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NATURE IN AVON

The Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists’ Society,
founded in 1862

© Bristol Naturalists’ Society 2005

Volume 64 for 2004

Edited by Richard Bland

Printed for the society

by the Charlesworth Group, Wakefield
ISSN 0068-1040

Editorial
R.L.Bland

I have to start with an apology. There was no Invertebrate report for 2003,
the result of an editorial oversight. It is printed this year, so that insects play
a big role in this volume. There is no theme to this volume, but there are a
series of articles involving water, of which perhaps the most original is Dr
Stanton’s notes on the hot springs of the River Avon. Clifton’s existence
was based on the development of Hotwells, and it is good to know that the
spring still runs.

The creation of an Avon BAP 1s perhaps the most important wildlife event
of 2004. The BNS 1s a partner in this exercise, in which Britain is a world
leader. There is an article by Jenny Hayward who has created the structure
describing the scheme and how it works. The notion of creating action plans
for particular species and habitats, and setting targets to achieve them may
rather bizarre to some of us, but this process is being driven by the
government who want to create a better world for both people and wildlife,
but also want to be assured that their efforts are making a difference. After
all, taxes are our money. It also makes the important point that, just as our
actions can destroy habitats and their wildlife, we can if we wish also create
habitats and enable wildlife to expand. The increase in Red Kites is a fine
example of effective management of a rare species. The expansion in
Peregrines is a natural consequence of the banning of the use of the
chemical poisons that were destroying them.

Monitoring the effects of the BAPs is a key part of the process, and
members of the BNS have the time and expertise to assist in this process.
But it also affects us as citizens. The process of rebuilding biodiversity, and
putting this at the centre of policy and decision- making, is vital, not just for
the future of wildlife, but also for the future of humanity. We depend upon
the ecosphere, and we have no future that is not a sustainable future.

There are probably many typographical errors below which I have failed to
spot for which I apologise.

Richard Bland Editor.

Weather report for 2004
R.L.Bland
11 Percival RD BSA8 3LN Richardbland@blueyonder.co.uk

From 1920 to 2002 weather data was recorded by Long Ashton Research
Station, and all the long-term figures below use that data. As that station
closed at the end of 2002, the data for 2004 have been taken from the daily
figures supplied to the Times newspaper for Bristol, and they may not be
exactly compatible with the previous series. I believe that the differences
are too small to be of significance.

Additional research has pushed the records for rain back to 1853 and for
temperature to 1881, though there are gaps in the record between 1907 and
1920. To understand present trends it is important to have as long a series
for Bristol as possible.

Annual Temperature.

The annual mean maximum temperature was 14.3 C. Graph | shows the
figures for the past twenty years, and, and the decadal trend line, in which
each point is the average of the previous decade. The overall mean since
1881 is 13.8C.

13.0+5 |

12.54

12.0464 I TIATRCREATAUTEAURCHTATRCREAT AG
198 198 198 199 199 199 199 199 200 200

Chart 1. Annual mean maximum temperature for the past twenty years. The
line shows the decadal trend.

3

Annual rainfall.

Graph 2 shows the rainfall for the past twenty years, and the decadal trend
line. The annual average since 1853 is 890mm, whereas the figure for the
past ten years is 970mm, largely because of the exceptional rainfall in 2000.
The rainfall of 951mm in 2004 is 7% above average.

14007
1200+

1000;

8004 | | | 1]

OOH HE pt
198 198 198 199 199 199 199 199 200 200

Graph 2 Annual rainfall in mm for the past twenty years and the decadal
trend.

Monthly Temperature

Two months, July and October, were below the long term average. January
and February were more than 10% above average, though both were within
the normal standard deviation. Graph 3 shows the percentage differences.

|

Graph 3 Percentage difference between monthly mean maximum
temperatures in 2004 and the 1885-2003 average.

q

JA

Monthly rainfall

Two months, January and October had exceptional rainfall totals in that
they lay beyond the standard deviation, which for most months is around
50%. May June and July were all dryer than normal, with up to three weeks
without rain, and unusually there was no rain between Nov 29" and Dec
bS

100;

OU gos ar ee pcg Looe
JP MAMY WAS ON D

Graph 4 Percentage difference between monthly rainfall in 2004 and the
average 1853-2003

5

Monthly summary

Table 1 shows the monthly temperature and rainfall figures, compared with
the long term average. There follows a brief summary of other features of
each month.

January The month began with a cold snap and a minimum temperature of
3C on 3™. Icelandic lows brought heavy rain and higher temperatures until
16"", when the Azores high brought NW winds , sharply lower temperatures,
and snow on 28" which froze. Twelve frost nights in all.

February Began with a storm and a warm spell that saw a temperature of
16C on 4", but high pressure then developed with lower temperatures and
light winds until 21° when strong N winds brought snow to Bristol on 26",
and ponds remained frozen until the end of the month. There were nine
frost nights.

March Dominated by high pressure until 12", then westerlies took charge.
The month ended with light N winds. The 12-14" had southerly winds that
saw a rush of early migrants.

April A see-saw month, with bursts of rain on 3-4", 17-18" and 29-30",
with long periods of NW winds in between. This did not encourage bird
migrants who were generally late, though southerly winds on 23-24th saw a
rush.

May A dry month dominated by a ridge of high pressure from Azores with
light winds from 10-27". Temperature reached 23C on 16", but
subsequently was around 19C.

June A hot start with a maximum of 27C on 7", 8", but from 16" there was
a succession of weak lows, with light W winds, and low temperatures of
around 17C. On 23™ 26mm of rain fell breaking what was in effect a six
week drought

July A distinctly cool month, which had a last minute hot spell, and 26C
on 29"" It began with a westerly airstream, which became NW from 9", and
from mid month a cloudy period with light winds.

August. Complex and stationary lows encouraged thunderstorms and a lot
of rain. Rather wet, though less so that the rest of the country. Hottest day
of the year 28C on 7".

September Began dominated by high pressure, but after 7" westerly winds
took over, but brought little rain.

October Exceptionally wet month with series of depressions and westerly
winds. Very strong S winds in last week.

November. High pressure and N winds for first three weeks, but in last ten
days westerly took charge.

December. Dry in first two weeks, and dominated by E winds around

6

Baltic high. In second half W took over, rain fell, and snow fell on 19".
There were 7 frost nights, one producing ice on ponds.

he (Te Ea i nee
| Max 1885-2003 | Diff | Total rain | 1853-2003 | Diff
C C % MM MM %
January 8.1 1.3 11 137 | 83 65
February 8.6 7.6 13 54 62 -13
March 10:2 10.4 1 57 60 -5
April 13441 12.8 2 89 58 ae)
May Ad 16.2 6 39 61 -36
June [20.1 193. [4 | 51 61 | -16
July 20.1 20.8 -3 57 a -20
August PALO 20.5 | 5 98 85 15
September 19.2 18.1 6 72 19 -9
October 13:0 14.2 -3 157 95 65
November 10.8 10.3 5 54 97 -38
December 3.0 7.9 i 86 | 86 [0
Year 2004 14.3 13:8 3 951 890 7

Table 1 2004 Monthly mean maximum and rainfall figures compared with
the long-term average from 1885 and 1853 to 2003.

Some weather extremes of 2004

Wettest day Dec 19th 29mm
Hottest day Aug 7th 28C
Coldest day Jan 3rd 3C
Sunniest day May 24th 14.1 hrs
Longest cold spell Feb 23rd to Mar 2nd 9 days
Longest dry spell June 1-19 19 days
Longest wet spell Oct 12-25th 14 days.
Frost nights, total 31 nights

Last frost Apr 9"

First frost Nov 11th

Days snow lying 8

Sand Bay 2005
Tony Smith
30 Timberdene Stapleton BS16 1TJ

Comes and goes the tide

With ceaseless motion comes and goes the tide,
Flowing, it fills the channel vast and wide;
Then back to the sea with strong majestic sweep
It rolls in ebb yet terrible and deep;
Here samphire banks and Saltwort bound the flood,
There stakes and seaweeds withering on the mud
And higher up, a ridge of all things base,
Which some strong tide has rolled upon the place.
George Crabbe, 1754-1832

1. Destruction of the environment

First I must tell you about the experiment set up by Hazel Willmott. She
viewed with perplexity the Local Authority beach-cleaning machine that
sucked up the sand every fortnight throughout the summer on Sand Bay.
She looked at the remaining strandline that was not cleaned away and found
it teeming with sandhoppers. The strandline was an important habitat and
was being carelessly cleaned up. Her concept was clear, simple and
masterly and it enabled her to show the stark reality of tidying up the
environment without scientific understanding of the importance of “a ridge
of all things base”. This was made so clear that the sleeping giant of English
Nature was prodded into wakefulness and commissioned two follow-up
surveys. Here, in the Bristol Channel, “where samphire banks and Saltwort
bound the flood”, with shifting banks of sand and one of the highest tidal
ranges in the world, the environment was being sanitised. The Bristol
Channel, at the same time as being an important migratory route for
wildfowl, Eel and Salmon and an important feeding area for waders and
other birds is also important for industrial and commercial uses, waste-
dumping, sand and aggregate extraction and, as the beach-cleaning showed,
leisure interests by man.

2. Her work woke people up!

In 2000 the local authority ceased beach cleaning at Sand Bay and teams of
volunteers were sought among the residents to hand pick rubbish
(considering separately the impact of the really large items) and Hazel got
her very well-deserved MSc from Bristol University. Subsequently, Hazel

8

asked a meeting of the Council of the Bristol Naturalists’ Society if anyone
would like to carry out a follow-up study, funded by English Nature, to see
if wildlife was benefiting from having stopped beach cleaning. I offered
because I had some previous form.

3. Hazel’s groundbreaking study and its sequel

In the first study of the strandline at Sand Bay by Hazel in 1999 the 3km
length of the beach was divided into three zones; a southern 250m zone (S)
that had never been cleaned mechanically, a cleaned, central zone of 2000m
(C) that had had regular cleaning by machinery for nine years and a no-
cleaning, saltmarsh-dominated, zone of 750m to the north (N). Today,
because of growth of the saltmarsh and cessation of mechanical cleaning, if
you go to Sand Bay it may not be so clear that there are these “natural”
divisions that Hazel and I used in our respective studies.

4. The experiment

Hazel studied the numbers and variety of tiny shrimps, (sandhoppers, or
more correctly, amphipods) living in the tide-floated rubbish along the
beach and she tried to link this to the decline in wildfowl numbers that was
the concern of Governments, Quangos and naturalists alike. She took
fortnightly samples of amphipods at random positions from April to July
and the growth of the population was studied. The results were astonishing.
Where mechanical cleaning was carried out there was an almost complete
absence of amphipods but adjacent, within a few metres, they were
abundant. The rubbish that these sandhoppers were inhabiting 1s properly
called the strandline and it is more-or-less continuous along the beach and
represents the highest point reached by the most recent high tide. It consists
of flotsam, fronds of seaweed, twigs, other bits of wood and indeed
anything that floats including bottles, toys, syringes, sanitary materials,
kitchen units, tyres, oil drums, even tree trunks. No wonder it is thought to
be a good idea and no harm to remove these things on a regular basis.

But many studies elsewhere have shown the tremendous importance of the
strandline for dune building, seedling growth, conservation, coastal defence
in general, conservation of rare plants and as an invertebrate habitat
containing rare beetles and hemipteran bugs. In order to show the
importance of tiny amphipods to birds, Hazel did a parallel study of the
ornithological records of the abundances of wintering waders in Sand Bay
to see whether there was evidence of changes in numbers over the previous
ten years. However these birds normally feed out on the estuarine mudflats,
not the strandline, and their winter populations are controlled by factors
unrelated to the state of the strandline. Passerine and other species that do
use it will be discussed later.

5. The method

My study in 2002 followed Hazel’s method almost exactly. In the three
divisions of the strandline, three random samples were taken. At each
“station” it is important to make notes of the conditions, of wind, weather
and temperature and the condition of the seaweed and the size of stones and
gravel. The seaweed may be dried or moist and it may be decaying into a
rich humic mess that the sandhoppers simply abound in. At each random
point I put down a bottomless wooden box, whose sides were 15cm high.
This is the “quadrat” and it is approximately 33cm X 33cm and covers
exactly one ninth of a square metre. As soon as the quadrat is put down one
has to scoop out, with both hands, (wearing plastic gloves) every bit of
seaweed, seashell, twig, pebble, shingle, sand and plastic bag that is the
strandline material and dump it into a bag or lidded bucket that one has
brought along for this purpose. In all this rubbish will be the sandhoppers.
They jump about and this is the reason for using a high-sided box rather
than the traditional, flat, pegged out, quadrat. To make sure that I obtained
all the sandhopper population I dig down until there are no signs of
sandhopper activity. I collected nine samples a session, each containing up
to 10kg of material.

6. Finding the sample points

The date of the session is decided by reference to tide tables and I use a
handy reckoner called QuickTide. The procedure is to sample two or three
days after the spring tide (there are two spring tides every month), just after
the peak of high tide and go along the beach, stopping at the nine random
positions. You can measure the positions of way-marks, the bus-shelters,
roof-lines, wartime pill-boxes, power line posts and sign posts along the
road and use them as reference points that you can see from the beach. This
methodology allows for repetition without damage and the randomness
ensures that every single sample is statistically the same as any other. Each
sample is treated in the same way so that the population of sandhoppers can
be separated from the rubbish, identified and counted.

7. The strandline

I hope the reader can understand the enormous length of the strandline and
how small is the sample from that length. It is important in any scientific
study of a habitat that the work you do does not make a difference to that
habitat. The strandline is about 100cm wide and may consist of more than

10

one strand because there will have been several tidal flows since the highest
spring tide two days previously and material is deposited according to the
force or lack of it in the waves. In notes made at each station, presence of
sandhoppers was recorded for all strands of the strandline. Hazel and I took
the strand of the highest tide unless it was thin and dried and was without
sandhoppers, so a lower strand was used. To handle the sample back at
home, I used 65°C hot water poured on to the material in the bucket and
then sieved. Wet sieving had to be used making the sample manageable, so
that, although both substrate and sandhoppers were retained by the different
sieves, one could separate them by and large by decanting and flotation. |
sieved and decanted the whole material through coarse, medium and fine
sieves, picking out the individuals with light forceps. Sandhoppers were put
directly into 70% industrial methylated spirit in 25ml, 100ml or 250ml
screw-capped, labelled containers for later identification. Hazel’s method
involved slowing down sandhopper activity using a refrigerator overnight
and then collecting into methylated spirit.

8. Identification characteristics

In the field you can catch sandhoppers and temporarily detain them for
identification if you sandwich them against a piece of Clingfilm©. This is
achieved by taking a pair of disposable carbonate drinking cups, cutting off
the base of one, wrapping the film over it using sticky tape and then pushing
the other cup inside whereupon you have your viewing chamber between
the base of one cup and the film on the other. When you have hundreds of
amphipods to examine this is inadequate, and I used a low magnification
binocular microscope on a table at home with the samples in flat petri
dishes.

1]

An amphipod sandhopper is a crustacean with a deep but narrow body,
more correctly described as being laterally flattened. This shape of body is
similar to that of the flea and facilitates progress through narrow spaces
between pebbles or seaweed fronds. Amphipods are segmented and have
paired limbs on every segment, even their mouthparts are modified paired
limbs. They are called sandhoppers because at least one pair of those limbs
possesses wide, muscle-filled thighs (femora) that enable frequent, rapid,
hopping activity, and they live on beaches. Each of the limbs along the body
scratches and picks at the organic material in the strand line breaking it
down so they can feed on small scraps. They are typical detritivores. Two
pairs of their claws are pincers and the second pair in the male is so
characteristic that the naked eye or a X10 hand lens can identify them.
Amphipods have a pair of eyes in the form of two collections of simple,
fixed, crystalline eyes on either side of the head and the head bears two
pairs of antennae. Amphipods are obviously marine but their life is almost
wholly terrestrial, being kept damp by the moistness of the seaweed. There
are different species of amphipod that live in fresh-water, brackish-water
and sea-water. In the strandline there are three marine species.

9. Population changes

I carried out the third study, again at the request of English Nature, to
monitor the progress of the recovery of sandhopper numbers in the season
of 2003. It started in May and continued through to September and it
showed that the numbers of individuals increased, confirming the great
explosion of numbers of late summer. The five month survey was extended,

WW

first to Christmas and then to a year-long survey, showing in general that
there was a much-increased population in 2003/2004 compared with the
previous surveys, confirming an increase into late summer and followed by
a decline in the colder months. See graph 1 below. Other invertebrates of
the strandline were also identified and they also showed variation in
abundance with the seasons. All I know is that each spot is treated to an
identical method of time, state of tide, collection, sorting and treatment.
Lower numbers may indicate lower collecting efficiency; higher numbers
show that the job is being done better.

How sandhopper population changed in South in three surveys

ae gS. 1999

9S, 2002

w» 2500 BS. 2003

= 2000

© 1500

= 1000

=

< 500

2 14 30 42 54 64 76 89 104 118 132 138 152 170 183 197 227 244

Days since 1st April

Graph 1 Sandhopper populations on the southern stretch of Sand Bay, 1999,
2002 and 2003

10. How many sandhoppers?

It is not possible to work out the population of hoppers on a strandline in an
exact way. All one can do is to sample the beach in exactly the same way
each time and then it is possible to say how the population varies from
season to season over a year, and from year to year. In this way one can be
sure about certain things about the population such as the times when
juveniles are born and see that the population has larger and larger adults as
the months pass. It would be impossible to collect all the individuals, even

13

if you could somehow vacuum up the entire strand, separate the animals and
have some means of counting them all. A walk along the beach often
reveals, near the strand material, perhaps near rocks in the sand, assemblies
of tiny pale, raised-rimmed holes that are “fox-holes” of individuals;
juveniles nearer the top of the beach, large males further down.
Occasionally, a bit of flotsam, such as small branch or a sheet of plywood
not carried as far as the full tide flow will cover a few hundred sandhoppers.
Isolated bits of damp seaweed may carry out the same function of providing
moistness for sandhoppers. There is no systematic way that one can sample
the whole beach, accounting for all the variation in different substrates of
sand, shingle, pebble and rock, depending on the distance from the top of
the beach downwards and encompass all the various bits of shelter material
that can be found.

11. Sandhoppers away from the strandline

Sandhoppers move down the beach following the tide, especially after dark
and before dawn. They may hide in burrows in the sand as the conditions
dry out and may hop out when the tide flows again. They have periods of
activity and feeding in the dusk and into the night when they do occupy
extensive areas of beach. This is especially true of warm summer nights. It
is interesting that a transect of the strandline in November 2003 found that
the numbers increased to the mid-point of the strandline but up to 1m away
sandhopper populations declined to zero and a search up and down the
beach beyond the strandline did not reveal any more sandhoppers. An
empty beach with no members of the public is ideal for sandhoppers but the
peaceful place may be just fine for people to have a party, bonfire or
barbecue, especially using the stranded tree trunks or great baulks of timber
sometimes seen. Hazel’s work showed the stark reality that where the
strandline was cleaned away there were no sandhoppers, even away from
the strandline.

12. Population increase

Hazel studied the strandline from April to early July, taking samples every
fortnight just after the spring tides. She found an increase in numbers as the
weeks progressed but sadly, due to the rules for presenting work in the
academic year, she had to finish sampling before the late summer
population abundance. My surveys overlapped with hers in June and July.
There was a very good correlation between the populations in the two
surveys over those three weeks. Graph | also suggests that populations peak
in mid August, and have reached very low levels by the year’s end.

14

South section adults and juveniles

O Agg. nos
Juvs

Amphipod aggregate numbers
3
S

4000 +
3000 +
2000 +
1000 +
0 Ci__§__,
16.6.02 30.6.02 14.7.02 29,7.02 11.8.02

Date of sampling

Graph 2. Juvenile proportion of population of Sandhoppers

13. Variation in strandline condition

Decaying seaweed varies in both its wetness and heat, and different sorts of
invertebrates react to the precise condition it is in. Earlier in the year,
wherever the seaweed had become humic, there were large numbers of fly
larvae. Such conditions were most likely to be found against the limestone
cliff in the rocky southern section. Here the material was damper for much
longer in each tide and it was shaded by the east-west alignment of the cliff
and the overhanging trees.

