For some time now my interest in plants through gardening, visiting gardens and my involvement in the wildlife of Somerset has made me realise my knowledge of botany is very basic and limited. To get more out of visits to nature reserves and even walks in country lanes I need to spend time learning in a structured way rather than just looking up in wild flower books to try to identify flowers I have seen.
Now I have a great opportunity to do just that.
Last night we held the first informal meeting of what we will probably call the Langport Botany Group. Starting in September we plan a series of monthly study group session to start the task of understanding the physical structure of plants with the emphasis on wild flowers found in this area. An ability to identify the many species which we are fortunate to find all around us is one of our aims.
The group will need to be limited to around a dozen to be manageable for practical work on plant specimens and for field work. If the initiative prospers no doubt it will continue on future years. That is certainly our hope so that more people can benefit.
I hope to give the group coverage through this blog and else where and include photographs showing our activities.
If you are interested in the subject of botany and what it covers, especially in the context of wild flowers you might find the Natural History Museum a good reference point
Here are is a web site link related to this post. Click here.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Back from holiday
Dont forget that by clicking on the photos you should be able to make them larger.
Three weeks is a long time in the wildlife world. We came back to the UK last Thursday after a long awaited holiday, had two days to cope with being back in normality and prepare for Sunday.
The day was devoted to a Workshop event for the Somerset Private Nature Reserve Network. The subject was the importance of ponds, their value for wildlife and how to manage them. A series of speakers gave short introductions to related topics finishing with a presentation by "Pond Conservation". Just for now I'll include a couple of photos to give a flavour of the highlight for us all on a very warm and sunny afternoon. A visit to a local pond which we were not disappointed to find full of dragonflies, damselflies and much else. More detail later!
Three weeks is a long time in the wildlife world. We came back to the UK last Thursday after a long awaited holiday, had two days to cope with being back in normality and prepare for Sunday.
The day was devoted to a Workshop event for the Somerset Private Nature Reserve Network. The subject was the importance of ponds, their value for wildlife and how to manage them. A series of speakers gave short introductions to related topics finishing with a presentation by "Pond Conservation". Just for now I'll include a couple of photos to give a flavour of the highlight for us all on a very warm and sunny afternoon. A visit to a local pond which we were not disappointed to find full of dragonflies, damselflies and much else. More detail later!
Friday, May 01, 2009
"Plantlife"
Twice in one week I have been very pleased to welcome conservationists to have a good look at our local meadow. This is a private nature reserve.
The photo of one of our visitors was taken this week and the colourful Grass vetchling was a new species found on the field last summer.
Today it was people from "Plantlife".
They were interested to hear about our 4 years of looking after a 4 acre grass meadow and how we had started with no experience in such management undertakings. The field is only just coming to life but should have more to offer visitors over the next few months. We hope that our mutual interests can come together so that we can welcome school parties and groups of volunteers who might use the field for visits to practice plant identification , help with surveys and maybe even hedge maintenance and laying. Over the next month or so we will try to work out a possible programme.
There is a great potential for us to learn from being involved in such a project so that our field increases its ecological value and interest.
Here is an extract from their web site:
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Who we are, what we do…in the UK
Plantlife is a charity working to protect Britain’s wild flowers and plants, fungi and lichens in the habitats in which they are found.
We were established in 1989 after a meeting of conservationists and botanists, led by Professor David Bellamy, called for a new organisation, an 'RSPB for plants', to champion wild plant conservation. Today, Plantlife is the leading charity working to protect wild plants and their habitats with national offices in England, Scotland and Wales. HRH The Prince of Wales is our Patron and Adrian Darby OBE our President.
Plantlife identifies and conserves sites of exceptional botanical importance, rescues wild plants on the brink of extinction and works to ensure that common plants don’t become rare in the wild. We are a Lead Partner in the Government’s Biodiversity Action Plan (which targets the UK’s Priority Species and Habitats for conservation action) and are responsible for conserving over 100 of the UK’s most threatened plants and fungi. We do this by:
As the UK’s only membership charity dedicated to the conservation of wild plants, we encourage everyone to become a member of Plantlife. Your support helps us to get the message across that the UK’s flora is, quite simply, the bedrock upon which all our wildlife rests.
