me was that it gave members the opportunity to see people we usually only hear about in the Trusts magazine. Feedback from the audience of over 80 was very positive and gives our new group a strong basis on which to plan for the future.

This is a busy time of the year and following the meeting it was necessary to deliver the display stand and merchandise to a Wild Life group running a stall at the Langport River Festival. The volunteers from Fyne Court had an uncomfortable morning with wind and rain which only cleared up after lunch. Luckily they were under cover in a marquee.

On the 23rd I joined a small group of enthusiasts at West Sedgemoor RSPB reserve for a couple of hours walk about and observation of the herons nesting in Swell Wood. It was more difficult to see the nests and the birds high up in the trees now that leaves are fully out. Impressive number of house martins and swallows flying very low and heard a cuckoo away in the woods.

On the 24th I met up with an agroecologist conducting a survey of the flora on a 4 acre field near Curry Rivel. This is an unimproved grass and wild flower meadow which a local group is trying to manage to conserve the rich flora and butterfly population which was seen in great abundance last summer. When the report on the field is received the group will need to draw up a management plan for the annual maintenance of the field and hedges.

To continue this exceptional week a small number of our local group coordinating committee met on 25th in the evening to review the meeting on the 19th and to start to consider our next moves. It was considered essential now to formalise our informal group by creating an appointed committee , establishing a method for contacting all our local members and nor just those on email and preparing a programme for the next 12 months.
A date will be set for a full meeting of all our coordinating group of about a dozen members to work this all out by mid June.

In the mean time we have to organise a stall at the Langport International Walking Festival on the 3 and 4th of June ( and do some walking!)

Heart of the Levels Wildlife Group

Heart of the Levels Wildlife Group

Note on the recent guided walk in Beer and Aller Woods 7th May.My own notes of the walk were a little jumbled so I asked the group leader to help produce the following description of what we saw.Around 10 to 15 people met at the entrance to the National Trust land at Turn Hill. GR 414316 Close to High Ham.(shown in the bottom right hand corner of Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 141 Cheddar Gorge). We started by walking along the Turn Hill escarpment on NT land and then went on to cover part of Beer Wood on a circular route.In the area reclaimed from previous scrub on Turn Hill escarpment we saw several good stands of cowslips (Primula veris) beginning to become established. Some spikes of Pyramid Orchid and Greater Butterfly Orchid were seen pushing up although not yet in flower. Wayfaring trees were in blossom. We saw and discussed the results of active conservation work in keeping some areas clear of invading shrubs and trees. This maintains more variety of habitats enhancing biodiversity as well as some public amenity value in keeping viewpoints open, enabling the spectacular views across Sedgemoor to be enjoyed. In some areas recent cleared of scrub there were lots of Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum) in flower. We had a close examination of the flower structure and discussed the pollination mechanism of this strange flower.In Beer Wood there was a blue green carpet of Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) interspersed with Bluebells with occasional ancient woodland indicator species in flower such as Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa), Woodruff (Galium odoratum), Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum gleobdolon) and Spurge Laural (Daphne laureola). We found several splendid Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) spikes conveniently on show right next to the path giving a perfect opportunity for some botanical photography.We stopped to listen to the birds singing. Great tit, Blue tit, Chiff-chaff, Chaffinch, Wren were heard. A Tree Creeper was spotted and we inspected a newly placed Flycatcher nest box.Growing on fallen ash timber throughout the wood the fruiting bodies of the fungi Daldinia concentrica known as "burnt King Alfred cakes" were examined. Also at the base of a large Ash tree we found a good specimen of the bracket fungus Ganoderma applanatum, the Artist's fungus. Its underside providing a white surface that easily bruises to leave 'sketch marks'. (The funghi foray walk in the autumn in the woods will give quite a different view of the woods.).Butterflies were seen including Green Veined White and Speckled Wood.

A May Fayre and visit to Aller Woods

Contrasting weather made a challenging weekend.
Sat morning saw 100% cloud cover and a cold breeze and even a spot or two of rain.
Somerton May Fayre was held for the first time and our group ran a stall to publicise our local group. We had quite a lot of interest and people took away membership application forms and some copies of various publications. Some existing members also visited the stall and some will be coming to the May 19th meeting . All in all a worthwhile effort on behalf of wild life!

Sunday morning was quite different. After some mist overnight and a drop in temperature the day warmed up well and I joined a guided walk in bright sunshine in Beer and Aller Wood. This is a Trust reserve and the walk was led by Peter Baker chairman of the reserve management committee. It was my first visit to this reserve.As usual a good guide is able to point out many interesting features along the walk that would not otherwise catch your attention. In particular a number of orchids, blue bells, speckled wood and green veined white butterflies, some funghi and much else. The walk took one and a half hours. Apart from the wild life there are spectacular views out over the levels
Parking is limited and depending on numbers of cars arriving, can be a problem. If of course you can arrive on foot there is no problem.

Some earlier posts on a duplicate blog now deleted

Posted 3rd April 2006.
It seems a good idea to start a blog to record some of the activities and events experienced in the process of set up a local conservation group.The opportunity to undertake such a task has been created by the policy being followed by a wildlife organisation which carries out much of its work through locally based volunteers.This blog joins the progress of the task at an early stage a few weeks before holding a public meeting to launch the group on its way and to find more people to help run it.

Posted 18th April 2006.
Since my last post some real progress has been made in finding a treasurer for our new group.A reminder about our first public meeting in May has been sent to several contacts in the local press.Posters to advertise the meeting have been ordered and should be with us in a few days to be placed in village halls, post offices and similar.It was a real pleasure to visit a local RSPB reserve over the Easter break to see herons and egrets nesting and hopefully rearing this years youngsters.