Where the cliff did not shorten the beach the waves rolled on much further,
but also ebbed further and more rapidly, creating a generally drier
strandline. Because the equinoctial spring tides in March and September
have the greatest range they allow more desiccation between successive
tides but the solstice spring tides in June and December are much lower,
more like neap tides and these allow better retention of moisture. In high
summer the temperatures both assisting dehydration and promote decay so
there is more likelihood of seaweed becoming humic. There are thus many
changes in the nature of the seaweed throughout the year and every
variation can be significant for the different invertebrate species.

14. Other inhabitants of the strandline

There are almost always other types of invertebrate collected along with the
amphipods. Rove beetles, fearsome predators with short elytra belonging to
three or four species, are often abundant, as well as herbivorous beetles. Fly
larvae are also often very abundant, feeding on rotting seaweed. Adult flies

Id

are regular but not abundant in collections. These make up the bulk of other
invertebrates but there are also the occasional predatory centipede and
millipede, other beetles and flies, and sometimes springtails. Occasionally
ground beetles, scarabs, carrion beetles, ladybirds and click beetles make an
appearance but the method is not fine-tuned to find these in any significant
manner. Fine-tuning to do this would require methods specific to finding
such creatures; carrying out 24 hour surveys along specific lengths of beach
in the appropriate season for particular species; putting out bait; using light-
traps; setting up pitfall traps. The reader will forgive us for not doing these
other things since the objective is to sample amphipods. The incidental by-
catch of certain other creatures that may have some significance in terms of
the inter-actions of detritivores, herbivores and predators, putting
amphipods into a context. There were in my surveys two possible examples
of the predation of a sandhopper by a fly larva but it was not possible to
show if the “predator” had caught and killed its prey or whether it was
eating carrion. Occasionally, I found signs of predation within the samples
such as detached limbs or partially eaten corpses.

16

15. Birds of the strandline

I am indebted to Mr David Derham of Worle for his bird diary and the
careful notes of bird abundance associated with the strandline. His data for
2004 shows that the level of avian biomass is pretty constant through the
year, though it drops sharply in August because of human disturbance.
Gulls and corvids form some 75% of the biomass, and hence will consume a
similar proportion of the available food. They are omnivores, looking for
carrion and waste food on the strandline, but are unlikely to be a serious
threat to the sandhoppers, as they are ill equipped to capture prey that
moves so fast. There are flocks of finches especially during the winter that
scour the beach for seeds that are floated off saltmarsh on the highest tides,
and then concentrated on the strandline. The only species present in any
numbers and likely to prey on the sandhoppers are Pied Wagtails and
Meadow Pipits. They are always present from October to April, as large
numbers of both species travel south from Scotland to over-winter in our
region. They are almost entirely insectivorous, and because the strandline
provides a constant source of invertebrates, even when the land is
snowbound, it is a crucial resource for them. Despite the fact that
sandhopper numbers clearly fall rapidly from November onwards, it is
probable that sufficient remain to provide these birds with an adequate diet.

17. Results

Clean seas and safe beaches are important, and there is growing pressure on
local authorities to achieve certain standards, and obtain their Blue Flag
status. But beaches are also very significant wildlife sites, and play an
important role in the complex relationship of land and water as sea levels
constantly alter and floods of saltwater threaten. This study has shown that
it is possible to maintain a high standard of cleanliness without wrecking the
complex strandline community.

M7

Phenology 2004

R.L. Bland
11 Percival RD BSA8 3LN Richardbland@blueyonder.co.uk

All these phenology records are based on a weekly 2km walk across Clifton
Down, during which I note all species in flower, and such events as bud
burst, first full leaf and so on. Dates are given as Julian days, that is days
since January 1°. There is some tendency for events to be recorded earlier
each year because I am more aware of what to look for. Another source of
error is that many events are not easy to define. An open flower showing its
stamens is reasonably obvious, but bud break is less so. To have a single
individual making these value judgements each year at least cuts down
some error. A further problem is that the actual date on which I do the walk
differs from year to year because it is normally, weather permitting, done on
a Sunday. Thus the date for an event being identified can vary with the date
of the walk. A more familiar source of error is that individual specimens of
trees and plants react in different ways to the stimuli they receive.

This year I have concentrated my analysis on plant events, though of course
the first sighting of insects, migratory birds or early bird song are all
influenced by weather, but also in part by day length. Furthermore there are
chance factors associated with sighting them, whereas plants at least are
Static.

The spring weather in 2004 was for the most part normal. There was
however an unusually warm spell in the first two weeks of February, but
this was followed by temperatures that were close to average. Spring events
followed a similar pattern. At the start of the year they were around a week
earlier than the average since 1997, and then in early February the warmth
brought a series of events up to two weeks early, By March timings were
back to normal, and subsequent events were if anything two or three days
later than average.

Measured by 26 events that are both obvious, and for which I have records
back to 1997, the average date of spring events in 2004 was day 85 (March
26"), a day earlier than 2003, but two days later than the average. Chart |
illustrates this pattern based on the events listed in Table 1.

18

2000 | 2001 | 2002, 2003 | 2004) Aw ~(STD

Hazel Catkins 12 19 20 19 10 16) 4.1
Prunus cerasiferaF | 36 it eaeZo 46| 32 29 13.0
Celandine 45 11 39 46 32 30.12.06
Prusus pissardii F 40 34 42; 29 36; | 36; 46
Daffodil F 48 36 43 46 40 43) 43
Almond F 47 55 52 lis 66 39 | 52| 8.9
Hawthorn bb 47 48 75 46 5A} 12.1
Wallflower F 56| 84) 34/ 69] 82 65| 18.5
Alexanders F 63 84 48 69 82 69| 13.2
Blackthom F 50 91 69 15 67 10.132
Ash F 70 84 76 14 82 (Git Geet
Laurel F 72 92 82 96 88 86| 8.4
Lime bb / 90 97 95 89 89 | 92) 3:3
Whitebeam bb 98 96 83 96 95 94' 5.4
Bay F 91; 107 89 96 102 | O7 |. 6.7
Beech bb 102; 112 97| 104 88 101 7.9
Cow Parsley F 86| 108 OF 1107-102 101 8.6
Lilac F 106} 116 88 97| 110 103 | 9.9
Horse Chestnut F | 111/ 112 97| 103; 112| | 107| 6.0
Hawthorn F 99; 115 O71. 40: 115 TOP 2-76
Garlic Mustard F 111; 108; 103; 110; 108 108; 2.8
Wayfaring Tree F 119} 121} 103 96} 108 109} 9.5
Ox-eye Daisy F 121; 133] 124; 116; 129 125 | - 6:0
Elder F 136| 147) 138) 116) 122 ev ge
Dog Rose F 139; 149) 1389} 145) 143 143 3.8
Bramble F 154; 139) 138) 143) | 144) 63
Average 80 91 80 86 85 84) 4.2
Temp C a oe ia | 10. i aa

Table 1 Dates in Julian days of 26 spring events 2000-2004, with average
and standard deviation. Temperature is the mean monthly maximum for
December to May

19

Average date

2000

—+—
2001 2002 2003

t

2004

Chart 1. Average date of 26 spring events, 2000-2004

Examining the records since 1997 it is clear that the events that have the
widest deviation from average are those at the start of the year. Chart 2
illustrates this by showing for 26 events the standard variation set against
the average date of the event. Some species are inevitably far more affected
by temperature change than others, who may have a long process to go
through before they can come into flower. Species with bulbs and corms
storing food such as Celandine or Snowdrop, can obviously react much
more rapidly than species that have to build up their flowering spikes from
scratch, such as Wallflower or Cow Parsley.

160

1230

80

Day of event

40

**

oo

Standard deviation, days

Chart 2 Relationship between standard deviation of events and the average

date that they occur.

20

Some species are remarkably consistent in their timing, whatever the
weather conditions. Garlic Mustard has come into flower between day 103
and 111, and bud break in Lime has occurred between day 89 and 97. On
the other hand Celandine first flower dates range between day 11 and day
68, and are clearly very sensitive to temperature, probably especially that in
December. Wild Wallflowers on the Downs show a similar huge variation
between day 37 and day 84. There is still much to be discovered about the
complex links between plants and the weather.

Gilbert White began the study of Phenology (he called it Nature’s
Calendar) in the 18" century and it is interesting to note the range of dates
that he quotes for some events. His records extended over at least twenty
years and were for Selbourne which is in North Hampshire, so it is
unsurprising if his ranges are later and wider than those I have collected
here over the past eight years. He gives ranges for nine events for which I
have a direct comparison. On average these events occurred a full four
weeks later for him, and the average overlap between the ranges is only a
week. That means that his earliest dates are on average just a week before
the Bristol a latest dates. For one or two species his earliest event is later
than our latest. That is also true for records from Marlborough College for
1843-1863.

Hawthorn now flowers here a full four weeks earlier than it did at
Marlborough, and Bramble flowers here seven weeks earlier. The average
of 14 species shows that Bristol events are 18 days earlier than they were at
Marlborough.

The mean maximum temperature of December to May for the past seven
years was 11.3C, whereas the long term average since 1920 is 10.4C. Every
recent year was warmer than average except for 2001 which averaged 10.2
because of a very cold March. The relationship between annual average
temperature and the average date of spring events is shown in Chart 3. It
demonstrates very roughly that a one degree change in average temperature
causes a five day change in the average date of the events listed. The
implication is that Bristol’s average winter temperature today is three
degrees warmer than Marlborough’s was 140 years ago, and almost six
degrees warmer than Selbourne 250 years ago.

21

&

oO ¥ 7
®
o & ¥ *
(a)

oO ¥

B

Q5 100 105 11.0 he
TerpadueC

Chart 3 Relationship between mean maximum temperature December to
May, 2000-2004 and average date of 26 events

The coldest Bristol spring (December to May) since 1920 was 1962-3
which averaged 7.6C, and the warmest 1943 which averaged 12.2C. Chart 4
shows the ten year rolling average spring temperatures since 1920. It
illustrates the recent recovery from the thirty year cold spell from 1965.

14136
hee

10.8

10.4+- rf %

10.0+
9.6;

Oo DH HHH EEE EEE EEE HEHEHE HHH Talat iahatat

Sy5) 65 (fs) 85 G5 5

Chart 4 Rolling ten year average Mean maximum Dec-May temperature,
1920-2005 and, dotted, the overall average.

pape

Autumn events.

The variation in autumnal events is as interesting as those of Spring, but less
attention has been paid to it in the past. Events such as fruit ripening, leaves
turning colour and trees becoming bare are controlled by a complex of
factors.

The first fruit to ripen are Cherries and Mespil in early June. The average
date of ripening of 30 species in 2004 was on three days earlier than the
average of the past three years, but two days later than 2003 which had an
exceptionally hot summer.

Whitebeam are generally the first trees to lose all their leaves in early
October. By early November eleven tree species were bare, and by early
December only Ginko, Turkey Oak and Sessile Oak had leaves left. 25
species were on average four days earlier than normal becoming bare, but
one day later than 2003. Often a storm will remove the leaves from a series
of species in one night, but it is valuable to get an understanding of what is
normal.

The total time between bud break and leaf fall is a measure of the active life
of a tree. Species that are well attuned to the climate would be expected to
have a long active period, and those that need a hotter summer _ will have a
shorter active period. Gleditsia from N American and Ailanthus from China
both had short active lives of around 170 days, and Ash and Whitebeam
were 190 days. Oak was 218 days, Horse Chestnut, which originates in
Turkey, was 237 days in length, Hawthorn 252, and Elm 273. Elder scarcely
loses its leaves before the new ones sprout, and it was measured at 329
days. Some of these figures were very different from the average, based on
the previous two years and further records are needed.

Table 2 gives a list of the dates of eleven autumn events since 2001 in

Julian days. October | is day 274. The average was, surprisingly, one day
earlier than 2003.

23

2001 |2002 |2003 |2004
Blackberry ripe 188 | 202 | 201 | 200
Elderberry ripe Z21f \ 223 \S2tost2e
Yew berry ripe 240 | 230 | 222 | 234
lw flower 243 | 244 | 243 | 227
Gorse flower 266 | 251 | 256 | 234
Lime bare 321.| 300 | 265.) 296
Ash bare 314 | 300 | 292 | 298
Beech bare 326) S000 S12er3iZ
Last wasp 327 | 318 | 3194: 319
Oak bare 342 | 348 | 320 | 326
lw ripe 335 | 328 | 342 | 333
Average 284 | 276 | 273 | 272

Table 2 Autumn events 2001-2004

Survival

Many flowering species of plants continue to flower up to the end of the
year and beyond. Their survival depends upon their own toughness, the
number of frosts, and the temperature and light available. Plants, including
grass, will continue to grow down to a temperature of 5C, though as days
shorten the time available when light energy is available reduces rapidly.
Species such as Daisy, Dandelion and Shepherds Purse seem to be
imperishable, but an extended period of low temperature would end their
flowering. Provided day temperatures are above 5C many species can
continue to function. Around 50 different species were found in flower
within Bristol during December 2004. The results of an annual count of the
number of species still in flower on Dec 31 is shown in Table 3. Three
spring species were already in flower in 2004, Alexanders, Celandine and
Barren Strawberry. This was the warmest December since 2000, and it is
probable that in that year some species were missed.

24

2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004
Adria Bellflower y y y y y
Alexanders y
Barren Strawberry y
Blackberry y y
Celandine y
Daisy y y y y y
Dandelion y y y
Gorse y y y y y
Groundsel y y y y
Herb Robert y
Hogweed y
lv y y y
lw-leaved Toadflax y y y y y
Oxford Ragwort y i
Ragwort y
Red Nettle y
Red Valerian y y y y
Shepherds Purse y y
Smooth Sowthistle y y y y
Snapdragon y
Trailing Bellflower y y y y
Wallflower y
Y arrow y y
Yellow Fumitory y y y y y
Total 8 13 12 13 17
December C 9.1 6.4 8 | 8 8.5

Table 3. Species in flower on December 31° on Clifton Down

25

The Avon Biodiversity Action Plan
Variety - the spice of life
Jenny Hayward
(Since this article was written Jenny has regrettably left the Avon Wildlife
Trust to travel the world. Any correspondence should be direct to R Sharp at

the Trust, rachelsharp@avonwildlifetrust.org.uk).

Biological diversity — ‘biodiversity’ — is the variety of life on earth.
Practically all life forms are mutually inter-dependent. Higher life forms,
and especially humans, could not exist without the complex variety of other
living creatures. Biological resources feed and clothe us and provide
housing, medicines and spiritual nourishment. The beauty of our
surroundings depends in a large part upon their diversity. Imagine the
poverty of a sea without fish, a wildflower meadow without bees busy
pollinating it or Wordsworth’s world without its ‘host of golden daffodils’.

2004 saw the launch of a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for Avon, the first
over-arching nature conservation strategy for the former county. The Avon
BAP was developed with the help and involvement of a wide range of local
experts and organisations, including the Bristol Naturalists’ Society, in
order to make it as comprehensive, accurate, forward thinking and widely
supported as possible. The three main aims of the plan are to:

1 Focus action on habitats and species that are of particular value in
Avon, within the national context .

2 Encourage a common approach to biodiversity conservation and
sharing of best-practice.

3. Encourage education and community action as an integral part of the
biodiversity process .

The launch event was hosted by Bristol Zoo Gardens on a beautifully sunny
day in summer. Guests including the Lord Mayor, local councillors and
businesses joined the Avon Wildlife Trust and Avon Biodiversity
Partnership members to celebrate the launch. Talks were given by Dr Jo
Gipps, Director of Bristol Zoo, Chris Klee of Bristol Water, Les Davies of
the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Philippa
Forrester, a rising star in Natural History film making.

What’s included in the plan?

Ecologically, Avon is exceptionally diverse for its size. Its varied geology
results in the occurrence of a wide range of habitats, from the species-rich
calcareous grasslands of the Cotswold and Mendip Hills and the ancient
woodlands of the ridges, steep slopes and scarp faces, to the network of

26

rhynes of the Levels and Moors and the coastal saltmarshes of the Severn
Estuary. Avon also supports a large number of nationally vulnerable
species.

Objectives, targets and actions for many of Avon’s most important habitats
and species are set out in specific habitat and species action plans within the
Avon BAP. These are: species-rich grassland and heath; hedgerows; arable
farmland; purple moor-grass and rush pasture; woodland; wood pasture,
parkland and veteran trees; standing open water; reedbeds and sedgebeds;
watercourses and floodplain; coastal and floodplain grazing marsh; estuary;
dormouse and water vole. Species action plans are only included for those
species whose needs include more than simply looking after the habitats
that they rely on.

Ten cross-cutting themes that affect more than one habitat or species and
are addressed in the BAP: farming and private ownership; development and
planning; water and wetlands; other environmental interests; invasive and
non-native species; information and data; landscape-scale conservation;
communications; recreational activity and funding.

A flourishing partnership

The Avon Biodiversity Partnership came into being in 2000 with the
formation of the steering group, chaired by English Nature. It now
encompasses a wide range of statutory and non-statutory bodies. The BAP
is aimed at all those organisations, groups and individuals wishing to
improve biodiversity in the area and particularly at partnership and potential
new partnership members. There is an incredible amount of energy going
into preserving and enhancing wildlife in the region. The plan and
partnership aim to focus this energy on common goals in order to harness its
full potential.

Putting the plan into action

Really making a difference for biodiversity in Avon is a far bigger, and
more exciting, challenge than producing and launching the Avon BAP.
Working together, the partnership members will drive implementation of the
Avon Biodiversity Action Plan, pursuing, influencing and communicating
biodiversity objectives in the area consistently.

One of the most valuable outcomes of developing the plan was bringing
people together, making others aware of current activities and ideas for
future collaborative projects. An essential part of the plan’s implementation
is to build upon this contact. Themed partnership sub-groups meet twice a
year to co-ordinate, share information on and drive implementation of
various aspects of the BAP. Chairs for these groups have been found from
relevant organisations in the partnership. Thus the Agriculture group is
chaired by DEFRA; the Water and Wetlands group by the Environment

27

Agency; the Woodland group by the Forestry Commission; the Coastal and
Marine group by Avon Wildlife Trust; and the Communications group by
Bristol Zoo Gardens.

We have already achieved a good deal. Many of you may have been
involved in a fortnight of hedgerow activities co-ordinated by the
Partnership and the Field Boundaries Project. The fortnight was fantastic
with a grand total of over 1000 people getting involved. Thanks to anyone
who came along to help, and particularly to Richard Bland and Terry Smith
for organising great, and very well attended, hedgerow walks. We hope to
repeat this fortnight in future, perhaps linking in with hedgerow weeks in
Somerset and Devon.

The Avon Biodiversity Partnership has recently been made a member of the
West of England Partnership — a new body concerned with sub-regional
spatial planning in Avon. We hope to be able to strongly represent
biodiversity in this process.

The implementation groups have met twice and considered where we can do
more within existing resources and where new resources must be brought in
and new projects developed to achieve our aims. The Agriculture group is
currently developing and seeking funding for a grassland project and the
Water and Wetlands group a pond project. The Woodland group is working
on collating baseline data with regards management of Avon’s woodland
and also whereabouts of veteran trees. The Coastal and Marine group is
focusing on an awareness-raising week of events in August 2005 and a
leaflet highlighting our wonderful coastline and the parts that can be visited
without causing disturbance.

How amateur naturalists can help

Without enthusiasts out there very little would happen at all. Amateur
naturalists are often the expert in their particular field, be that the wildlife of
their garden, a favourite species, nature reserve, walk or a whole taxa. It is
vital that knowledge is shared, in order to help make sure we can all work
together to preserve and enhance biodiversity for the future. In this way,
amateur naturalists help to form the eyes and ears of the partnership alerting
everyone to the presence of great crested newts in the local pond, bats in the
belfry or veteran trees in the churchyard. One of the best ways to do this is
to submit records to the Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre,
and to participate in monitoring surveys.

For more detailed information visit the website at Wwww.avon-
biodiversity.org.uk or contact Rachel Sharp, Avon Biodiversity Partnership
co-ordinator, at the Avon Wildlife Trust (phone: 0117 9177270; email:

rachelsharp@avonwildlifetrust.org.uk).

28

Intertidal warm springs of the Avon gorge
William Stanton
wis@kcwestby.fsnet.co.uk

In 1991 I persuaded my employer, the National Rivers Authority (NRA),
that too little was known about possible warm springs in the Avon Gorge.
The history of the Hotwells spring is recorded in Hot Springs of Bath (1991,
G A Kellaway ed.), and four other supposed thermal sources nearby are
briefly mentioned.