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Greater Celandine
Life is full of surprises and this evening I visited our local store and just happened to notice in an untidy area alongside the shop a bushy green plant with small star shaped yellow flowers. I have only seen this plant once before a couple of weeks ago on a path in Oxfordshire. I believe it to be Greater Celandine. Perhaps it is quite common and I have just not picked it out before. Whatever the truth of that , it is still a real pleasure to add wildflowers to my list of personal sightings. I didn't have a camera with me so can't show what it looked like but here is a link to a photo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flower_October_2008-1.jpg
I did take a small piece home and took these photos. With a bit of luck the flowers might set seed which I can return to help spread the plant further. It looks as if the plant is set on a toilet seat but that's not so. I used my wifes sewing machine case to give a plain beackground. It works quite well I think.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Lappet Moth caterpillar
Wow, anyone who is interested in moths and their caterpillars will be impressed I think by a surprising sighting this morning. Walking round our local meadow , inspecting our one year old new hedge, my companion got quite excited and dived into the young hedge to collect a magnificent specimen of the Lappet moth caterpillar. I am including my photo of its discoverer to show its size. You can see the young hedge in the background. The caterpillar was on Blackthorn. I understand this in not fully grown.
I don't have photo of the moth but here is a link to the UK Moths web site.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Severn tidal power consultation
Trying to meet todays deadline for the phase one consultation I managed to send off an email yesterday. The views here are my own personal comments.
This is what I said:
I wish to make the following comments on the Severn Tidal Power consultation.
My comments are based on the following:
DECC Phase 1 Consultation Doc., and the SDC report, Turning the Tide. October 2007.
Attendance at the RSA public forum meeting on 7th March 2009, in Bristol.
Membership of the Somerset Wildlife Trust and the RSPB.
On the basis of these documents, meetings and the public statements of the above organisations which I support I am not in favour of the Cardiff to Weston barrage because it would cause unacceptable environmental damage to the Severn Estuary.
I support efforts to generate electricity from sustainable sources such as tidal energy but only after thorough testing and development.
I support the view that a greatly increased level of research is needed to explore alternative technologies which offer sustainable energy generation without major environmental destruction which would follow from the Cardiff/Western barrage.
I feel strongly that far more emphasis should be directed to reducing public, industrial and commercial demand for energy before we, as a community, massively change and damage our natural inheritance.
I do not accept the arguments that we must continue to generate ever increasing wealth and prosperity whatever the cost to the environment so that we may all maintain the life style we have become accustomed to.
I support the SDC statements (Section 5.3, page 139) that it is not advocating unquestioning Government support for a barrage and that there are serious challenges for current Government policy.
It is significant the SDC also states in Section 5.3 page 139 that:
“We do not take a position on the relative merits of the various barrage schemes but have instead considered the issues generically, with an inevitable focus on the larger Cardiff-Weston scheme due to the availability of more detailed evidence and the greater degree of impact it would have - environmentally, economically and socially.”
David German 22.04.09
This is what I said:
I wish to make the following comments on the Severn Tidal Power consultation.
My comments are based on the following:
DECC Phase 1 Consultation Doc., and the SDC report, Turning the Tide. October 2007.
Attendance at the RSA public forum meeting on 7th March 2009, in Bristol.
Membership of the Somerset Wildlife Trust and the RSPB.
On the basis of these documents, meetings and the public statements of the above organisations which I support I am not in favour of the Cardiff to Weston barrage because it would cause unacceptable environmental damage to the Severn Estuary.
I support efforts to generate electricity from sustainable sources such as tidal energy but only after thorough testing and development.
I support the view that a greatly increased level of research is needed to explore alternative technologies which offer sustainable energy generation without major environmental destruction which would follow from the Cardiff/Western barrage.
I feel strongly that far more emphasis should be directed to reducing public, industrial and commercial demand for energy before we, as a community, massively change and damage our natural inheritance.
I do not accept the arguments that we must continue to generate ever increasing wealth and prosperity whatever the cost to the environment so that we may all maintain the life style we have become accustomed to.