A preliminary skirmish with the estuarine mud below the Suspension
Bridge on 17th August 1992 convinced me that sampling by boat was the
only practical approach. On 22nd October 1992 we came up the river from
Avonmouth at low tide in two inflatables (the first one scanning for sharp
objects) and identified eight water flows arising through the mud from the
Carboniferous Limestone bed, five on the west bank and three on the east.
Of the six springs sampled, five were significantly above normal
groundwater temperature (10°C to 11°C. The river temperature was 8.5°C
on that day). Hotwells Spring was 22.5°C. The next warmest was St
Vincent’s Spring at 15.8°C.

For the record, working upstream:

Spring 1 (ST 557.746) is really a group of small springs on the west bank,
straddling the contact between Lower Limestone Shales and Black Rock
Limestone, about 6 metres above low water level (LWL). It was not
sampled on 22.10.92.

Spring 2 (ST 5603.7445) is on the west bank about 1 metre above LWL, in
Black Rock Limestone. On 22.10.92 the flow was slightly turbid (muddy),
c. 4 Ips (litres per second), and the temperature was 10.8°C.

Spring 3 (Saint Vincent’s Spring, ST 5620.7407) is on the east bank about
2 metres above LWL, in Clifton Down Limestone. On 22.10.92 the flow
was clear, c. 1.5 Ips and, at 15.8°C, well above normal groundwater
temperature.

Spring 4 was not sampled. It is on the east bank 400 metres downstream of
the Suspension Bridge, and emerges from under the Portway and may be
drainage from an old tunnel. The water was clear on 22.10.92.

The remaining 4 springs form a group rising from Hotwells Limestone in a
250 metre long stretch of river just upstream of the Suspension Bridge. All
are warmer than normal groundwater.

Spring 5 (ST 5645.7303) is on the west bank | metre above LWL. On
22.10.92 the flow was slightly turbid, about 6 Ips, at 13°C.

Spring 6 (Scarlet Spring, ST 5646.7291) flows from a masonry arch under
the railway on the west bank, about 6 metres above LWL. On 22.10.92 the
flow was clear, about 6 Ips, and the temperature was 12.9°C. In 1841 the

29

Merchant Venturers’ Society proposed to pipe the water from this spring,
“Scarlet Well”, to the city, but the scheme fell through. It is recorded (BNS
Proceedings 1898 page 172) as failing in dry summers between 1887 and
1893, perhaps because nearby springs 5 and 8, at lower levels, are able to
capture reduced flows. ( During the six years 1888-93 there were five dry
years, averaging 750mm a year, the same as 1976, and one wet year)
Spring 7 is the Hotwells Spring (ST 5652.7288), on the east bank about 4
metres above LWL. On 22.10.92 the flow was clear, about 1.5 Ips, at
spies eg Gs |

Spring 8 (ST 5650.7281) is on the west bank about 2 metres above LWL.
On 22.10.92 the flow was turbid, about 2 Ips, at 14°C.

Water analyses showed high levels of sulphate, typical of the Bath Hot
Springs, in springs 3 and 7 (the warmest). Iron and manganese levels were
relatively high in springs 2 and 8. Sodium and chloride levels exceed
normal groundwater values in almost every case. All the figures are
imprecise, however, because water chemistry and temperature are affected
by an unusual phenomenon, as follows.

When the tide is out, the springs drain freely. As the tide comes in and
submerges the springs, the pressure head reverses and tidal water, muddy
and saline to varying degrees, is forced into the springs and along the
underground channels behind them. The natural spring water is pushed back
and mixes with the invading estuary water. Then, when the tide ebbs and
the springs are uncovered, the mixed waters pour forth. Initially they are
turbid and saline, but the natural spring water soon begins to dominate. The
outflow diminishes, as does the turbidity, and the chemistry and temperature
move towards their true values. The higher the spring above LWL, the
shorter the time available for estuary water intrusion, so the more likely it is
that genuine analyses and temperatures can be measured before the next
high tide.

Falling spring output was actually measured by current-meter gauging at
Spring 6 on 17.8.92, when the flow was 35 Ips at 3.10 pm and 30 Ips at 4.15
pm, and the turbidity was visibly reducing, as river level dropped steadily.
Possibly, at periods of neap tides, genuine water analyses and temperatures
could be obtained at some of the springs. The NRA investigations were
abandoned before this could be attempted.

What is the source of the warm water? The Bath hot springs (normal flow
15 lps at 41°C to 47°C) are generally believed to be water that fell as rain
on the Mendip Hills centuries or even millennia ago. Driven by the pressure
of the high water table in parts of the Mendip limestone outcrop, it follows a
tortuous route through incipient caves in the complex Carboniferous

30

Limestone aquifer between the Mendips and Bath. To pass beneath
impermeable strata of the Radstock Coalfield it has to reach a depth of
around four kilometres, where it acquires its heat. (Alternative theories,
easily refuted, are that the hot water originates in the Avon valley close to
Bath, or even in the Forest of Dean.)

The Avon Gorge warm springs rise from the lowest outcrops of
Carboniferous Limestone in the whole region, some 30 metres below the
Bath springs level. Unlike the Bath springs, which are protected from
mixing with local rainfall by an impermeable cover of Lias clay, the Avon
Gorge springs catchment must include significant areas of the Downs and
beyond Leigh Woods. Their thermal component, rising from great depth,
will be diluted and cooled to varying degrees. The hot water must have
reached a depth of several kilometres at some point in its underground
travel. The most likely explanation is that it is Mendip water that was on its
way to the Bath hot springs when it was diverted, beneath the Radstock
coalfield, to the lower-level Avon Gorge springs, by the normal processes
of underground water capture. No other origin would force the circulating
water to such a great depth.

ot

Narroways Local nature Reserve
H McPhillimy
Harrymacp1@yahoo.co.uk

In the eighties I gardened with disabled adults In St Werburgh’s City Farm
in inner city Bristol. Narroways Hill with its woods and railways was our
backdrop. On impulse I went up there one hot July afternoon through the
broken fence and found a lost place of flowery butterfly meadows,
abandoned damson trees and rapidly seeding ash trees. Here wildlife was
quietly getting the upper hands and over the years it has come to feel like
my country estate in the city.

When the railways were built here in the last century they left ugly scares in
the countryside as can be seen in Lavars 1880s picture of Bristol in the City
museum. In 1891 the railway engineer Charle Richardson wrote “ Passing
through the Narroways Hill cutting the line crosses Boling Wells valley on a
50 ft embankment over a flat swampy ground made up of Lias slip-clay
washed down there by the brook.....this ground evidently could not carry a
heavy embankment.....I therefore, as a precautionary measure, had a wide
trench cut down ten feet deep under the toe of each slope and the red marl
from the adjoining Narroways Hill cutting the ran into these trenches to
form a foundation.” Over a hundred years of the city expansion combined
with the restorative power of nature have turned the tables- now Narroways
Junction is a natural sanctuary abutted by dense housing on all sides.

The present day ecology has arisen from a complex combination of climate,
soil, the vegetation existing when the railways were built and the way the
land has been managed since. Grass burning in the steam era, temporary
allotments and orchards, a laisser-faire attitude that allowed scrub to
develop into an ash and sycamore wood, and deliberate tree planting and
habitat management of recent years have helped shape the environment.

Railway land has its own charming associations of plants an animals doe to
the ease with which introduced plant species could spread along these green
corridors. Rosebay Willowherb and Goldenrod seeds rode the train’s
slipstreams. The cutting where the soil was scraped back to marl bedrock
slowly developed a community of slow growing lime loving plants
characteristic of chalk downland such as Greater Knapweed, Field Scabius,
and Birdsfoot Trefoil. These grasslands, with their wonderful butterfly
populations, Common Blue, Small Copper and Marbled White amongst
others, and healthy numbers of Slowworms and Common Lizards, are a rich
and interesting habitat especially the hot south facing embankment slopes
and cutting walls. There are rare species too; a great swathe of the scarce

32

Corky-fruited Water Dropwort in the field near St Werburgh’s Church,
Chicory, Field Garlic and Round-leaved Cranesbill and unusual moths such
as Sitochroa verticalis and Six belted Clearwing. Many species especially
insects remain to be discovered.

In its five acres there are also dense thickets of lacerating bramble and
suckering fruit trees, patches of tall grasses often on the fertile site of
abandoned allotments and a nicely developing ash woodland revealing a
continuity with more ancient woods when this area was known as Ashley
Vale. The old allotments now boast an undulating assembly of anthills.
Ponds in neighbouring gardens help to sustain a rich amphibian life of
Toads Frogs and Smooth Newts. Grass snakes lurk.

Birds and animals find the site congenial. Kestrels and Sparrowhawks hunt
here. I once watched a Kestrel struggling to carry off a rat from the
allotments while being mobbed by a pair of Magpies. Jays screech in the
thickets, charms of Goldfinch settle on Teasels in winter when parties of
Long-tailed Tits drift amongst the Hawthorns. Foxes, once common in
Bristol, are still fighting to recover from the mange that decimated them ten
years ago, but Grey Squirrels and Hedgehogs have a presence, and there is a
local Badger sett. On July evenings screaming Swifts cutting low over the
meadow merge at dusk with the flittering Pipistrelle Bats.

Narroways was threatened several times with development in recent years.
To some it was a ‘brown field’ site, but not to the increasing numbers of
local people who loved its wildness. On 21 February 1997 an astounding
800 people demonstrated on the hill and saved it as open space. It became a
millennium green in 2000 with a 999 year lease. It is less of a secret place
now, but on a June evening when the Chiffchaff sing their challenge and
Marbled Whites emerge from the meadow flowers which glow against the
textured shadows it is still very special.

Narroways is best approached from the path at the back of St Werburgh’s
Church, MR 600 749. It rises steeply to a bridge over the main line north,
and there is then a wide expanse of grass and a steep sided cutting. The path
continues to join Rousham Road at ST 603752. Further information about
the reserve can be found via the link on Avon Wildlife Trust website

www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk

33

Turbulent tides in the Avon estuary
(extracted from the BNS Bulletin)
by W Stanton, RL Bland, M Hobbs & P Singer

This is a compilation, with minor editing, of a series of brief articles about
tidal effects on the River Avon that appeared in the monthly bulletin during
2004.

WS, February 2004. A Boiling Avon

In 1991, studying the warm springs of the Avon Gorge for the National
Rivers Authority, I was standing just upstream of the Suspension Bridge
beside the old railway. The water level was high and rising fast, and the
muddy water was ‘boiling’ in a myriad small turbulence cells across the full
width of the river. Obviously the tide was coming in, and yet when I threw
an apple core into the river below me -- it stayed in the same place! After
about 20 minutes the water level had risen a foot, but the core had hardly
moved, and then I had to go elsewhere.

It seems that when the tide comes in, a wedge of dense muddy salt water
moves rapidly up the river from Avonmouth, burrowing under the less
dense fresh water of the river. The turbulence occurs at the interface
between salt water and fresh water. Maybe it only happens at particular
states of the tide and places in the river.

RLB, March 2004: The turning tide

W Stanton’s note above reminded me of a phenomenon that I have
frequently noticed from the Peregrine Watch site on the Downs. It is easy
from there to tell whether the tide is rising or falling, but at around high tide
I often saw a line running from bank to bank. On occasion this was a line of
flotsam and jetsam, at other times it appeared more as a difference in the
light reflected from the water. It usually lay somewhere below the
Suspension Bridge, but it also moved very slowly. While the tide was still
rising it moved slowly upstream, and as the tide began to fall it moved
slowly downstream. Once the falling tide got into its stride the feature
vanished, and the debris was brushed to the side by the strength of the
central current.

I interpreted this as the line where the water coming downstream met the
tide coming upstream. There are clearly several factors at work, and no two
tides will be the same. There is the actual volume of land water coming
down, the height of the particular tide, itself affected by the volume of
Severn fresh water, the strength and direction of the wind in the Bristol
channel as well as the position of the moon. This will affect the salinity of
the water coming up the Avon, and hence how far it sinks below the land
water coming down, and how far it simply acts as a liquid dam checking the
flow. There is thus both an actual flow, and an increase in height as a result

34

of pressure. At the highest tides water advances over the Netham dam
(which is 33 feet above low water) and reaches right up to Hanham Weir.
However the total absence of estuarine plant species above Netham dam
illustrates the fact that the saline content of this water must be virtually nil -
it is fresh water being pushed backwards. Plants typical of salt-marshes can
be found all the way up to Netham dam, showing that, when the Severn
flow is low, the water coming up the Avon is saline. The most upstream
point where seaweed occurs is on the cliffs at Chapel Pill, just below the
former Ham Green Hospital. (See MH, October, below).

RLB, September 2004: The turning tide 2

I happened to be at water level as the tide was on the turn in early August,
and was able to watch the process in detail. The incoming tide was strongest
in the centre of the river, while the outgoing water flooded down both
edges. The fresh water was a different colour, muddier than the incoming
water, and the line of junction, and debris, formed a huge V across the river,
with water still moving upstream at the apex, and flowing strongly
downstream at the sides. There was no boiling, and no height difference
either side of the line, and the junction point moved very slowly
downstream as the power of the ebb gained over that of the flood. Debris
tended to be concentrated at the centre of the V as incoming debris, spread
randomly across the river, was forced by the two ebbing arms to concentrate
in the centre. There must be a point on every tide, in both time and space, at
which the power of the flood fails, and the ebb takes full charge.

MH, October 2004: Seaweed and salinity

Seaweed grows even further upstream in the Avon than Chapel Pill. I have
observed it on the sea wall at Sea Mills, immediately above the Trym
estuary. Some seaweed grows on the south side of the Avon opposite Sea
Walls and slightly more upstream on the north side on loose stones
immediately below Sea Walls; however the growth here is patchy and
probably marks the point where the water is not saline enough to encourage
sustainable growth.

PS, November 2004: Salinity and density

With rising tide the water in the Avon reaches the level in Cumberland
Basin and the lock gates are opened. Unexpectedly, the surface water in the
lock starts to flow backwards towards Avonmouth. The tidal water in the
Avon, carrying a lot of mud particles in suspension , and possibly saline, is
denser than the upstream water. It flows into the lower depths of the lock
and the displaced ‘fresher’ water flows back out over the top of the
incoming tidal water. Furthermore, having left the lock the surface flow of
‘fresher’ water carries on towards Avonmouth against the tidal flow, taking
with it floating debris.

a9

To see this effect you need to be at the lock about an hour before a tide with
a predicted height of at least 10 metres according to ‘Bristol City Docks
Cumberland Basin Tide Tables’. There is nothing dramatic to be seen, in
fact you may need to throw a twig into the water to see what is happening.

Biodiversity Gets Active in South Gloucestershire
| Alison Slade

Alison.Slade@southglos.gov.uk.

I recently joined South Gloucestershire Council as their Biodiversity Action
Planning Officer (part-time, working part-time as the Ecologist for Bath and
North East Somerset Council as well), based at Kingswood.

The Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for South Gloucestershire is to be
drawn up over the next two years and will consist of a series of Action
Plans. A strong partnership of organisations and individuals meets to advise
on developing the BAP and actively carries out conservation work in the
area. They have selected 20 species and habitats as BAP species, including
barn owl, bullfinch, song thrush, ancient woodland and _ traditional
meadows/pastures.

Each Action Plan will include a range of works and targets whereby the
Council and its partners will help safeguard and/or extend populations or
areas of these species and habitats. A Design Guide for developers called
Biodiversity and the Planning Process is being published by the Council,
which formalises the BAP.

Wildlife events in and around South Gloucestershire to increase knowledge
and skills are also being promoted.

For more information or if members would like to become more involved
contact me, Biodiversity Action Planning Officer Tel 01454 862215.
Alison.Slade@southglos.gov.uk. Further information is posted on the
South Gloucestershire Council website www.southglos.gov.uk

Bristol Botany 2004
C. Lovatt
clovatt@deloitte.co.mw

“Finality in field-botany is fortunately unattainable, for therein lies the

charm of research: the keen anticipation of discovery lends zest to the
pursuit, and stimulates each fresh generation of workers to outdo those that

36

have gone before”. (J. W. White in 1898, in an article entitled “The botany
of Bristol’).

Introduction

The retirement of Professor Willis (my external examiner as an
Undergraduate botanist in 1977; I still recall his probing questions
concerning the physiology of bluebells) was announced in the BNS Bulletin
in March 2004. It was with some surprise when, on an BNS field meeting
at Poor’s Allotment in September 2004, Mark and then Clare Kitchen asked
if I might (if formally asked) consider taking over the compilation of the
annual “Bristol Botany” report. Richard Bland has written in the 2003
Proceedings not only about Arthur Willis’s huge contribution to Bristol
Botany (39 annual reports) but also of the very few individuals who have
been honoured to follow James W. White. He himself wrote of his delight
in accepting the invitation from the BNS to compile a local flora, when in
the late 1870’s he arrived in Bristol “‘a stranger and a tyro”. Of course, he
was far from a novice and had in the previous decade already won a medal
for his herbarium collection.

For my part, I came to Bristol in 1977 to study the flora and vegetation of
the Avon Gorge for a PhD thesis and then and subsequently I have studied
many of the books, manuscripts herbaria, associated with Bristol plants and
botanists. In the meantime I “took up accountancy and emigrated to Africa”.
Though I return most years, (as White put it in 1918) “in active field-work
the author’s personal doings ...count for little. This deficiency, however, is
of no moment in the face of the energetic help...given by...loyal friends
and correspondents...”. Nowadays as well the speed of electronic
communication and the extent of information available on the Internet and
on CD can shorten the apparent distance. The “Millennium Map” (available
as a county or regional CD under the brand name “High in the Sky”) can be
used to “see” the ground corresponding to a grid reference.

It is not intended to significantly change the style and content of Bristol
Botany (hereafter “BB”), but at a distance it is particularly difficult to
comment on the weather and the effect on the plants. Richard Bland’s
weather and phenology reports in these Proceedings (as well as his weekly
letters on the BNS website) admirably fill the gap. Although the Flora of
the Bristol Region, published in 2000, is the baseline account for most of
the area covered in BB, it is not intended that these pages should be used as
forum to add dots to the 1 km square maps. Hence grid references are not
given here, though correspondents have almost always given them. The
records submitted have been retained by the BNS, but the selection for
publication has been my own. J.W. White’s Flora of Bristol (1912) remains

37

an essential companion to anyone interested in the botany of the Bristol
area. The New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora published in 2002
(referred to on CD) gives a broader and more considered view of the current
10 km square distribution of species. The Vice-County Census Catalogue
published by the BSBI in 2003 also makes it easy to be reasonably sure if a
plant is new to the Bristol area.

Here begins the formidable challenge, and I take it up in memory of my
botanical mentor Adrian Grenfell, who did not live long enough to join me
in writing it.

Bristol Botanists

It has always been the case that these pages have recorded the passing away
of deceased botanists and where significant old records have emerged by
chance finds or active research. I now propose to formalise and extend this
area of “Bristol Botany” into a section of the annual report, to supplement
the chapters in the 1912 and 2000 Bristol floras. These follow in
alphabetical order and are (with one exception where I correct what seems
to me to have been an omission) based on researches or events of 2004.

Elizabeth Emily Bell

In late 2004, the booksellers Maggs Brothers of London advertised for sale
at £100 a herbarium book of 136 pages, which had belonged to Elizabeth
Emily Bell of (or residing at) Bristol. The specimens were dated 1866 to
1870 and were mainly from Weston-super-Mare with some from a later
visit to Ireland. Unfortunately it had been sold by the time I was able to
enquire after it. David Allen draws my attention to a Miss? Elizabeth Bell
of Berwickshire who died in 1876 but who seems to have been mainly a
mycologist. I have notes of two female Bells collecting at Bristol. The
Miss Bell who gathered specimens around 1840 at Bristol and Burnham
which are in H C Watson’s herbarium at Kew had an initial A and lived at a
vicarage in Norfolk (D Allen, pers. comm.). Mrs Ethel M E Bell died in
1957 and her herbarium is at the University of Leicester. Evidently, eight
male Bells are on record as collecting plants in Britain but none fit the place
or date. We hope that the herbarium book or details of its contents may
reappear in due course.

James Ebenezer Bicheno

As indicated in the Bristol Flora, a number of plants collected from the
Bristol area were drawn in Sowerby’s English Botany and Curtis’s Flora
Londinensis. A copy of the first edition of the latter is held by Bristol
University. Sir W J Hooker expanded the work for the second edition, and
it has a plate of Hornungia petraea (under the old name Hutchinsia petraea)

38

drawn from specimens collected on St Vincent’s Rocks by Mr Bicheno.
The Flora of Gloucestershire (1948) mentions a specimen of Diplotaxis
tenuifolia from Clifton dated 1814 and the paper on my copy of the plate is
watermarked 1821. A recently discovered portrait of James E Bicheno is
reproduced in the April 2004 edition of BSBI News. His herbarium and
annotated copy of Smith’s Flora Britannica (1802) are at Swansea Museum
and may include some records for a period in Bristol Botany when rather
few have been preserved. The expanded Flora Londinensis also has an
excellent plate of Arabis scabra (as A stricta, watermark 1831) if a little
early to show the fully extended fruits. In this case unfortunately neither the
collector nor any topographical details are included on the accompanying
text.

Thomas Bruges Flower

In the Bristol Flora (pages 88-91), White gives a lively account of TB
Flower and his sixty-year plus contribution to Bristol Botany. For many
years, his herbarium, bequeathed on his death in 1899 to the Harper family
of Bath, was assumed to have been lost. In 1984 it resurfaced in Plymouth
Museum as described by David Allen in Watsonia 15, 269-270 (1985). In
September 2004 I was at last able to inspect it. There is a catalogue
prepared by a Miss C Valentine in or around 1992 together with a report
and analysis and some interesting biographical details, including his will
and a citation as “a gentleman much attached to the study of botany” for
fellowship of the Linnean Society of London. The collection is also entered
in the Museum database but neither is so complete or reliable that physical
inspection is avoidable.

I am assembling materials on Flower for a more detailed account, but it can
be noted here that the collection tallies in almost every detail with the
specimens (or their absence) and their sites and dates of collection as noted
in the species accounts in White’s Flora. This indicates that he must have
spent at least several days examining the same herbarium about a hundred
years ago, after Flower’s death, and that new data, at least in connection
with the Bristol flora, will concern matters of detail or synthesis (for
instance he collected on Steep Holm far more often than White suggested)
rather than unpublished and more precise information on the localities of
the less common plants. Flower was rightly notorious for vague or
misleading descriptions of localities and the survival of rarities but his
herbarium lacks the more precise details hoped for by Allen. I will report
on some specimens in the species accounts that follow.

By chance, in the same Museum room as their respective herbaria, I found a
manuscript account by the Plymouth botanist and printer, IWN Keys, of “a

30

little botanical chit chat” with Flower over several occasions in May 1853
(Keys’ Botanical notes Vol 1). Flower exchanged two specimens from St
Vincent’s Rocks for fourteen from Plymouth, as the two discussed the
declining state of the Botanical Society of London, the rare plants of Berry
Head in Devon, the taxonomy of Cochlearia and the native or introduced
status of Coronopus didymus. Flower mentioned having gathered Eryngium
campestre at Weston super Mare, adding that “he feared it would be lost
from that habitat, as the ground was being brought under cultivation”. This
adds a little to White’s account (1912, p 330-331) of the plant’s history
there. The four Flower sheets collected (later) in September 1853 and in
1860 from “under a wall close to the wood at Weston-super-Mare” now
seem to be missing.

George W Garlick

Mr Garlick’s contributions to botany in Bristol have been briefly
summarised on p.49 in the Flora of the Bristol Region but were not
mentioned in these pages. He recorded the Avon Gorge for the first BSBI
Atlas (published 1962), sensibly using three different cards for the area. He
took an interest (independently of PJM Nethercott) in the whitebeams and
in 1956 made some records for Leigh Woods based on EF Warburg’s
determinations.

Although he had more or less given up botany he had not moved house;
when I made contact in 1979 he recalled with great pleasure the pleasant
memories of those days. One rainy day we went to Leigh Woods where he
tried to let ‘George’ (in this context the World War Two autopilot) find the
exact hollow where he had discovered the Beech Fern (BB1952).
According to PJM Nethercott (BB1977) it had probably already gone by
then and we did not find it. Mr Garlick did however well recall Noel
Sandwith’s very physical excitement at the “remarkable find”.

In 1979 he gave me his three “survey books” now “only [sic] of historical
interest”. In these he had recorded for some 350 survey areas the abundance
of trees and shrubs, sedges, ferns, grasses and then other flowering plants
and plants of ponds and ditches, alphabetically by latin name. Some 100 or
so of the habitat study areas are in the Avon Gorge. I lent the books to the
Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre for a year and they should
have made copies. I also was allowed to keep some of his (then) un-
mounted duplicate specimens and have a black and white photograph of
him in flat cap and waterproof jacket in the site of his botanical explorations
of a quarter of a century earlier.

40

Colin Graham Trapnell

In Bristol Botany in 2003, Professor Willis drew attention to the death (on 9
February 2004) of Colin Trapnell (b.1907), who for many years had been
the Colonial Government ecologist in what is now my neighbouring Zambia
(not Zimbabwe) and later Kenya, before returning to Bristol in the early
1960’s. There is a full obituary in the Times (20 February 2004), which
describes him as a keen botanist since his schooldays at Sedburgh, and adds
a typically colonial anecdote describing crowds of curious natives seeing a
white man taking his evening relaxation in a copper bath!

Around 1980, I discovered his herbarium and botanical notebooks (1919-
1926) at Clifton College and was able to persuade the College to transfer
them to the Botany Department of Bristol University. Their current
whereabouts need to be confirmed given the transfer of the University
herbarium to the Bristol Museum about 10 years ago. They include notes on
the Avon Gorge flora and no doubt (for I passed them over at the time)
elsewhere. He is mentioned in Bristol Botany in 1923 when he and HS
Thompson noted a particular form of Common Mouse-ear under Leigh
Woods and in White’s own annotated copy of his Bristol Flora when he
recorded Chara fragilis var. deliculata on Walton Moor in 1925. When I
entered into correspondence with Mr Trapnell he gave me a letter from JW
White (dated around 1928) in which he thanked Trapnell for the offer of
some Irish plants “to fill sheets you know” for his herbarium. With
Trapnell’s death (and I regret never having taken up the matter) our last
personal botanical link with White (1846-1932) has gone.

His ecological survey of Zambia was published by Kew in 2001 and he
founded a fellowship in African terrestrial ecology at the University of
Oxford where he had studied Classical Greats. A photograph of Trapnell as
a young man on Table Mountain, Cape Town is_ published at
www.eci.ox.ac.uk/people/trapnell together with a more recent photo of him
with the first Trapnell fellow, Dr Lindsey Gillson, who has fond
recollections of his lively mind. By chance, I was able to purchase on the
open market, three of his well used copies of African tree books (Kenya,
Zambia and Uganda). The dealer confirmed that they had not received any
old books of Bristol interest.

In Bristol Botany in 2003, two excellent records appear under the name B.
Lancastle. B Lancaster was intended.

Bristol Botany Bibliography
Several publications relevant to Bristol Botany were made during the year.

4]

The Interactive Flora of the British Isles (2004) brings British plant
identification to the computer perhaps belying the old adage “take the book
to the plant not the plant to the book”. The disc reorganises the principal
content of Stace’s 1997 New Flora and the 2002 New Atlas, and adds some
8,500 photos and reproductions of drawings as a guide to identification.
Many photos are from outside Britain and in this respect Bristolians have
missed out on the opportunity to promote the local flora.

In Watsonia 25 part 2 for August 2004, pages 185-191, Tim Rich and Libby
Houston survey the distribution and abundance of the endemic Sorbus
wilmottiana. The article is accompanied by sample leaf outlines. They
identified 42 trees and six possible saplings, mainly in and near Quarry 4
under Leigh Woods and in the Gully on the Clifton side. It is a distinct line
with less than 11 veins, and narrowly incised rhomboidal leaves, white
underneath. It seems to have come to the attention of the botanical world
amongst the sheets of S. aria var. incisa distributed by J W White in 1922.
The type tree is at the edge of Clifton Downs just north of the Great Quarry.
It was felled to improve the view but subsequently recovered as described in
BB 1969 and BB 1976 respectively. A similar paper on S. bristoliensis 1s
understood to be in preparation.

The un-named trees at the north end of the Great Quarry floor, which have
similar but stiffer and un-lobed leaves, are said to be different. These were
previously reported by the same authors but without locality in BSBI News
75 page 69 in 1997 under the anticipatory title, ““a new species of Sorbus
from the Avon Gorge”. I had (perhaps by received wisdom) always
regarded them as an expression of the same thing in open conditions. In
addition to using them as demonstration specimens I had collected and
distributed reference material (2 October 1979, Kew, Bristol University,
Bristol Museum and Hb. CML).

In the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society for July 2004 a paper by
Chris Preston, David Pearman and A R Hall, “Archaeophytes in Britain” is
likely to prove influential by inspiring new insights into the status of plants
and plant communities at the national and local level. The term was
introduced to many British botanists in the New Atlas of 2002 (though the
records are mapped as Natives and Aliens) and the BSBI vice county census
catalogue of 2003.

Native plants arise in a study area (e.g. the British Isles, the Bristol Region
or a smaller area such as the Avon Gorge) have arrived naturally (without
the influence of man) from a native site. Aliens (often called adventives)
may be casual or naturalised. Amongst naturalised plants some can be

42

shown to be of recent arrival (neophytes); some seem to be of ancient
(nominally pre AD 1500) establishment such that they “look wild” and have
often been regarded as native. These are the archeophytes. Many are
cornfield or wayside weeds for which archaeological evidence of native
status is lacking, and several of the “pot herbs” of St Vincent’s Rocks are
unsurprisingly included there. JW White (Flora of Bristol 1912, pages 330-
331) would probably still regard Eryngium campestre as a (former) native at
Weston -super-Mare.

In these pages natives and aliens have always been separated but some
novel allocations may now be called for. Pending a full review of the status
of the wild plants of the Bristol area, I have included as aliens plant records
of plants that may be native elsewhere in Britain, or even in the Bristol
Region, but which here are clearly adventive in the places reported here.
For example, records of Aquilegia vulgaris L., Columbine, that are of
garden plants often in waste places are listed under aliens. For records
where the status in uncertain, the records are listed as natives. H C Watson,
whose lifelong interest was the distribution of native plants in Britain,
caustically suggested that records of the distribution of alien plants have the
“topographical value of a tomato on a dunghill”.

In BSBI News for September 2004 (issue 97: pages 15-19) there is a table
showing the species richness of the 113 British vice counties. The Bristol
area includes part of two vice counties and has always been reputed as one
of the richest botanical areas in Britain. W Gloucestershire is ranked fifth
with 2,158 taxa as there defined, of which 953 were alien. N Somerset is
sixth with 2,149 (951 alien). White’s Flora of Bristol included 1,692 plants,
reckoning 981 as native and 1,178 to be permanent members of the flora.
The Flora of the Bristol Region claims over 1,600 species.

Geographical coverage

EH Swete used a five-mile radius when defining his area of study in the
Flora Bristoliensis (1854). In 1864, soon after formation in 1862, the Bristol
Naturalists decided to extend this to a nine-mile radius; the botanical section
at least, started recording plants on a square mile basis. The herbarium put
together by the Reverend WW Spicer and presented to the Society in 1868
(when it was said to have 411 sheets) is now incorporated in the general
collection at Bristol Museum and shows Avonmouth as square 52, Abbot’s
Leigh as square 109 and Durdham Down as square 110 (I have a full
account on this innovative recording scheme in preparation).

Already by then the Society had elected to use the 1862 Sanders geological
map of “The Bristol Coal Field and Country Adjacent”. This explains the

43

title of White’s earlier Flora (issued in parts in these Proceedings from 1881
to 1887) and the subtitle of his monumental Flora of Bristol (1912). White
describes the area in the first pages of his Flora as an irregular right angled
triangle of 720 square miles from Dursley in the north southwards to the
east of Bath to Frome, and thence west to the Severn at Huntspill, south of
Burnham. North of Bristol, Avonmouth and the hinterland of Bath, the area
falls into the Watsonian vice-county 34, West Gloucestershire,
conventionally abbreviated “G”. The southern area lies in vice county 6,
North Somerset (“S”’).

This area, arbitrary and artificial as it may be, still delimits the geographical
coverage of Bristol Botany. It is slightly larger than the former
administrative county of Avon as dealt with in the Flora of the Bristol
Region (2000), which included about 1,500 whole or part kilometre squares.
Compared to the traditional Bristol Naturalists’ area, Avon was slightly
truncated at the northern end and omitted a strip of White’s triangle some
10 miles or so south from Brean Down. That area was covered in the recent
Somerset Atlas (1997).

The Gloucestershire Flora (1948) covered the whole Watsonian county
south to Bristol; Murray’s and Roe’s Somerset Floras did the same for that
county, reaching north to Bristol and Bath. Any duplication of effort in the
field has tended to improve the extent of recording, but such recording has
been far more consistently undertaken based on Bristol than on
Gloucestershire or Somerset.

Names of the contributors of plant records are abbreviated thus:

JA J Aldridge. RLB RLBland. RSC RS Cropper. PH P Hilton.
BL B Lancaster. CML CM Lovatt. PM SP Millman.

Equisetum sylvaticum, L. Wood Horsetail Still thriving at Compton Dando,
S, where first found in 1985 at its only site in the Bristol Region, over 100
stems counted. S. R SC.

Polypodium vulgare L. Polypody On acid soil below the Towpath under
Leigh Woods, S, CML. The Avon Gorge has all three polypody species.
Dryopteris carthusiana, (Vill.) H.P.Fuchs. Narrow Buckler-fern Weston
Moor, where last noted in 1985 according to the Flora of the Bristol Region.
PM.

Nymphaea alba, L. White Water-lily With Nuphar lutea, Yellow Water-
lily in Abbots Pool, Abbots, Leigh, S. RLB.

Ceratophyllum demersum, L. Rigid Hornwort, Pond, Brockley Combe, S;
also Nymphaea, alba, White Water-lily. S, RLB.

Helleborus foetidus L. Stinking Hellebore A roadside throw-out at
Abbot’s Leigh, S, and by a path in Stoke Bishop, G, both RLB. I have

44

specimens gathered around 1980 in Leigh Woods, S, close to the
Suspension Bridge. Bob Russell, the Warden, pointed out the plants. Their
status there is uncertain.

Ranunculus trichophyllus, Chaix Three-leaved Water-crowfoot, Not seen
from 2000-2003 but in 2004 it was spreading well along the banks of two
rhynes on Clapton Moor, S, PM.

Aquilegia vulgaris, Columbine, Eight square kilometre records supplied by
RLB as additional to the Flora of the Bristol Region (which has 140
records), but all refer to garden plants on road verges.

Thalictrum flavum, L. Common Meadow-rue. In BB 1995 (and also
according to the map in the Flora of the Bristol Region) it was suggested
that this plant might have been lost under Leigh Woods. I have known it
beside the Towpath opposite Bridge Valley Road since 1978 and although
from time to time it is overgrown, it survives and may often be seen in
flower. GW Garlick knew the same colony in about 1950 and also noted it
beside the river north of Quarry 2, where it may not have persisted.

Papaver rhoeas L., Common Poppy, RLB has added 38 new records to the
554 mapped in the Flora of the Bristol Region.

Soleirolia soleirolii, (Req.) Dandy Mind-your-own-business, On a wall at
Cold Ashton, G; Solidago gigantea Aiton, Early Goldenrod and Spiraea
salicifolia L., Bridewort nearby, G. RLB.

Quercus rubra L. , Red Oak Regenerating at Failand, S, west of Abbots
Leigh, RLB.

Carpinus betulus, L. Hornbeam Planted ina hedge at Heron’s Green,
Chew valley Lake. S, RLB.

Chenopodium polyspermum, L. Many-seeded Goosefoot, A small patch in
a bare area in a field on the outskirts of Portishead., S, RSC. Surprisingly
perhaps, the Flora of the Bristol Region has only one site in the 10 km
square. It is probably rather under-recorded as I have also seen it on tipped
or disturbed soil beside the Portway in the Avon Gorge, G and in Leigh
Woods by the Forestry Commission car park, S.

Salsola kali, L. Prickly Saltwort Uphill sand dunes, S, RSC. Otherwise
recently recorded recently only near Sand Point, S and south of Brean
Down.

Saponaria officinalis, L. Soapwort, Keynsham sewage works, JA; double-
flowered plants well established on a rodside bank, Lime Kiln Cottage,
King’s Weston, G, BL; Pilning, G and Portway under Sneyd Park, G, RLB.
Persicaria amplexicaulis, (D.Don) Ronse Decr. Red Bistort, A single
flowering spike by the roadside, New Passage, G, BL.

Hypericum androsaemum, L. Tutsan, Roadside in Abbot’s Leigh village,
woods at Brockley Combe and in a street, Congresbury, all S, RLB.

Malva neglecta, Wallr. Dwarf Mallow, Spontaneous, but in a cottage
garden beside stone steps, School Road, Wrington., S, PM. Durdham Down,

45

G, on the site of the recently laid water main, and also in a gutter at
Bedminster Down, S, RLB. This is a new square for the flora.

Malva moschata L. Musk-mallow In two places on the roadside on the
A370 at Weston—super-Mare near the motorway, S, RLB. Not shown in this
10 kilometre square in the Flora of the Bristol region, but surely an
oversight as it is recorded in the New Atlas.

Cochlearia danica, L. Danish scurveygrass Keynsham, near the weir, S, J
Aldridge. New to the 10 km square, judging by the records in the Flora of
the Bristol region (2000) but recorded in the New Atlas of the British and
Irish Flora (2002). Ten further records from RLB in the Bristol area beside
the Portway, M32 and M49.

Hirschfeldia incana, (L.) Lagr.-Foss Hoary Mustard At the bottom of the
Gully (Walcombe Slade) by the Portway, Avon Gorge, G. Reported by
Peter Hilton and noted by CML in 2002 there and below Black Rocks, G.
Although not shown here in the Flora of the Bristol Region, the plant
seemed abundant enough to have been there for a few years already.

Pyrola rotundifolia, Round leaved wintergreen, Over 100 flowering stems
in a patch of two square metres under a willow tree in a limestone quarry
near Ham Wood, between Wells and Shepton Mallet, S, RSC. This
remarkable find is new to v c 6. It 1s an uncommon plant in Britain and
particularly in the south, where it occurs in dune slacks, fens and in chalk
quarries. Although native elsewhere, it is presumably a recent arrival here.
Samolus valerandi, L. Brookweed, Well established on muddy banks of a
shallow pond at the power station, Chittening Warth, between Severn Beach
and Avonmouth, G, BL.

Saxifraga hirsuta L., Kidney Saxifrage, A third Bristol record of this plant
is given in the Winter 2004 number of AFP (Avon Flora Project) News,
produced by the Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre. Phil
Williamson found it growing wild in “an overgrown and wooded part of one
of the City’s parks”.

Rubus avaloniensis Newton & R.D Randall, A bramble In Watsonia 24:
443-446 (2003) this new microspecies of bramble is described. Within our
area, it has been found at Shapwick, Burrington Combe, Worlebury Wood.
Pyrus pyraster, (L.) Burgsd. Wild Pear, RLB is carefully separating wild
pears and apples from those recently appearing from discarded cores. He
notes Pyrus pyraster on the cliff edge at Horseshoe Bend on the River
Avon, G, and in a hedge at Chew Valley Lake, S. P. communis he notes in
hedges at Lawrence Weston, G, and Failand, S.

Sorbus x thuringiaca, A hybrid Whitebeam. Under the name Pyrus
pinnatifida, White describes the rarely seen tree from Leigh Woods. Mr P J
M Nethercott showed it to me in 1977 and in 2002 I found it again. It is not
far from the Coronation Avenue and though far from the margin of the
wood, it is in an old clearing, possibly with mining hollows. The tree is

46

fertile and there is a specimen of Sorbus bristoliensis close by. The tree on
the Plain by the Warden’s cottages was propagated as a layer by Bob
Russell in the 1970’s. S.

Astragalus glycophyllos, L. Wild Liquorice, Wooscombe Bottom, near
Compton Dando. S, JA. A rare plant in the Bristol Region but long known
at various places near the River Chew.