I support the SDC statements (Section 5.3, page 139) that it is not advocating unquestioning Government support for a barrage and that there are serious challenges for current Government policy.
It is significant the SDC also states in Section 5.3 page 139 that:
“We do not take a position on the relative merits of the various barrage schemes but have instead considered the issues generically, with an inevitable focus on the larger Cardiff-Weston scheme due to the availability of more detailed evidence and the greater degree of impact it would have - environmentally, economically and socially.”
David German 22.04.09
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Art and Wildlife
Art and Wildlife
You will see from our events diary that we have organised an art and wildlife workshop. We tried this for the first time last summer and a dozen, mainly members, all agreed that it was a success. That is everyone found it interesting and perhaps motivating. A few were already active in creating some form of art but others were just interested enough to come along to explore the possibilites of the day.I don't think any great works of art were produced but a lot of creative thinking was stimulated. I can vouch for that personally.
So we are trying again, still very much an experiment I think but we hope another group of willing experimenters will join us for a day,this time spread over two Saturday mornings in Compton Dundon.
This blog has been sparked off by arrangements I am involved in to run a different kind of workshop for the Trusts, Private Nature Reserve Network.
I have been discussing with a local botanist and member of the Trust a contribution I hope she will be able to make to a day spent exploring the creation and management of ponds with wildlife in mind. Anne has worked for the Field Studies Council and to find out more about them I visited their web site. It was a great surprise to find they run courses more or less exactly the same. You might find their work of interest in many ways other than in art.
Here is a link to their web site. Click here.
Here is a brief extract from their art page:
Individuals & Families 2009 | Arts
Painting, Drawing and the Arts
The courses within this section offer the opportunity
to concentrate on the more artistic elements of the natural world.
There is a wide range of courses on offer in 2009 to help you to
explore and develop painting, drawing and creative writing skills.
Courses are based in and around the stunning locations of our Centres. Find out which course is suitable for you.
You will see from our events diary that we have organised an art and wildlife workshop. We tried this for the first time last summer and a dozen, mainly members, all agreed that it was a success. That is everyone found it interesting and perhaps motivating. A few were already active in creating some form of art but others were just interested enough to come along to explore the possibilites of the day.I don't think any great works of art were produced but a lot of creative thinking was stimulated. I can vouch for that personally.
So we are trying again, still very much an experiment I think but we hope another group of willing experimenters will join us for a day,this time spread over two Saturday mornings in Compton Dundon.
This blog has been sparked off by arrangements I am involved in to run a different kind of workshop for the Trusts, Private Nature Reserve Network.
I have been discussing with a local botanist and member of the Trust a contribution I hope she will be able to make to a day spent exploring the creation and management of ponds with wildlife in mind. Anne has worked for the Field Studies Council and to find out more about them I visited their web site. It was a great surprise to find they run courses more or less exactly the same. You might find their work of interest in many ways other than in art.
Here is a link to their web site. Click here.
Here is a brief extract from their art page:
Individuals & Families 2009 | Arts
Painting, Drawing and the Arts
The courses within this section offer the opportunity
to concentrate on the more artistic elements of the natural world.
There is a wide range of courses on offer in 2009 to help you to
explore and develop painting, drawing and creative writing skills.
Courses are based in and around the stunning locations of our Centres. Find out which course is suitable for you.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Local wildlife news
This post shows a note I expect to publish in our local parish magazine. Comments welcome and my email address is shown elsewhere on the page.
Wild Orchids will be showing again soon on a field near the village.
The old Rugby Field is publicly owned and open to all to visit and enjoy. The Parish council is responsible for its management. That is important because most other green areas round the village are privately owned and farmed and not dedicated to supporting wildlife. We know some farmers do a great deal to encourage wild life but they do have to produce our food. The Parish Council has both an opportunity and a responsibility to conserve the natural value of the field and by doing so protect its biodiversity.
Round the Rugby Field, old blackthorn hedges are in full bloom in mid April and the field is coming to life again after a winter rest. Soon we will see the rich mixture of flowering plants and some 15 different species of grasses. There will be numerous butterflies including the lovely Marbled White.
.
Last year we mapped the areas where the wild orchids grow and other flowering plants such as Broomrape and we can share this with you.