Lotus glaber, Mill. Narrow-leaved Bird’s-foot-trefoil One plant by the sea
bank, Wick St Lawrence, S, RSC. This is a new locality for the southern
coastline where it has hitherto been recorded near Portishead and Brean
Sands.

Vicia tetrasperma L. (Schreb.) Smooth Tare Trackside on the Marle Hills,
near Iron Acton, G, RLB.

Lathyrus sylvestris,L. Narrow-leaved Everlasting-pea Rodway Hill, S,
several patches along the old railway line, RSC. Failand, beside a farm
track and in a hedgerow, PM; Great Quarry, Avon Gorge, G, Bower Ashton
and Ashton Gate, S, on verges of the A370, S, RLB. White mentions the
Great Quarry site as dating back to 1878, although there are not enough
records to prove it has been persistent there.

Lathyrus nissolia, L. Grass Vetchling, By the Long Ashton bypass, south
of Long Ashton, S, PH. Recent new occurrences of this species may be as
an adventive rather than a native. It was noted by PJM Nethercott in Bristol
Botany in 1999 in the Great Quarry in the Avon Gorge, G, and it was still
there in 2002, but I believe its habitat is now too overgrown to support it.
Lythrum salicaria, L. Purple-loosestrife Charlton Fields, near Keynsham,
G. JA.

Euphorbia lathyris L. Caper Spurge New sites reported by RLB at
Avonmouth, Frenchay and the Glen (Quarry at the top of Whiteladies Road
near the Downs), all G. Also one plant in the interior of Burwalls Wood,
Avon Gorge, S in 2003, CML, but abundant there under the Suspension
Bridge briefly around 1978.

Rhamnus cathartica, L. Buckthorn By the Huntspill river, south of East
Huntspill, S, RSC.

Smyrnium olusatrum, L. Alexanders Field edge near Failand, S, RLB.
Pimpinella saxifraga, L. Burnet-saxifrage In a roadside gutter, Jubilee
Drive, Failand, an unusual habitat for this plant of calcareous grassland., S,
PM.

Crithmum maritimum, L. Rock Samphire One plant flowering on the
seaward side of the sea bank, Wick St Lawrence, S, RSC. This seems to be
a slight eastward extension of the range in the Flora of the Bristol Region,
for this familiar plant of coastal rocks, immortalised in Shakespeare’s King
Lear.

Aethusa cynapium, L. Fool’s Parsley, A road verge near Failand. S, RLB.

47

Silaum silaus , (L.) Schinz&Thell Pepper-saxifrage, Frequent in a
meadow at Draycott, S, RSC. The record appears to fill a gap in the
Somerset Atlas.

Sison amomum L. Stone Parsley Avonmouth, G. Ashton Gate, S. Bower
Ashton, S. all at roadsides, RLB.

Gentianella amarella,L. Borner , Autumn Gentian Professor AJ Willis
has informed me that the note that this species was newly discovered in the
Avon Gorge was a drafting error that he was unable to correct in proof. The
Flora of the Bristol Region has no recent record of it but as White indicates,
it has a long history in the Avon Gorge and had been known there since the
late 18" Century. CML. The site mentioned in BB 2003, Quarry 4, was also
seen by CML in 1978 and GW Garlick noted two other nearby sites in about
1950. Around 1980 Andy Byfield drew my attention to its occurrence in
the lead workings on Clifton Down, G, although I have not found it there
recently.

Datura stramonium, L. Thorn-apple Five plants on recently disturbed
ground at the power station, Chittening Warth, between Severn Beach and
Avonmouth, G, BL. Not recently recorded in this ten-kilometre square.
Echium vulgare L. Viper’s Bugloss Roadside, Hanham Green, G, RLB.
Lamium hybridum, Vill. Cut-leaved Dead-nettle Two flowering plants on
the verge of a track below Brean Down, S, RSC. The Somerset Atlas refers
to it as occurring on Brean Down, where it was first found as recently as
1968, although long known in the vicinity.

Galeopsis tetrahit L. Common Hemp-nettle In woodland, Oldbury Court
Estate, G, RLB.

Melissa officinalis, L. Balm, On a verge in Church Road, Leigh Woods S,
PH, with Linaria repens; also in Abbots Leigh, S, RLB. I have a specimen
of the Melissa collected in Leigh Woods below North Road in 1981.
Mentha x villosa Huds. Apple-mint Exuberant at a roadside in Failand, S,
RLB; also in a verge on North Road, Leigh Woods, CML in 2003.
Verbascum nigrum L. Dark Mullein A single plant, Herons Green, Chew
Valley Lake, S, RLB.

Verbascum blattaria L., Moth Mullein In allotments at Coombe Dingle, G,
RLB.

Linaria repens, ( L.) Mill. Pale Toadflax, One plant flowering and a few
vegetative stems appearing recently on a wooden bridge, Max Bog,
Winscombe, S, RSC. The recent New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora
has no record for this 10-kilometre square.

Lathraea squamaria, L. Toothwort Two patches in Monk’s Wood, south of
Cold Ashton, G, and several patches in Weston Big Wood, S, RSC As a
plant occurring in less than 5% of the one kilometre squares in the Bristol
Region, and occurring in old woods, named localities are more valuable
than distribution dot maps.

48

Rhinanthus minor, L. Yellow-rattle Keynsham , Manor Road Community
woodland, S, JA. Also Vicia hirsuta, Malva moschata. Lycopus europaeus
Lathraea clandestina, L. Purple Toothwort On willow in woodland on the
River Trym within less than a kilometre of the Avon at Sea Mills, G, PH.
Campanula latifolia L. Giant Bellflower Two white flowered plants 2000-
2003 in the boundary ditch of Leigh Woods near the “Warren Wall”, with
Cyclamen hederifolium S, CML.

Adoxa moschatellina,L. Moschatel Wooscombe Bottom, near Compton
Dando S, JA. Not recorded in this 1 km square (ST 6465) in the Flora of the
Bristol Region though occurring in most to the south and west for 10 km.
Also Anenome nemorosa.

Dipsacus pilosus, L. Small Teasel By the Avon, east of Keynsham, S, JA.
Cirsium eriophorum, (L.) Scop. Woolly Thistle King’s Weston Down, G,
RLB.

Cichorium intybus, L. Chicory, Two sites on verges of the A38, by the
reservoirs at Barrow Gurney and at Havyatt Green, S, RLB.

Pilosella aurantiaca, L. Orange Hawkweed The Flora of the Bristol
Region has 11 sites. RLB adds five: Bridge Yate Common, G; Cold
Ashton, G; Frome valley between Stapleton and Frenchay, G; Compton
Martin, S and Ubley, S. Although well established in Quarry 2 under Leigh
Woods, S, as reported in Bristol Botany in 1980, it seems to have
disappeared from there.

Gnaphalium uliginosum, Marsh Cudweed Felton Common, near Bristol
Airport, also Odontites vernus; Gnaphalium also added by RLB in a field at
Saltford, S. M Webster, Neither species is mapped in the Felton Common
square in the Flora of the Bristol Region.

Chrysanthemum segetum L., Corn Marigold A roadside in Abbots Leigh,
west of the A369 and the churchyard in Congresbury, S, RLB.

Senecio sylvaticus, L. Heath Groundsel A small patch in turf on Rodway
Hill, G, RSC. According to White, it has been known there since 1796.
Galinsoja parviflora, Cav. Gallant-soldier Thousands of plants in a walled
garden used for growing organic vegetables, Leigh Court Farm, Abbot’s
Leigh, S, PM.

Potamogeton natans,L. Broad-leaved Pondweed Abundant in a pool in
Lord’s Wood, Hunstrete, S, RSC. Ponds in ancient woodlands in the region
and the aquatic plants in them deserve more attention. My favourite will
always be Menyanthes trifoliata, the Buckbean, which grew in Leigh
Woods, S, until the 1880’s in J H Cundall’s “sought-for spot...shut in with
ferny rocks and gracefulness”’.

Eleogiton fluitans, Floating club-rush About ten clumps, along Rhyne
number 23, Clapton Moor, Gordano Valley, also Baldellia ranunculoides a
single plant on the bank , S, PM.

49

Carex extensa, Long-bracted sedge, Two large fruiting plants and two
smaller ones, recently arrived in the salt marsh below the sea wall, West
Huntspill, S, RSC. This is an extension of the range described in the
Somerset Atlas Flora for this coastal salt marsh plant.

Carex strigosa, , Scattered in Monk Wood near East Cranmore, S, RSC.
Additional to the sites mapped on a tetrad (2 kilometre square) basis in the
Atlas Flora of Somerset.

Cyperus fuscus, Brown Galingale Ten small flowering plants and up to 40
vegetative were noted at its site in the Gordano Valley, compared to 60
flowering and over a hundred seedlings in the previous year, S, RSC.
Juncus foliosus, Leafy Rush, A good colony of flowering and fruiting
plants in a wet flush in Lord’s Wood, near Pensford, S, with Holcus mollis.,
S, RSC, Two segregates of the more common Toad Rush (Juncus
bufonius) were recognised in Britain in 1978, but they probably remain
under-recorded in the Bristol region.

Digitaria sanguinalis, , A single plant in the pavement, Burnham-on-sea,
with Amaranthus retroflexus, Common Amaranth, S, RSC.

Calamagrostis epigeios, Plentiful on quarry floor, Crook Peak; nearby
Sedum album, White Stonecrop, S, RSC.

Gagea lutea, L. Yellow star of Bethlehem 71 flowering stems were seen at
Murder Combe, Great Elm, near Mells, S, RSC. The shy flowering of this
plant 1s described by White, who saw six in flower there in 1900. I P Green
found one flowering in 1997 after several years of observation. RSC also
found one plant flowering at Littleton Wood, S, but only leaves at
Grandmothers Rock, G.

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, L. Bath Asparagus Charlton Fields, near
Keynsham, 36 plants counted by JA; Ammersdown Park, 2 plants noted by
RSC. We look forward to continuing monitoring of the counted populations
Cephalanthera damasonium, (Mill.) Druce White Helleborine, About a
hundred plants below conifers, Cleaves Wood, near Coombe Hay, S, RSC.
The population count is welcome addition to the site mapped in the Flora of
the Bristol Region (2000). According to White, the first British record, by
Thomas Johnson in 1634, was from “amongst the rockes not farre from
Bathe”. There is a July 1872 gathering from Coombe Hay in T B Flower’s
herbarium at Plymouth Museum, unmentioned in White.

Epipactis purpurata, Sm. Violet Helleborine Wooscombe Bottom, near
Compton Dando, S, JA. Five plants, two strong and three less so, on private
land. The site is several kilometres north of the Hunstrete locality
mentioned in the Flora of the Bristol Region. All helleborines other than the
broad leaved helleborine are very scarce in the Bristol region.

Neottia nidus-avis, (L.) Rich. Bird’s-nest Orchid Weston Big Wood, near
Portishead, S, the northern edge at the top of steps leading up from Valley
Road, S, PH. At the Ammersdown House locality referred to in BB 2003, S,

50

RSC. This saprophytic orchid is sporadic in appearance and the continued
observations are of interest.

Spiranthes spiralis, (L.) Chevall. Autumn Lady’s-tresses, 570 plants in
flower on the lawns of the National Trust property, Tyntesfield, between
Failand and Wraxall, S, PM. A single plant on Hellenge Hill, S, RSC. The
Tyntesfield record is additional to the sites mapped in the Flora of the
Bristol Region, though White refers to several sites in the neighbourhood.
Anacamptis pyramidalis, (L.) Rich. Pyramidal Orchid, Near a car park,
Wooscombe Bottom, near Compton Dando, S, JA. Two plants, one 62 cm
tall (Stace’s flora indicates stems to 60cm). White refers to its occurrence
here and there between Compton Dando and Keynsham. Also nearby at
Charlton Fields, in three places, one with 192 plants. The plants now
appearing seem to be more robust than formerly. In the Avon Gorge it
seems to have disappeared in the 1970’s only to re-appear later. In 2002 I
saw strong plants on Clifton Down at the top of Bridge Valley Road and in
two places on the towpath under Leigh Woods.

Dactylorhiza fuchsii, Common Spotted-orchid Two plants about half a
kilometre inland, Severn Beach, G, BL. The Flora of the Bristol Region has
no records for this common orchid within several kilometres of the estuary
in the Gloucestershire side of the area.

Dactylorhiza praetermissa, (Druce) Soo Southern Marsh Orchid Several
flowering plants of this orchid of marshy ground colonising dry limestone
grassland at Sandford Hill, Sandford, S; and there hybridising with D.
fuchsii. Orobanche minor (Common Broomrape) was nearby. S. RSC.
Orchis mascula, (L.) L. Early Purple Orchid Wooscombe Bottom, near
Compton Dando, S, JA. Six flowering plants and an estimated 35 in total;
this orchid was described by White as well distributed and only aberrant
forms were localised. The Flora of the Bristol Region has only two sites in
the whole 10km square.

Ophrys insectifera, L. Fly Orchid About 30 spikes were found in 2004 at
the Ammersdown House driveway site referred to in BB 2003, an increase
on the dozen first found in 2003. S, RSC.

Ophrys apifera, Huds Bee Orchid Two spikes close by the estuary at
Chittening Warth, G, BL. This beautiful plant is not apparently otherwise
known within five kilometres.

Ophrys apifera var trollii, Wasp Orchid Wooscombe Bottom, near
Compton Dando, S, JA. A single plant of the less attractive form of the Bee
orchid, illustrated by Miss F Cundall in White’s Flora and so long known
from the Avon Gorge where it occurs on both sides in mixed populations
with the typical form. Also nearby at Charlton Fields, in two places.

Aliens

ay

Laurus nobilis L. Bay A single young plant, self-sown, edge of Ashton
Hill plantation, S, RLB.

Alnus incana Grey Alder In the Great Quarry beside the Portway, Avon
Gorge, G, RLB and CML, independently. There are several bushes beside
old car parking spaces seemingly spreading and naturalised.

Cerastium tomentosum L. Snow-in Summer Nine additional square
kilometre records are provided by RLB for this obviously under-recorded
garden escape. There are 65 records in the Flora of the Bristol Region.
Fallopia baldschuanica Russian-vine. Bannerdown, near Batheaston, G,
RLB.

Hypericum calycinum Rose-of-Sharon Abbot’s Leigh village, S, RLB.
Alcea rosea L. Hollyhock Road verge at Backwell, S, RLB.

Aubretia deltoidea (L.) DC, Aubretia On walls in Stoke Bishop, Abbot’s
Leigh and Congresbury, S, RLB, The Flora of the Bristol Region has only
seven records. I saw it growing truly wild on St Vincent’s Rocks on the
buttress under the Suspension Bridge in 1978 whilst dangling from a rope.
It also grew from garden rubbish thrown into Leigh Woods from North
Road around 1980 (CML and RV Russell).

Cyclamen hederifolium Aiton Sowbread Abbots Leigh S, roadside near the
church, RLB; also in Leigh Woods, 2003, in the wood boundary ditch near
the “Warren wall” S, CML.

Saxifraga x urbicum, Londonpride, Cadbury Lane, S, RLB - not far from
the former home of Sampson Clay, author of a book on rock gardens.
Duchesnia indica (Jacks.) Focke, Yellow-flowered Strawberry, In the
square, Upper Berkeley Place, Clifton, G, RLB.

Laburnum anagyroides Medik. Laburnum Self-seeding on a roadside at
Limpley Stoke, S; RLB; also at Avonmouth, G, RLB.

Myriophyllum aquaticum, (Vell.) Verdc Parrot’s-feather In a pond,
Hanham Green, G, RLB; also Ranunculus lingua L., Greater Spearwort,
G, RLB. The Flora of the Bristol Region has only three records for the
Myriophyllum.

Fuschia magellanica Lam. Fuchsia A garden throw-out but flourishing on
a roadside at Failand, S, RLB.

Euphorbia characias L., Mediterranean Spurge On waste soil, Berwick
Lodge, near Hallen, G; also Lonicera nitida. RLB.

Frangula alnus Mill. Alder Buckthorn Kingsweston Down, G, but
planted in a hedge. RLB.

Oxalis corniculata L. Procumbent Yellow-sorrel Abbots Leigh, S, and
Combe Dingle, G, RLB.

Impatiens glandulifera Royle Indian Balsam By a pond near the Long
Ashton bypass, at Herons Green, Chew Valley Lake and Brockley, all S.
RLB;

a2

Lycium barbarum L. Duke of Argyll’s Teaplant At the riverside, Netham,
Bristol, G, RLB.

Petunia x hybrida, Petunia, A single purple flowered plant near the
Portway at the bottom of the Gully, Avon Gorge, G, CML and Libby
Houston, independently. There is no record in the recent Flora of the Bristol
Region (2000), nor for v.c. 34 in the BSBI vice county census catalogue
(2003). The Atlas Flora of Somerset (1997) has a solitary record (1990) for
Glastonbury.

Borago officinalis, L. Borage Charlton Fields, near Keynsham, S, JA; also
on Nailsea Moor, S, RLB. The Keynsham site seems to be the first recent
record of this rather ephemeral plant for this 10 kilometre square.

Stachys byzantina Lamb’s-ear, Clifton Down, near the top of Whiteladies
Road, ,. RLB. Not recently recorded in the Bristol region and new to the
flora of the Avon Gorge.

Rosmarinus officinalis L. Rosemary Growing in a wall, Sneyd Park, G,
RLB.

Asarina procumbens Mill. Trailing Snapdragon On a wall in Frenchay,
near the weirs, G, RLB, This is new to the Bristol region and v.c.34.
Campanula portensclagiana Schult Adria Bellflower Found wild by RLB
on walls in Abbot’s Leigh, Brentry, Clapton, Cold Ashton, Congresbury,
and Frenchay. This and the next species are considered to be under-recorded
and expanding by the authors of the Flora of the Bristol Region; these sites
are additional to the 50 in the Flora.

Campanula poscharskyana Degen Trailing Bellflower Found wild by
RLB on walls in Abbot’s Leigh, Iron Acton and Speedwell. These sites are
additional to the 19 in the Flora. In 1978 I collected it from plants
established from garden throw- outs in Leigh Woods below North Road
(det. E J Clement) and in 1980 saw it on the Downs side of a garden wall
near Sea Walls on Durdham Downs.

Leycesteria Formosa Wall. Himalayan Honeysuckle Pixtons Green,
between Marshfield and Batheaston, at a field edge, G, RLB; also by a
roadside at Cleeve, S, with Lunaria annua, S, RLB. It is difficult to believe
the plant is as rare as the Flora of the Bristol Region suggests.

Tragopogon porrifolius Salsify Kings Weston, G, RLB.

Erigeron karvinskianus DC, Mexican Fleabane Three new sites reported
by RLB, Abbot’s Leigh, Cleeve Hill (both S) and Conham, G.
Leucanthemum x superbum D.H.Kent Shasta Daisy At the northern end of
the Great Quarry, Avon Gorge, G, also Lythrum salicaria, G, RLB. There
have been a number of weeds and plants of garden origin on the quarry
bottom in recent years, either on banks blocking the former vehicle entrance

or on disturbed soil nearby.

53

Helianthus annuus L. Sunflower There were surprisingly few records in the
Flora of the Bristol region (8). RLB adds two in 2004, from Abbots Leigh,
S, by a wall near the church and at Poulson’s Farm, south of Marshfield, G.
Briza maxima. Greater Quaking- grass Roadside beside the New Cut,
Bristol, RLB. The Flora of the Bristol Region has three records of this
casual grass over a period of almost 20 years.

Convallaria majalis Lily of the Valley, In Burwalls Wood, Leigh Woods,
S, RLB. This appears to be the puzzling occurrence under a restraining wall
on Burwalls road which I only noted in 2002. It does not appear to be an
extension of the known native range in Leigh Woods. RLB mentions
Leycesteria formosa and Lonicera nitida in the same place. The former
occurred around 1980 in the woods under the Suspension Bridge and the
latter has been growing in the quarry at the top of Nightingale valley for a
decade or more.

Polygonatum x hybridum Garden Solomon’s-seal A garden throw-out at a
roadside in Avonmouth, G, RLB.

Muscari armeniacum Leichtlin ex Baker Garden Grape-hyacinth By a
path, St George, Bristol, G, RLB.

Leucojum vernum Spring Snowflake, On a roadside at Failand, S, RLB.
According to the Flora of the Bristol Region, the last record was in 1982.
Asparagus officinalis Asparagus A single plant in the Avonside marsh
between Sea Mills and Horseshoe Bend, G, RLB. Despite a long history by
the Avon below Bristol, and the persistence of a good patch under Leigh
Woods opposite Bridge Valley Road, the Asparagus seems always to be
seen irregularly and only in small quantity on the Gloucestershire side.

Iris germanica L. Bearded Iris, Avonmouth, G, near the motorway
interchanges, as a throw-out. RLB.

Gladiolus communis L. Eastern Gladiolus, Waste ground, Avonmouth, G,
RLB.

54

Invasive Aliens in ST 57 woodland.
R.L.Bland
11 Percival RD BSA8 3LN Richardbland@blueyonder.co.uk

Survey origins and methods.

Recent articles in BSBI News have suggested that we should be more aware
of the dangers to woodland posed by invasive species such as Laurel, Holm
Oak, and Rhododendron ponticum. Fifteen alien species were checked in
10-km square ST57, bounded by Avonmouth and Southmead in the north
and Wraxall and Lower Knowle in the south. The survey was carried out
between November 2004 and the end of February 2005 by walking a series
of transects. The actual purpose of the walks was ornithological, and they
were designed to cover every tetrad in the 10km square by walking a
kilometre transect across each |-km square. Fifty hours were spent walking
some 150 kilometres at a speed of three KPH, and in all 90 1-km squares
were visited, many of them more than once. The presence of each of the
alien species, listed in Table 1, was noted for each square visited. No
attempt was made to assess how often a species was seen within a 1-km
square. Winter is a good time to check these species as the fact that many of
them are largely or partly evergreen means that they stand out much more
obviously in winter than they do in summer. The yellow leaves of Norway
Maple, Acer platanoides, stand out spectacularly in November and
December until its leaves drop, but it was not recorded on visits in January
and February. Japanese Knotweed, Fallopia japonica, has dead stems that
are very obvious unless they are cut back. Winter Heliotrope, Pefasites
fragrans, comes into flower in late November, and its leaves are far more
dominant in the winter period than later in the year. Turkey Oak, Quercus
cerris, 18 partly evergreen in some winters, but often holds its leaves long
after other oaks, and can be easily recognised from its buds.

The distribution of some of these species recorded in the Flora of the Bristol
Region (SL Myles 2000) (henceforth called the Flora) does not distinguish
between woody species that have been planted intentionally, and those that
are self-sown. It is important to the study of the process of botanical change
to concentrate on species that are aggressive, and hence leading the process
of change, and, because they are evergreen, capable of bringing about rapid
and extensive botanical change. The capacity of Rhododendron, Holm Oak,
Japanese Knotweed and Winter Heliotrope to dominate sites is well known.
Hence a species was only recorded in this survey if it was clear that 1t was
self-sown rather than planted, which often meant recording young plants.

55

Species Comment.

The species are listed in order of their actual distribution in the 90 squares.
The figure given is the percentage of the 90 squares in which they were
found by this survey.

Buddleia Buddleia davidii. 64%. This is universally present as a wild plant
within the city of Bristol, very often growing on walls and from chimneys.
In the rural areas it is less widespread, and was not found in three squares,
though I have little doubt that it could be found. It is a frequent invader of
any piece of rough ground left uncultivated, and of waysides. It cannot be
considered a dangerous species, as its flowers are an attractive source of
nectar in late summer, and it does not dominate its surroundings.

Japanese Knotweed, Fallopia japonica. 30%. This species spreads very
rapidly because any small piece of root or stem base, if dumped anywhere,
will become a new plant. Once established it spreads from very deep
rhizomes, and totally dominates the area it occupies. It is very difficult to
eradicate, and has no obvious enemies. Although it is most frequent along
roadsides, river banks, and waste sites where rubbish is tipped, it can be
found in more remote areas. It does not appear to regenerate from seed in
this climate. It was not recorded in half the squares in which it was recorded
in the Flora, probably because, as its distribution is in small clumps, it was
readily missed by a single transect survey. It was found in eight new squares
which may represent a real spread since the work was done for the Flora.

Laurel, Prunus laurocerasus. 37% It is unsurprising that this popular
garden hedging plant, which produces black fruit very attractive to
Blackbirds in the late summer, has spread rapidly, as its seeds rapidly
germinate, and it can grow very fast. It can dominate the under-storey of
woodland to the exclusion of all other species, and was found to be doing so
in parts of Tyntesfield Plantation and Ashton Hill Plantation. It had been
recorded in 23 squares, and was found in 20 new ones, suggesting both that
it was undercounted in the past, and that it is expanding fast.

Winter Heliotrope, Petasites fragrans. 23%. This is primarily a plant of
roadside edges, and sometimes of woodland. It flowers during the winter,
and is thus a useful source of winter nectar, but it does tend to dominate the
areas in which it occurs. It is tough and hard to eradicate. It was known
from 30 squares, and found in a further eight, which suggests that it is
spreading, as it is not a difficult plant to identify.

56

Norway Maple, Acer platanoides. 22%. This species is a close relative of
the Sycamore, and its seeds germinate rapidly, and outgrow other seedlings
in the first year, so that it can readily come to dominate the under-storey in
woods, though there are still comparatively few woodland seed trees. It is
very widely planted as a street tree. Young plants have brilliant yellow
foliage, and are easily spotted in the autumn. It seems likely that it will
become an increasingly common woodland species. The Flora did not
record forest trees particularly well, so this species was only recorded from
26 squares, but it was recorded as self sown in 20, 11 of them new.

Snowberry, Symphoricarpus albus. 20%. This is an invasive small shrub
with white berries that nothing seems to eat, but which are clearly capable
of spreading the plant. The berries, and thus the plant, are very obvious in
winter. If cut down, it immediately regenerates from the roots. It is common
in garden hedges, and has often spread from them as a roadside hedge plant,
and can also be found on waste ground. It was known from 32 squares and
found in a further five.

Turkey Oak, Quercus cerris. 21%. The Turkey Oak is semi-evergreen,
grows very fast, and has a large acorn. It is also host to the gall midge which
produces the galls on Common Oaks, Quercus robur, that have cut down
acorn production in the past twenty years. It has spread largely unnoticed
and very fast, because it is very similar to the Common Oak in appearance,
and may be making a take-over bid. It was recorded from just 13 squares,
but was found in another 13, which suggests that it was seriously under-
recorded in the Flora, and is spreading.

Holm Oak, Quercus ilex. 23%. Of all the species surveyed this is probably
the most potentially threatening, and perhaps spreading the fastest. It
produces masses of acorns that are spread very widely by Jays. It can
frequently be found germinating in walls. It grows rather slowly at first, but,
as it is fully evergreen, it soon comes to dominate its surroundings,
suppressing all other growth. If cut down it regenerates at once, and is often
found as a cluster of boles as a result. It has readily invaded motorway
cuttings, especially on the Tickenham ridge, parts of which it dominates. It
is also becoming a serious menace on the Bristol Downs. It was known
from 15 squares, but was found in another 11, and is thus probably a good
deal more widespread in reality.

Wilson’s Honeysuckle, Lonicera nitida.12%. This member of the
honeysuckle family is a very common garden hedging plant that produces
juicy fruit if given half a chance. It also regenerates very readily from
clippings, and can be found in a wide variety of habitats as a result. It

Si

becomes a scrambling plant in woodland, but is no threat to its
surroundings. It is very easily missed in summer, and also is easy to ignore
as not every botanist is also a gardener. It was known in 10 squares, and
found in another 11.

Rhododendron, Rhododendron ponticum. 8%. This plant is very well
known as a menace in other parts of the country, but, as it needs an acid
soil, there are few areas here where it can flourish. However given the
chance it comes to dominate the under-storey of woodland even more
completely than Laurel, and does so in one or two local woodlands such as
Church Wood, in Ashton Court. It readily regenerates if cut down. It was
known from 13 squares and discovered in another three. It has little chance
of expanding beyond the acid areas, but plenty of opportunity within them.

The last five species are, at present, of little significance, but are included
because they might become a problem.

Portuguese Laurel, Prunus lusitanica, 9%, is less aggressive than Laurel,
and rather rarely do seedlings result from its fruit, which are valued by
birds. It was known in five squares and found in five new ones.

Stags Horn Sumach, Rhus typhina, 1%, spreads by suckering, and can take
over a wide area. It is a common garden plant, but its fruit is heavy and not
edible. Hence its occurrence in the wild is usually the result of dumping. It
was known from seven squares and found in one new one.

Himalayan Honeysuckle, Leycesteria Formosa, 4%, is an uncommon
garden plant, which produces juicy seeds that are very popular with birds,
which have spread it to walls in the city, and waste spots outside it. It is not
an aggressive plant, and could be considered an asset.

Bay, Laurus nobilis, 4%, is very common as a garden plant in older gardens
in Bristol. It is not totally hardy but, like Eucalyptus, will shoot back from
the root if cut back by frost. It also suckers from its roots, so most trees are
clusters of boles. Its ripe fruit are very popular with Wood Pigeons in
October/November, and readily germinate. However as a baby plant it is
rather feeble, perhaps because our summers are not warm enough, and
hence it has not spread as widely as Laurel. However it is very easy to
overlook in summer, and was only recorded from one square, but found in
four more. It may be commoner in the wild than is recognised, and, if
summers become warmer, may start spreading faster.

Laurestinus, Viburnum Tinus, 3%, is widely planted in gardens for its
attractive white winter flowers. It thus stands out in the wild in winter. It has

58

fruit that ripen in the autumn just before the next flowers open, and is
spread by birds. It was known in two squares, and found in another one.

Overall Results.

Every square had at least one alien species, and the average was 4.7 species
per square. Square 5577, Coombe Dingle, had acquired 12 of the 15 species.
Some squares had only one or two species either because the habitat gave
them little opportunity, or because the route of the transect, which was
always along public rights of way, was on poor habitat. The Flora showed
that there were 319 registrations of the 15 species in the 90 squares. This
survey added a further 116 registrations in 60 of the 90 squares, and
confirmed 151 of the existing registrations (48%). The survey missed 158 of
the registrations (51%), which suggests the limited level of efficiency that a
simple survey of this kind can achieve. If botanical change is to be
measured effectively it is important to find simple survey methods that can
identify the rate of change effectively. It might be suggested that the
substantial number of new registrations is evidence of rapid change, but it is
more likely that the species concerned were under-counted by the original
survey, since they are not part of the native flora, and could easily be
overlooked in summer surveys.

[Buddleia BB
| Japanese Knotweed | S5__ | 8
| Winter Heliotrope | 38 8

Norway Maple
Snowbe

Turkey Oak
Holm Oak

Wilson’s Honeysuckle

Total
Table 1 shows the 15 species in order of their distribution in the 90 squares
of ST57, and shows the total number of new registrations for each species.
The total recorded in the Flora is column | less column 2.

52

The rural/urban divide. 38 of the squares are rural, 52 urban. Of the 116
new registrations, 46 were made in rural areas, an average of 1.2 per square,
compared with an average of 1.3 per square in urban areas. Half or more of
new sightings were made in rural areas for Buddleia, Snowberry, Japanese
Knotweed, Himalayan Honeysuckle, Laurel and Winter Heliotrope, which
may imply a move out of urban areas, or that such garden aliens were more
likely to be recorded as such in the urban area in the original survey. It may
also be a general consequence of steady development of rural areas.
Conclusion. Botanical change is being driven by a wide variety of factors,
and in every generation there have been new species introduced many of
which find some niche in the wild. There is a pattern to alien introductions
in which there is an initial, and alarming, population surge in consequence
of a lack of competition and predators, followed by a decline, and the
creation of a new stability. Every introduction alters the opportunities for
other species, and has in some cases lead to local extinctions of existing
native species. An understanding of the complex processes of change at
work is vital if effective conservation is to be possible, and simple
monitoring methods need to be devised to ensure a sound knowledge of the
process of change.

Silverweed

60

Poppies, a note.
RL Bland
11 Percival RD BSA8 3LN

Plantlife ran a national survey in 2004 on the distribution of five species of
red poppy. I was involved in a survey of Swallow feeding during June and
July, which involved a great deal of driving to specific isolated sites around
the region, so I simultaneously kept detailed notes of the Poppies that I saw.

On my travels I passed through 169 1km squares, 11% of the surface area of
the region, noting poppies where I saw them. I stopped frequently, and
walked some distance to reach my Swallow survey points. The survey had
the merit of being random, but certainly was not thorough. In July, however,
the Poppy is very obvious, and the fact that I found Common Poppy in 39
squares in which it was not reported in the Plant Atlas 2000 suggests that
the method is not without merit. This was a very high proportion, 42%, of
the squares in which I did find it and implies either that it is under-recorded
in the Atlas, or, less likely, that it is an expanding species.

In the Plant Atlas the Common Poppy is recorded in 554 Squares, 37% of
the total. The Long-headed Poppy is much less widespread, reported in 177
Squares, 12%. I found the Common Poppy in 92 squares, 54% of those I
visited, and the long-headed Poppy in just seven, 5% of the total. One
possible reason is that the long-headed poppy perhaps flowers earlier, and
for a briefer period than the Common Poppy. I discovered it once or twice
in fields, effectively invisible because it had ceased flowering. But it is
clearly a species that has to be sought for, and my methods were unlikely to
find it. The Plantlife Survey wanted habitat details, and it is worth noting
that 57% of my sightings were on roadsides, and only 22% in fields.
Gardens and waste sites made up the remaining 20%.

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A note on the growth rate of ancient Hawthorns

R.L.Bland
11 Percival Rd BS8 3LN

There are a number of ancient hawthorns on the Bristol Downs, often with
twisted multi trunks, and ageing them is a problem. Hawthorns, like other
shrubs, grow much more slowly than trees, and the fact that they do not
have a massive girth has had the consequence that their potential age is
usually underestimated. Their trunks thicken in the manner of all trees for
many years, but as they get older, like many shrubs, they tend to sucker
from close to the trunk, and thus become multi trunked. This process can be
readily observed on the Downs. I was recently able to count the rings of an
old branch that had been trimmed from an older trunk. The branch had a
diameter below the bark of 180mm, and the rings were very close set. I was
able to count 22 rings on a 20mm section of radius, so that the implication
was that this branch was 90 years old. The diameter of the trunk of which it
was a part was 426 mm, implying an age of 200 years. A tree of that oage
would have a diameter four times as great. The Hawthorn had four separate
trunks, with a total circumference around them of 3200mm, though there
were of course large gaps between the trunks. This would imply a
maximum age of 500 years, making the tree one of the oldest in Bristol.

The rule of thumb for the growth of most British trees in an open situation
is an increase in circumference of 26mm year. This is exceeded by Poplars,
Willows, and alien species such as Sequoia, and is less for trees growing
inside woods, and in situations where the soil is poor, such as on cliffs. The
rate also initially reduces after pollarding, or other severe damage to a tree.
It seems likely that the growth rate of the circumference for Hawthorn, and
perhaps for similar shrub species in an open situation, is about a quarter of
this, or 6mm a year. A hawthorn in a hedge is likely to have a much lower
rate of growth, as it is in effect more or less continuously pollarded.
Hawthorns and other plants in hedges laid in the traditional way often have
large and very complex boles that are very difficult to measure, but their
circumference provides a potentially significant method for estimating the
age of hedges which must be at least as old as the oldest plant within them.

62

Mycological records for the Bristol area 2004
Justin Smith

After a disastrous year in 2003, rain began to fall steadily from July 2004,
wetting the ground enough for many fungi to fruit. Many species of interest
were encountered, some rare, some simply overlooked of difficult to
identify. Some species were identified by Roy Betts of the North Somerset
and Bristol Fungus Group and are labelled RB, and others by Brian Spooner
at Kew, labelled BS.

Lepiota forquignonii. This is an olive tinged ‘parasol’ mushroom of
calcareous woodland Weston Big Wood.

Lepiota subalba. A whitish ‘parasol’ mushroom, also Weston Big Wood,
July.

Lepiota subgracilis. This species has never been found before by me, but
this year appeared at Goblin Combe, Blaise Castle, and Weston Big Wood,
July-October.

Lepiota oreadiformis. A rare species, recorded on calcareous grassland on
both Dolebury Warren and Walton Common, September.

Pholiota flammans. A fiery yellow shaggy capped species, though not rare,
found on Spruce at Folly Farm, August.

Inocybe phaeoolisca. A small brown fungi of mixed woodland, with a
strongly contrasting cap margin to the umbo, Folly Wood, August.

Inocybe amblyspora sensu Kuhner. A small rust brown ‘fibre-head’. Among
Spruce, Oak and Hazel, Folly Wood, July.

Conocybe mesospora. Identified microscopically, a tawny orange small
species of woodland clearings and meadows, Dowlings Wood, September.
Conocybe semiglobata. A tawny orange species of open grassland only
identified microscopically, Dolebury Warren, September.

Russula melliolens. A rare species, with a slight honey smell when dry,
yellowish gills and a pink cap. Associated with Oak, Dowlings Wood,
September.

Hygrocybe ovina. A rare red data book waxcap, typified by duller
colouration than other members of the genus, found for the fourth year
running on Dolebury Warren, September.

Psilocybe pratensis. A small grassland species with a separable elastic
pellicle on the cap, Dolebury Warren, September.

Clitocybe costata. An overlooked ‘funnel cap’ discovered under Beech at
Blaise Castle RB.

Hypoxylon cohaereens var microsporus, An overlooked pyrenomycete
fungus on Oak at Blaise Castle, September. BS

63

Leucoagaricus croceovelutinus. A rare ‘parasol’ mushroom which bruises
reddish when touched. In calcareous beechwoods at Blaise Castle.
September.

Leucoagaricus badhamii. A rare ‘parasol’ mushroom which bruised
strongly brick red when touched. Weston Big Wood, October.

Panaeolus fimicola. A dark coloured ‘mottle gill’ of manured ground,
Dolebury Warren, September.

Rhodocybe gemima (R truncata). A large chunky reddish-brown species
forming fairy rings near Larch and Hawthorn on Ashton Court Meadow,
August-November.

Crepidotus calolepis. A stemless soft slipper toadstool with rufous scales on
the cap. Found on cut ash logs in a garden in Windmill Hill, October, and
Folly farm in August.

Psathyrella polycistus. An overlooked brittle cap in nettle scrub related to P.
gracilis and P. Microrhiza at Little Wood, Yatton, October.

Entoiloma euchroum. A blue-capped pink gill on Alder wood at Little
Wood, Yatton, October.

Limacella ochraceo-lutea. A very rare species in Europe (acc
Breitenbach&Kranzlin 1995), which was found in abundance at Weston Big
Wood, August-September. It was more abundant that on any previous
occasion since first found in 1997. There are currently only four sites
known in the UK. Typically it has a slimy yellow cap and stem.

Pluteus satur. An overlooked species, typically hygrophanous, unlike other
members of the genus. On an Ash log, Weston Big Wood, October.
Clytocybe agrestis. Part of an extremely difficulty group within the funnel
caps that turned up at Dolebury Warren, Itchington Common, and Ashton
Court Meadow.

Clitocybe foetens. A funnel cap from a difficult group of darker woodland
species, overlooked. Dowlings Wood, November.

Russula cessans. A rare pinewood species with ochre gills as found in R
melliolens, Ashton Court Meadow, October.

Tricholoma cinglatum A ringed pale greyish species found in a fairy ring
with Goat Willow, Ashton Court Meadow.

Hygrocybe aurantia splendens. A yellow wax-cap with primrose stem apex
at Ashton Court Meadow, October.

Volvariella surrecta. A parasitic mushroom on old fruitbodies of Clouded
Agaric, Clitocybe nebulans. Greyfield Wood, October.

Xerocomus (boletus) parasiticus. A parastitc fungus on Common Earth
Balls (Scleroderma citrinum) at Greyfield Wood, October.

Entoloma bloxamii. A rare blueish chunky ‘pinkgill’ variously interpreted
as an RDB, but typical of calcareous grassland, Dolebury Warren, October.

64

Lepiota calcicola. A rare scruffy brown ‘parasol’ mushroom of calcareous
woodland, Dowlings Wood, November.

Faerberia carbonaria. A rare species of cantharelloid fungus of firesites,
Dolebury Warren, December.

Tyromyces placenta. A pink poroid respiviate on a Larch log at Goblin
Combe, December.