The field has been surveyed by a number of qualified experts including the Ecologist working for the District Council who all agree that it is of significant flora and fauna interest. The field has been registered as a County Wildlife Site and local nature reserve.
Members of the Wildlife Trust will know we organise guided walks to local sites of special interest and this local field is no exception. To join a walk email me.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Evolution
A visitor to this blog has asked a straight forward question and I have tried to find an answer of sorts. I'm not a zoologist or biologist so I looked on the Internet for some ideas. I typed into Google the simple statement , evolution of wings.The first reference which appeared instantly was to a National Geographic magazine article which I think is a good starting point giving food for thought and which could lead on to a wider investigation on the question posed. So here are the first few paragraphs which develop into seven pages. I found it interesting enough to read it all and so I recommend it to anyone who is curious about how a fin can become a limb and can become a wing.
Here is a link to the full article:
A Fin is a Limb is a Wing
How Evolution Fashioned its Masterworks
By Carl Zimmer
Photograph by Rosamond Purcell
The father of evolution was a nervous parent. Few things worried Charles Darwin more than the challenge of explaining how nature's most complex structures, such as the eye, came to be. "The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder," he wrote to a friend in 1860.
Today biologists are beginning to understand the origins of life's complexity—the exquisite optical mechanism of the eye, the masterly engineering of the arm, the architecture of a flower or a feather, the choreography that allows trillions of cells to cooperate in a single organism.
The fundamental answer is clear: In one way or another, all these wonders evolved. "The basic idea of evolution is so elegant, so beautiful, so simple," says Howard Berg, a Harvard researcher who has spent much of the past 40 years studying one of the humbler examples of nature's complexity, the spinning tail of common bacteria. "The idea is simply that you fiddle around and you change something and then you ask, Does it improve my survival or not? And if it doesn't, then those individuals die and that idea goes away. And if it does, then those individuals succeed, and you keep fiddling around, improving. It's an enormously powerful technique."
Here is a link to the full article:
A Fin is a Limb is a Wing
How Evolution Fashioned its Masterworks
By Carl Zimmer
Photograph by Rosamond Purcell
The father of evolution was a nervous parent. Few things worried Charles Darwin more than the challenge of explaining how nature's most complex structures, such as the eye, came to be. "The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder," he wrote to a friend in 1860.
Today biologists are beginning to understand the origins of life's complexity—the exquisite optical mechanism of the eye, the masterly engineering of the arm, the architecture of a flower or a feather, the choreography that allows trillions of cells to cooperate in a single organism.
The fundamental answer is clear: In one way or another, all these wonders evolved. "The basic idea of evolution is so elegant, so beautiful, so simple," says Howard Berg, a Harvard researcher who has spent much of the past 40 years studying one of the humbler examples of nature's complexity, the spinning tail of common bacteria. "The idea is simply that you fiddle around and you change something and then you ask, Does it improve my survival or not? And if it doesn't, then those individuals die and that idea goes away. And if it does, then those individuals succeed, and you keep fiddling around, improving. It's an enormously powerful technique."
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Wildflower meadow campaign
I took this photo in a local wildflower meadow. I think this is a Field Scabious being mobbed by Six Spot Burnet moths. It shows clearly just what we will lose if we don't protect our local meadows.You might find it of interest to see what we offer for inclusion in the next issue of our Somerset Wildlife Trust magazine which is issued three times a year.
Heart of the Levels Group.
Last time I wrote: Our local Council is to be congratulated on agreeing to keep part of a wildflower meadow as a nature reserve. It turned out I was too optimistic and now it is not clear how it will look after this local County Wildlife Site.
We have 18 Parishes in our area and we would encourage all members to take an interest in how their own Council meets its responsibilities to protect wildlife and biodiversity. The County Council and District Councils can give plenty of advice if asked. Our 500 local members can make a difference.
At our last public meeting we were treated to a wonderful presentation of photographs of moths and butterflies and the fascinating range of caterpillars which exist everywhere but usually escape our notice. John Bebbington, Secretary of the Somerset Moth Group and a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society combined detailed photography with his extensive technical knowledge.
Offers of help in running our group are always welcome, that includes acting as our eyes and ears!
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