Psathyrella brifrons. A new species for the Bristol area, found at Goblin
Combe in May and Blaise Castle in October. JS+RB

Coprinus spelaiophilus (syn extinctorius). A small inkcap at Folly Farm
inside an old hollow Ash trunk, November. RB

Creeping cinquefoil

65

Bristol Mammal Report 2004
David P. C. Trump
Windrush, West End Lane, Nailsea, Bristol BS48 4DB

e-mail: d.m.trump@tinyworld.co.uk

INTRODUCTION

The intention of this mammal report is to be a wide-ranging review of the
records and studies of mammals in and around the Bristol area and to report
on significant issues and events affecting British mammals in 2004. The
number of one-kilometre squares in which those species were positively
recorded is given in brackets after the scientific name, followed by the
number of one-kilometre squares for 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000. Where no
grid reference was provided, the record is not included in this total. The
former county of Avon covers an area of approximately 1300 square
kilometres, and so the number of 1 km squares for which records have been
received gives an indication of the abundance of each species. All grid
references are for the 100 km grid square ST. The differences between the
years is likely to be due to changes in numbers and locations of recorders
rather than changes in mammal abundance or distribution.

INSECTIVORA (hedgehogs, shrews and moles)

Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus (26 I-km squares for 2004, 26 for 2003,
45 for 2002, 38 for 2001)

There were road casualty records from the following 1-km squares:- 4363,
4463, 4666, 4670, 4671, 4677, 4770, 5266, 5281, 5633, 5661, 5672, 5773,
5777, 5779, 5780, 5781, 6668, 6894.

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Figure 1. Number of Hedgehog Road Casualty Records per Month 1996-
2004.

Nine years of data and 485 records of road casualty Hedgehogs show two
main peaks, a smaller peak in May when most Hedgehogs have emerged
from hibernation and a larger peak in July/August when the young of the
year disperse (Fig. 1). Hedgehog road casualties have now been recorded in
every month of the year except February.

Other records from: 4870, 5572, 5585, 5773, 5876, 6075, 6893.
Recorded by RLB, JFB, PJC, ED, HN, S&JP, JR, DT, MT, DWi.

‘How will hedgehogs cope in the big city?’ A group of 46 hedgehogs from
the island of Uist in the Outer Hebrides were to be released into gardens in
Bristol to see how successfully they would adapt to a new environment.
Professor Steven Harris of the University of Bristol planned to fit the
hedgehogs with radio transmitters to see how the released hedgehogs
behave and interact with the local hedgehog population. The project, partly
funded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, aims to see whether it
is possible and humane to relocate hedgehogs (Bristol Evening Post 4 May
2004).

Mole Talpa europea (63,56,63,69, 151)

Records of Mole hills from the following 1-km squares: 4169, 4569, 4565,
4566, 4873, 4964, 5064, 5071, 5072, 5165, 5276, 5371, 5372, 5373, 5376,
$377, 5471, 5472, 5473, 5476, 5478, 5479, 5571, 5572, 5577, 5585, 5669,
5670, 5678, 5779, 5878, 6071, 6083, 6176, 6188, 6276, 6269, 6271, 6278,
6281, 6371, 6376, 6377, 6380, 6379, 6477, 6478, 6479, 6582, 6583, 6783,
6972, 7083, 7376, 7474, 7475, 7573, 7574, 7677, 7685, 7777, 7962, 7985.

Recorded by RLB, PJC, JR, DT.

Common Shrew Sorex araneus (2,5,4,3,1)

Records from the following 1-km squares: Nailsea West End (4569) - one
found dead in garden (DT); Pilning (5585) - several records form a large
rural garden — all killed by cats (JR).

Pygmy Shrew (0,6,4,0,0)
No records for the year.

Water Shrew Neomys fodiens (2, 2,2,0,0)

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Two records for the year; one seen feeding in tidal debris at Severn Beach
(5384) on 21 March (PB); One flushed from boulders by high tide at Severn
Beach (5385) on 21 March (BL).

The Mammal Society is concerned that the water shrew may be
disappearing from our countryside due to habitat loss, pollution and
pesticide use. They are running a study where volunteers place small tubes
containing food near water for two weeks. Shrews will hopefully eat the
food and leave their droppings. The study will provide a baseline against
which further studies can be measured. (BBC Wildlife 22 (7) July 2004).

The Avon Wildlife Trust undertook a ‘Mammal Society’ water shrew
survey of a number of sites in North Somerset between December 2003 and
February 2004. Of the 23 sites, 11 were nature reserves, two were fisheries,
seven were on agricultural land, two were owned by local water authorities
and one was an urban site. At each site a number of bait stations were set
out (48 in total, on different types of water course or water body), each
comprising 5 plastic tubes baited with castors (blow fly pupae). Ten sites
(including five nature reserves) were positive for water shrews, determined
by the presence of aquatic invertebrate exoskeleton remains in the scats
collected from the tubes. Of the 48 bait stations, 12 were positive for water
shrews. (North Somerset Otter Group Newsletter, Issue 16 Spring 2004).

CHIROPTERA (Bats)

Greater Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (0,1,1,0,1)
No records for the year.

Lesser Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus hipposideros (0,4,9,0,3)
No records for the year.

Whiskered Bat/Brandt’s Bat Myotis mystacinus/brandtii (0,1,1,0,0)
No records for the year.

Natterer’s Bat Myotis nattereri (0,1,3,1,3)
No records for the year.

Bechsteins Bat Myotis bechsteinii (0,1,1,0,0)
No records for the year.

Daubenton’s Bat Myotis daubentoni (2,0,2,1,0)

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Two records for the year, one seen flying over the pond in Sneyd Park
Nature Reserve (5575) on 9 May (ED) and one flying over Herrriot’s Pool
at Chew Valley Lake (5758) on 6 November (BL).

Serotine Eptesicus serotinus (0,2,2,0,0)
No records for the year.

Noctule Nyctalus noctula (4,4,4,3,1)

Records from Grebe Pond, Northwick (5586) - 4 seen hunting over pond on
4 September (BL); Sneyd Park Nature Reserve (5575) — up to 3 seen
foraging May/July (ED); Aust Warth (5688) — 1 seen on 14 October (BL);
Dundry (5666) — 2 seen flying above road and hedges on 25 June (ED).

Leisler’s Bat Nyctalus leisleri (0,0,0,1,0)
No records for the year.

Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Soprano Pipistrelle
Pipistrellus pygmaeus (6,5,12,4+,3)

Recorded between May and September from the following 1-km squares:-
Easton-in-Gordano (5175) — up to 30 in a bungalow roof in August (DT);
Chew Valley Lake (5658) — one hanging from roof of fisherman’s hut by
the gate to the Stratford Hide on 4 May (S&JP); and flight records from
5575, 5684, 6069, 6271.

Records from ED, S&JP, JR, DT.

Nathusius’ Pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii (0,0,0, 1,0)
No records for the year.

Brown Long-Eared Bat Plecotus auritus (0,1,1,0,0)
No records for the year.

Bat Studies at Bristol University

Research at the University of Bristol (Wickramasinghe et al 2004) has
shown that many British bat species may prefer to forage on insects on
organic farms rather than conventional farms. Bat activity was found to be
61% higher on 24 organic farms in England and Wales than on 24 matched
conventional farms. Insect abundance, species richness and moth diversity
were also significantly higher on organic farms. Their observations suggest
that agricultural intensification has a profound impact on nocturnal insect
communities. Less-intensive farming benefits British bat populations by

69

providing and maintaining diverse and structurally varied habitats, which in
turn provide a wide selection of insect prey for bats, including insect
families that are significant components of the diet of a number of rare bat
species.

LAGOMORPHA (Rabbits and Hares)

Brown (European) Hare Lepus europaeus (6,24,10,11,34)

Records from the following 1-km squares: 5864, 6464, 6563, 6864, 7275,
7476.

Two adults seen in arable farmland at Norton Hawkfield (5864) on 22 May;
2 seen on recently ploughed field at Compton Common (6464) on 21 April;
3 seen in mixed farmland at Tucking Mill (6563) on 12 April; 2 seen
chasing over fields at Stanton Prior (6864) on 16 March; single hares seen
at Lower Ledge Farm (7275) in 14 April and at Hinton Hill (7476) on 4
August.

Recorded by PJC, PGF, S&JP.

The Dorset Wildlife Trust ‘Tracking the Dorset Hare’ project received an
impressive 1,317 sighting records from 500 recorders. Hares had re-
colonised some areas and there has not been a significant contraction in the
overall range for brown hares in Dorset. This information will be used to
help farmland wildlife advisers with the Wildlife Trust and those with the
Dorset Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and other organisations target
resources (such as the new Defra Environmental Stewardship scheme
launched in March 2005 - DPCT) at the areas supporting core populations
of hares. (Wildlife Reports British Wildlife 15 (4) April 2004).

A three-year study of brown hares in the Pawlett Hams area north west of
Bridgwater between 2000 and 2002 revealed a considerable amount of
information on the habitat requirements of this species (Smith et a/ 2004).
Hares were cage-trapped and fitted with radio collars and their movements
and habitat use were recorded. Mean home range size was 34 ha, with large
ranges in the winter and spring. Hares selected fallow land and pasture
grazed by cattle in preference to arable crops throughout the year, except
during the winter when crops were suitable as forage. Pasture grazed by
sheep was avoided in all seasons but winter. Hares were found to select
habitats with taller vegetation during the spring and summer. Many of the
habitats selected were heterogeneous in structure mainly due to cattle

70

grazing and hares avoided short homogeneous vegetation in all seasons.
They conclude by stating ‘/ncreasing habitat heterogeneity at the farm
scale may benefit hares, especially in highly homogeneous, intensively
managed landscapes. However, managers of pastural farmland should aim
to increase habitat heterogeneity at the within-habitat (or within field) scale
in particular, to provide better cover throughout the year. Agri-
environment schemes should target the regeneration of heterogeneity in
pastural landscapes, by encouraging changes such as an increase in fallow
land and a reducing in livestock diversity. Such shifts in management are
likely to benefit both hares and farmland biodiversity in general.’

Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (68,52,36,19, 105)

Records from the following 1-km squares: 3561, 4465, 4466, 4566, 4673,
4665, 4666, 4677, 4759, 4761, 4872, 4861, 4868, 4873, 4874, 4964, 5063,
5069, 5072, 5170, 5266, 5280, 5382, 5371, 5378, 5379, 5380, 5383, 5472,
5473, 5478, 5479, 5485, 5584, 5568, 5555, 5586, 5584, 5658, 5683, 5669,
5671, 5672, 5679, 5769, 5779, 5780, 5781, 5862, 5988, 6176, 6184, 6285,
6369, 6371, 6380, 6479, 6583, 6684, 6780, 6767, 7272, 7577, 7677, 7685,
7863, 7968, 7974.

Recorded by RLB, PJC, EN, S&JP, JR, DT, DWa.

RODENTIA (rats, mice, voles and squirrels)

Brown Rat Rattus norvegicus (9,9, 13,6+,17)
Records from the following 1-km squares: 5385, 5585, 5683, 5777, 5781,
5782, 6069, 6071, 7559.

Recorded by BL, JR.

Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis (62,59,37,50,77)

Records from the following 1-km squares: 4170, 4469, 4569, 4570, 4566,
4668, 4677, 4769, 4777, 4870, 4971, 4972, 5170, 5271, 5272, 5372, 5373,
5377, 5471, 5473, 5476, 5477, 5585, 5572, 5573, 5577, 5579, 5669, 5675,
5076,°5677, 5673, 5678, 5685, 53769, 5772, 5776; 5777, 5778, 5779, 5781,
5873, 5874, 5978, 5979, 6071, 6170, 6175, 6176, 6178, 6268, 6269, 6271,
6272, 6273, 6275, 6276, 6280, 6371, 6376, 6477, 6584.

Recorded by RLB, JFB, EN, JR, S&JP, DT, MT.

Water Vole Arvicola terrestris (1,2,2,2,0)
One seen swimming in a ditch at Avonmouth (5379) in May (RLB).

dal

Local Water Vole News

Following the successful release of 70 water voles at Royal Portbury Dock
last year, a second group of 83 voles were released at a new site at the docks
on 30 June. The voles had been bred in captivity at Bristol Zoo from the
original group of animals rescued from the wild more than five years
previously (Bristol Evening Post 30 June 2004).

Bank Vole Clethrionomys glareolus (1,5,6,1,4)
One record from West End Nailsea (4569) — one seen at bird table (DT).

Short-tailed Field Vole Microtus agrestis (1,5,7,2,2)
One record from a Pilning garden (5585) (JR).

Harvest Mouse Micromys minutus (0,0,0,1,0)
No records for the year.

Common Dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius (0,1,1,0,?)
No records for the year.

Michael Woods reported on the South West Dormouse Project using
dormouse ‘tubes’ (devised by Dr Pat Morris as a method of detecting the
presence of dormice in non-typical habitats). Nearly 2000 dormouse ‘tubes’
made from corrugated plastic were put in place in March 2004 in a variety
of habitats in Avon, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. Dormice, or
their nests, were recorded in 32 of the 117 sites in every month from April
through to November, with peaks in May and September. Dormice were
found in a range of ‘scrub’ habitats including two sites where the cover was
described as ‘light’ (<25%). One ‘scrub’ site was almost pure gorse!
Dormice were found in a wide range of hedges, from the wide unmanaged
species-rich hedges (where they were expected) to ‘a tightly flailed 1m
metre wide, 1.5 metre high hedge’. Dormice were found in 50% of the
conifer plantations and only 20% of deciduous woodlands (perhaps they
could not find many natural nest sites in the conifer plantations). Dormice
were found at two ‘Culm grassland’ sites and at one site in an area of
heathland adjacent to a scrubland site. The results of the survey confirm the
recent view that dormice are found in a much wider range of habitats than
just species rich woodland and hedegrows. Indeed recent records in
Somerset indicate that dormouse nests are being found increasingly
frequently in clumps of pendulous sedge Carex pendula growing in
woodland rides and damp corners (Mammal News 137 Spring 2004).

72

Wood Mouse (Long-tailed Field Mouse) Apodemus sylvaticus (3,9,5, 7,6)
Records from the following 1-km squares:- 4673, 5572, 5770.

Wood mice were caught regularly in Longworth traps at Clapton Moor
Nature Reserve (4673) in March and September.

Recorded by JFB, J&DM, DT.

House Mouse Mus domesticus (1,3,1,4,3)
Several records from a large rural garden in Pilning (5585) (JR).

Yellow-necked Mouse Apodemus flavicollis (0,0,1,0,0)
No records for the year.

CETACEA (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and PINNIPEDIA (seals)

Harbour Porpoise Phocoena phocoena (1,0,0,0,0)
One seen off the sea wall at Severn Beach (5384) on 27 November (PB).

Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus (0,0,1?,0,0)
No records for the year.

CARNIVORA (carnivores)

American Mink Mustela vison (1,0,2,0,3)

A single mink seen hunting along river bank on the River Chew (5762) on
27 January (DWa). Simon Reece reports seeing very few signs of mink and
very few animals during the 2004 otter surveys (Bristol Avon Otter Survey
March 2005).

Stoat Mustela ermina (0,1,3,4,10)
No records for the year.

Weasel Mustela nivalis (4,6, 7,3,10)

Records from the following 1-km squares:- 5054, 5476, 5477, 5657.

All records were of individuals apart from Kings Weston (5477) — 2
‘playing’ in middle of road on 5 July.

Recorded by ED, DWa.

European Polecat Mustela putorius (0,0,2,2,?)
No records for the year.

73

The Mammal Society and Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) launched a three-
year Polecat distribution survey of Britain starting in January 2004. The
aim is to confirm the presence in as many 10km squares as possible over the
three year survey period and it is expected to confirm a significant
expansion in the Polecat’s range since the last survey finished in 1997.
Further details about the survey can be found on the VWT web-site at
www.vwt.org.uk (Mammal News 136 Winter 2003-2004). By the end of
May 2004, some 83 fresh specimens had been examined from 70 10km
squares. Pure polecats were collected from 10km squares ST59, ST86,
ST87 all of which include parts of South Gloucestershire. (Mammal News
138 Summer 2004).

Otter Lutra lutra (28+,19+,25,2+,24)

Otters in North Somerset

The North Somerset Otter Group undertook regular surveys of the
watercourses in North Somerset in 2004. The 24/25 April survey revealed
positive signs of at least three otters in the area — fresh spraint at Perry
Bridge on the Congresbury Yeo, on the Land Yeo at Flax Bourton and on
Uphill Great Rhyne. Older but still recent spraint was seen on the Blind
Yeo in Clevedon, the River Kenn near Midgell Farm and the Middle Yeo at
Tickenham Moor (NSOG Newsletter Issue 16, Spring 2004). The August
11/12 survey revealed the presence of otters on the River Ken at Midgell
Farm, the Land Yeo west of Nailsea, the Middle Yeo on Tickenham Moor,
the Congresbury Yeo and the Oldbridge River on Puxton Moor (NSOG
Newsletter Issue 17, Summer 2004).

Otters on the Bristol Avon in 2004

Otters continue to do well on the Bristol Avon and its tributaries with
positive signs, sightings etc from the following locations (information
summarised from the Bristol Avon Otter Survey report for March 2005 by
Simon Reece).

Bristol Frome*
Frenchay (6477) — spraint.

By Brook
Fountain Wood weir (8475) — spraints; Common Hill weir (8374) — spraints

and padding; Drewitts Mill (8369) — spraints; Box Mill/Box Water Garden
(8268) — spraints; Middle Hill Gauge (8168) — spraints; Shockerwick Bridge
(8068) — spraint.

74

Corston Brook*
Upper Lake (6964) — spraint; A4 Road Bridge (6965) — spraints; Railway
bridge (7065) — spraints.

Mells Stream
Edford Wood (6648) — spraints; Mells Bridge (7248) — spraints; Mells Pond
(7348) — spraints.

River Avon*

A46 bridge and saddle (7666) — spraints, padding and digging; Boat House
Road Bridge (7165) — spraints; Kelston Park (7065) — spraints; Lockkeeper,
Keynsham (6569) — spraints.

River Boyd*
Old Mill Weir (6871) — spraints.

River Chew*

Coley Reservoir (5855) — spraints; Shrow Bridge ( 5756) — spraints; Hollow
Brook Junction Pool (5960) — spraints; Denny Lane and Flume (5761) —
spraints and padding; Stanton Drew Bridge (5963) — spraint, padding and
digging; Bye Mills (6163) — spraints and padding; Publow Bridge ( 6264) —
spraints; Old Bridge and Weir (6464) — spraints; Woollard Bridge (6364) —
spraints and SIGHTING.

River Frome

Spring gardens (7749) — spraints, padding and diggings; Old Ford (7850) —
spraint; Langham Farm Weir (8054) — spraints; Tellisford Bridge (8055) —
spraint; Snarlton Farm (8157) — padding.

Sherston Avon
Cowage farm (9083) — spraint.

Wellow Brook*
Upper Weir (7357) — spraint; Middle and Lower Weir (7357) — spraint;
Bridle and Sleeper Bridges (5859) — spraint.

* = Rivers in the old county of Avon.

There have been regular sightings of otters during the year; at Ford on the
upper reaches of the River Chew (5953); on 10 October at Chew Valley
Lake (5658); at Wellow (7458) on 9 October; several times on the main
river in Bath (Bathampton weir to downstream of Bath city centre); two

a

together on the Somerset Frome at Iford. Road casualties were reported
from the Bathampton bypass (thought to be a small young bitch in
March/April) and from near Chippenham on 28 November (a large otter).

Badger Meles meles (37,31,50,42,77)

Records of road casualty badgers from the following 1-km_ squares:
3762(2), 4169(2), 4170, 4271, 4464, 4469, 4570, 4972, 5269(2), 5365,
5457, 5570, 5571, 5579, 5581, 5587, 5661, 5782, 6256, 6285, 6286, 6455,
7659, 7680.

607 |
|
50 | = 2004
|
| 2003
40+ y
| 4 m 2002
30 | a lg 1 2001
Tak wt
on! Hi ] 2000
| \ Eas 6 ;
| Pid 1999
| i f i 1998
ae ao 866

Figure 2. Number of Badger Road Casualty Records 1996-2004

Nine years of Badger road casualty figures with 319 records to date show a
large peak around March/April (peak breeding season) with a smaller peak
in August (dispersal of young) (Fig 2). There are few records between
November and January. This is the time of year when Badgers are at their
least active with the pregnant females underground in their setts prior to
giving birth to cubs between January and March.

Since records of road casualty badgers were recorded on a regular basis
(from 1996), a number of ‘hot-spots’ are apparent. 1-km squares with 3 or
more road casualty badgers area as follows:-

1-km Number of | Location/Notes

casualty

badgers

ST4169 MS near Clevedon (the overbridge at
76

Square road

ST414699 appears to be particularly
hazardous

A370 Cambridge Batch (Long Ashton
Bypass
A370 Barrow Wood (Long Ashton Bypass

A370 Long Ashton (bypass

B3129 Ashton Court/Beggar Bush Lane
A403/M49 Severn Beach

A370 Long Ashton (bypass
A370/B3128 Long Ashton (bypass

A4 Keynsham Bypass

A420 Wick

A further 46 1-km squares had 2 road casualty badgers and 133 1-km
squares had | road casualty badger.

The results give an indication of the most hazardous places for badgers (and
for road users) but are likely to be biased towards the routes driven by the
regular badger road casualty recorders. This is particularly true of the roads
around Nailsea, the M5 and the A370 where your county mammal recorder
lives. Never-the-less, 21 badger road casualties along a 5-km stretch of the
A370 between Cambridge Batch and Bower Ashton in 9 years is something
that the Highways Authority may need to consider taking action over. The
erection of badger-proof fencing along the road verges or the construction
of badger (and over wildlife under or over passes) could be considered.

Name/Number casualties in 2004
|Minorroads | Various CS

Falfield to Loxton

M4 Tormarton to Second
Severn Crossing

Meads __ to
77

A37 Temple

| etl es oe | Fanrington Gumey! M12)
Radstock

B3110 Bath to Hinton
Charterhouse

B4055 Shirehampton to Pilning

Other badger records as follows:- Dung pits alongside roadside hedge at
Clapton Moor Reserve (4673); — setts recorded at Tyntesfield (4971),
Ashton Hill Plantation (5270), Avonmouth (5378), Beggars Bush playing
fields (5473), Berwick (5580), Canford (5677), St George (6273), Wick
(7072); diggings/scrapes seen at Stoke Bishop (5676); up to 10 seen
regularly in a garden in Pilning (5585), regular sightings in Moorgrove
Wood, Henbury (5578) and a record of badgers killing caged hamsters at
Arnos Vale (6071).

Recorded by:- RLB, ED, BL, J&DM, JR, E&MT, DT, MT.

Jeff Rawlinson once again reports on the nocturnal activities of badgers in a
large rural garden at Pilning (5585). The first juvenile badger was seen on
25 May. A very small youngster was observed on 26 June. An amazing 14
badgers were seen in the garden at 22.02 hrs on 17 July. Figure 3
summarises the numbers of badgers seen in his garden throughout 2004.

Number of badgers seen
©

01/01/2005
01/02/2005
01/11/2005
01/12/2005

LO
(=)
(=)
N
=
90)
(=)
™—~S
sy
(=)

01/04/2005
01/05/2005
01/06/2005
01/07/2005
01/08/2005
01/09/2005
01/10/2005

. Numbers of badgers seen in a Pilning garden in 2004

=
0g
S
on
a’)
(oS)

78

An independent survey has highlighted that the culling trials of badgers due
to their possible role in transmitting TB has not been successful. The report
states that the trial may not be complete before 2008 which is twice as long
as originally planned. The number of cattle herds infected with bovine TB
has risen despite the trial. Interpretation of early results suggest that
“Reactive” culling is said to have led to a rise of 27% in herd infections, yet
this could also be a result of chance. (BBC Wildlife 22 (6) June 2004).

Whilst clearing out some drawers in an old cupboard, I came across a
fascinating article in the Bristol Evening Post of Thursday 27 August 1959,
entitled ‘Unique picture is boy’s reward for three late nights’. Robert
Baker, a 13-year old school boy from Canford Lane, Westbury-on-Trym,
saved up 8 months pocket money and bought a camera costing 55 shillings.
With flashlight equipment bought by his mother, he managed to take a
picture of a badger in his garden late one night. A family of badgers had
been visiting the Bakers’ garden regularly for the previous five years,
attracted by breadcrumbs put out to attract the birds and bread, milk and
cheese to attract the badgers. Mrs Baker thought that the badgers come
from Henbury Golf Course behind their home. Mr R E Greed, the then
director of Bristol Zoo, said ‘It is quite unusual for badgers — normally shy
nocturnal creatures — to frequent houses. They do however make very good
pets’. The same paper had an interesting football score line “Liverpool 4 :
Bristol City 2’ — no change there then!

Fox Vulpes vulpes (38,48,39,35,71)

Records of Foxes found dead on the road in the following 1-km squares (* =
Foxes found within the ‘Bristol’ boundaries): 4773, 5164, 5279*, 5382*,
5369, 5383, 5484(2), 5472, 5585, 5579(2)*, 5657, 5981, 6083, 6578, 7470,
7681.

Live foxes were seen in the following 1-km squares: 4569, 4770, 5378%*,
DATO" 25461, 3484-59479". 9585755157, 9084, 5/78", 57177, 5/81,.58/6",
5974*, 5975*, 6071*, 6075*, 6165, 6170*, 6260, 6975, 6986, 7884.

Jeff Rawlinson reports on the foxes living in a large rural garden in Pilning
(5575). Foxes (almost always individual animals) were seen in every month
except February (signs only) and December. On a number of occasions
foxes were seen at the same time as groups of up to 10 badgers. On several
occasions a large dog fox (the same individual?) was seen to run onto the
lawn ‘barking’ unsettling any badgers present (up to 10) which then
scattered allowing the fox time to feed. A large juvenile (vixen?) possibly

qo.

with mange, spent several hours in the garden during the day on 8
September.

Recorded by:- RLB, JFB, PJC, ED, PGF, HM, MM, LM, S&JP, CR, JR,
MS, CT, DT, MT, RW, JW.

ARTIODACTYLA (deer)

Red Deer Cervus elaphus (XX,0,1,0,1)
No records for the year outside deer parks.

Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus (26,33,27,20+,51)

Records from the following 1-km squares: 4272, 4475, 4572, 4677, 4758,
4865, 4875, 5070, 5072, 5169, 5269, 5276, 5372, 5373, 5476, 5655, 5659,
5660, 5864, 5858, 6369, 6564, 6864, 7167, 7774, 7974.

The largest groups of deer seen during the year were of 3 does and 2 fawns
seen at East Wood (4677) on 19 June, | buck and 3 does seen at Mendip
Lodge Wood (4758) on 24 May, 4 seen at Failand (5372) on 9 April, 5 does
seen at Sutton Hill (5958) on 8 April and up to 5 seen at Nunnery Point
CVL (5659) throughout the year. Most other sightings were of single
animals. Two road casualty deer were recorded, at Failand (5072) on 11
October and on the A370 at Cambridge Batch (5269) on 24 November.

Recorded by RLB, PJC, ED, PGF, EN, HP, S&JP, DT, MT, DWa.

Fallow Deer Dama dama (1,1,0,0,0)
A group of 9 animals including a buck with a fine set of antlers in field
below railway line at Bitton (6769) (S& JP).

Chinese Muntjac Deer Muntiacus reevesi (3,1,?1,0)
No records for the year.

CONSERVATION

In February 2004 Network Rail informed locals that woodland surrounding
both sides of the track for 2-km in the area of Coalpit Heath and
Winterbourne was to be felled. Due to the public outcry the work was
postponed. The council put tree preservation orders on all of the trees and
surveys have suggested the presence of both dormice and noctule bats.
Network Rail states that the work must go ahead to stabilise the
embankment but that bat and dormouse surveys will be carried out to

80

determine the action required before work can start. (BBC Wildlife 22 (5)
May 2004).

The State of Britain’s Mammals 2004

This third update reported on biodiversity action plans (BAP) and other
matters (Macdonald and Tattersall 2004). The report highlighted the threats
to Britain’s three most threatened mammal species, Water Vole, Red
Squirrel and Scottish Wildcat. Whilst there may well be a future for the
water vole with a combination of mink control and habitat management, the
red squirrel, threatened by the spread of grey squirrels and associated
outbreaks of parapoxvirus, seems likely to become extinct in England,
Wales and southern Scotland. Scottish wild cats are now critically
endangered having bred extensively with feral domestic cats and their legal
protection is jeopardised by uncertainty over their definition and
identification. As yet they are not even a priority for the BAP process.
Two other BAP species, pipistrelle bats and particularly otters appear to be
faring much better. For pipistrelles all 12 species action plan (SAP) have
been enacted and 18 of 20 actions in the otter SAP have been enacted. In
England otters have shown a five-fold increase in signs recorded at survey
sites between the first national survey in 1977-79 and the fourth survey in
2000-02.

NATIONAL MAMMAL SURVEYS

The Mammals Trust UK ((www.mtuk.org.uk) undertook two wide-ranging
surveys in 2004. The Living with Mammals Survey was a repeat of the
2003 survey in which participants were asked to record mammals in their
gardens, urban parks, churchyards, derelict land, allotments, golf courses
etc. in the months of April, May and June. Almost 900 people took part in
the 2003 survey and 24 different species of mammals were reported. Grey
squirrels were the most frequently reported species, being present at 68% of
sites. 56% recorded the presence of mice, voles or shrews and 42% of
surveyors noted the presence of bats. | in 7 sites were visited by deer and
rarer species including water voles, brown hares, red squirrels and common
(hazel) dormice were seen at 40 of the sites. The Mammals on Roads
Survey, which began in 2001 as the National Hedgehog Survey, asked
people to record mammals (both dead and alive) on car journeys between
July and September. In the first two years of the survey over 180,000 miles
of roads were surveyed and 21,000 mammals recorded. Half the terrestrial
mammal species in the UK have been recorded so far, with rabbits
accounting for about 50% of the sightings. It is estimated that between
30,000 and 50,000 deer and a similar number of badgers are killed on the
roads of the UK each year. The survey hopes to greatly increase our

8 |

knowledge of the abundance and distribution of mammals throughout the
UK.

The Winter Mammal Monitoring Project run by the Mammal Society and
the British Trust for Ornithology started its third year in November 2003. A
total of 23 mammal species were seen during the 2002/03 season. The most
commonly recorded species being rabbit, grey squirrel, fox and roe deer.
Regional and habitat distribution patterns were similar to that of the first
year of the survey. Foxes appeared to be the only truly generalist species,
being found evenly across all regions and habitats. Brown hares were most
frequently observed in northern and eastern England, favouring arable and
pastoral areas. Grey squirrels were most frequently seen in the north and
south-east from urban and woodland habitats. Muntjac were restricted to
sites in eastern England as were fallow deer, with a few sightings from
western England and Wales (Wildlife Reports British Wildlife 15 (3)
February 2004).

As part of the British Trust for Ornithology Garden BirdWatch project
recorders were asked to record species other than birds that were seen using
their gardens (Bird Table 40 Winter 2004). The pilot survey, run in 2003,
asked participants to record mammals using their gardens. Well over 5,000
Garden BirdWatchers took part in the survey. As expected ‘rural’ gardens
had higher reporting rates for virtually all mammal species (except
hedgehogs and foxes) compared to suburban and urban gardens. Initial
results suggest that 40% of urban gardens are visited by foxes. Perhaps
surprisingly hedgehogs were recorded in every month of the year, although
activity between December and February was very low. The results of the
survey are summarised in the table below:-

40.7% 46.2% 33.7%
44.6%
l

2
82

SURVEY TECHNIQUES FOR MONITORING MAMMALS

Mammal Review devoted an entire issue (Vol 34 nos | & 2 for 2004) to a
series of papers on survey techniques for monitoring mammals. Battersby
and Greenwood (2004) summarised the background to the setting up of the
Tracking Mammals Partnership - a monitoring network for UK terrestrial
mammals. Flowerdew ef a/ 2004) reviewed the small mammal monitoring
programmes from Britain, the two most extensive being the Mammal
Society National Woodland Small Rodent Survey (1982-1995) and the
ADAS Hedgerow Survey (1983-1992). Other surveys include H.N.
Southern’s Wytham Wood Index Survey (1049 to date) and the Mammal
Society Field Vole Survey (1995-97). They suggest that future small
mammal monitoring will need to take an integrated approach in which
information from direct and indirect monitoring is linked with broad-scale
data on changes in habitat availability. Other papers include monitoring of
grey and red squirrel populations using visual counts along line transects,
hair tubes, drey counts, cone line feeding transects and feeding signs on
whole maize bait at feeding stations (Gurnell ef a/ 2004), methods of
monitoring foxes and badgers by field signs (Sadlier et a/ 2004), the
imprecise science of monitoring woodland deer populations (Smart ef a/
2004), monitoring mammal population changes using counts of road traffic
casualties (Baker et a/ 2004) and monitoring cetaceans around Europe
(Evans and Hammond 2004).

LEGISLATION
The Hunting Act 2004 which came into effect at midnight on 17 February
2005, bans the hunting with dogs of all wild mammals, and all hare
coursing. Its intention is to end a practice that many people feel causes
unnecessary suffering to animals. There are some tightly drawn exemptions
to the Act, which allow hunting activities to take place in limited
circumstances and with the consent of the occupier or owner of the land,
such as:
ratting and rabbiting;
stalking and flushing out with up to two dogs; and
using a single dog under ground to flush out wild mammals, such as foxes,
in order to protect birds kept for shooting.
A person found guilty of an offence under the Act faces a fine of up to
£5,000, and could have their dogs, vehicles or articles used in hunting
confiscated.
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Following the publication of the
Rural White Paper ‘Our countryside; Our Future’, the Government were
required to ‘review.....the provisions of Part 1 of the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981 with a view to rationalising the identification and
protection of rare and endangered species and .... bring forward amending

83

legislation where necessary and where Parliamentary time permits’. Of
particular mammal interest were the following proposals:-

e Proposal H:- to make it an offence to possess or sell European
protected animal species illegally taken from the wild in EU
member states.

e Proposal J:- to allow the issuing of a general licence to allow
the temporary taking of a Schedule 5 species in the living area of a
house for the sole purpose of releasing it back into the wild at the
same site. For example at present it is an offence to catch a bat
found in the living space of a house for immediate release outside.

e Proposal L:- to make it an offence whilst any snare or trap
remains set in position, to fail without reasonable excuse to inspect
it, or cause it to be inspected, at least once every day at intervals of
not more than 24 hours, taking into account the stress tolerance of
the target animal, its vulnerability to the prevailing weather, and
access by predators.

Responses to the consultation were required by 24 March 2005.
EXOTICS/BEASTS

Reports of large cats/panthers/leopards etc roaming the countryside
continue to circulate in the press but as yet there have been no confirmed
sightings.

Charlie Wilson asked the question ‘Could we live with reintroduced large
carnivores in the UK?’ (Wilson 2004). Literature on the wolf Canis lupus,
brown bear Ursus arctos and lynx Lynx lynx indicate that only the Scottish
highlands could support potentially viable populations of these species with
their large home ranges and low population densities. The highlands also
have a relatively low human population and relatively high wild ungulate
(principally red deer) density. The general public are generally favourable
to species re-introductions and to carnivores, but are not supported by those
most likely to be adversely affected such as livestock farmers. He concludes
that the re-introduction of the lynx may be feasible but that habitat
sustainability and the potential impact on vulnerable native wildlife needs to
be assessed. Socio-economic and legal issues also need to be addressed
before such a re-introduction can be considered.

The Wild Boar Sus scrofa population in Dorset still survives despite a
number being hit by vehicles and others being shot by farmers and
landowners (Charlie Wilson pers. comm.). There were rumours of a group
of wild boar having escaped from a farm in the Symond’s Yat area of the

84

Forest of Dean (notices seen at the Symond’s Yat Forestry Commission car
park).

LUNDY in the 1950s

The official guide to Lundy by F.W. Gade from c 1957 had an interesting
section on the mammals found on the island in the Bristol Channel. ‘The list
of mammals is short. The Atlantic Grey Seal haunts the shores in
increasing numbers, and some breed. The only known breeding place ins
the Seal’s Hole on the south coast, a sea cave 100 yards long terminating in
a gravel floored chamber 60 feet high, which is not touched by the tide.
The last census of seals gave a population of over 80. Rabbits are
numerous, though not so plentiful as 20 to 30 years ago. The black rabbits
among them are not the result of introduction of tame rabbits, but melanistic
types due to inbreeding. Both brown and black rats are fairly plentiful,
especially the former, and the list is completed by a large population of
pigmy shrews. Mr M.C. Harman, a keen naturalist, introduced three kinds
of deer in 1927, red, fallow and Japanese Sika. The two former are now
extinct, but the Sika deer thrive and number between 50 and 60.’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks to all those who provided records and information for this year’s
report:

Richard Bland (RLB), Paul Bowerman (PB), John Burton (JFB), Paul
Chadwick (PJC), Ed Drewitt (ED), P G Farmer (PGF), Gareth Jones, Brian |
Lancastle (BL), Lesley MacDonald (LM), Joan and Dennis Marsh (J&DM),
Mo McManus (MM), Harry McPhillimy (HM), H G New (HGN), Edward
Niblett (EN), Helen Phipps (HP), John and Sue Prince (J&S P), Jeff
Rawlinson (JR), Simon Reece, Chris Rumble (CR), Mike Shotter (MS),
Chris Thirlway (CT), David Trump (DT), Eric and Mary Trump (E&MT),
Mary Trump (MT), Jan Walters (JW), David Warden (DWa), David Wilcox
(DW1), Ruth Williams (RW).

REFERENCES

Baker, P.J., Harris, S., Robertson, C.P.J., Saunders, G. and White, P. (2004)
Is it possible to monitor mammal population change from counts of road
traffic casualties? An analysis using Bristol’s red foxes Vulpes vulpes as an
example. Mammal Review 34 (1/2) 115-130.

Battersby, J.E. and Greenwood, J.J.D (2004) Monitoring terrestrial
mammals in the UK: past, present and future, using lessons from the bird
world. Mammal Review 34 (1/2) 3-29.

85

Evans, P.G.H. and Hammond, P.S. (2004) Monitoring cetaceans in
European waters. Mammal Review 34 (1/2) 131-158.

Flowerdew, J.R., Shore, R.F., Poulton, S.M.C. and Sparks, T.H. (2004)
Live trapping to monitor small mammals in Britain. Mammal Review 34
(1/2) 30-50.

Gurnell, J.; \Lurz, P.W.W., Shirley, M.D.F., Cartmel,S..Garsonwy PA),
Magris, L. and Steele, J. (2004) Monitoring red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris
and grey squirrels Sciurus carolinensis in Britain. Mammal Review 34 (1/2)
51-74. |

.Macdonald, D and Tattersall, F (2004). The State of Britain’s Mammals
2004. People’s Trust for Endangered Species/Mammals Trust UK.

Sadlier, L.M.J., Webbon, C.C., Baker, P.J. and Harris, S. (2004) Methods
of monitoring red foxes Vulpes vulpes and badgers Meles meles: are field
signs the answer? (2004) Mammal Review 34 (1/2) 75-98.

Smart, J.C.R., Ward, A.I. and White, P.C.L. (2004) Monitoring woodland
deer populations in the UK: an imprecise science. Mammal Review 34 (1/2)
99-114.

Smith, R.K., Vaughan Jennings, N., Robinson, A. and Harris, S. (2004)
Conservation of European hares Lepus europaeus in Britain: is increasing
habitat heterogeneity in farmland the answer? Journal of Applied Ecology
41 1092-1102.

Wickramasinghe, L.P., Harris, S., Jones, G. and Jennings, N.V. (2004)
Abundance and species richness of nocturnal insects on organic and
conventional farms: Effect of agricultural intensification on bat foraging.
Conservation Biology 18(5) 1283-1292

Wilson, C.J. (2004) Could we live with reintroduced large carnivores in
the UK? Mammal Review 34 211-232.

86

Wall-rue
Bristol region Invertebrate Report, 2003
R. J. Barnett
City Museum, Queens Rd BS8 IRL
E-mail: ray_barnett@bristol-city.gov.uk

INTRODUCTION

The publication of the Butterflies of the Bristol region in July was an
important event as it placed in the public arena the results of the Avon
Butterfly Project. The Project has collected data on our species since the
beginning of the 1990s. The results, coupled with the summary of the
historic status of our butterflies, are somewhat depressing. The extinction
from the “Avon” area of the Duke of Burgundy, Pearl-bordered Fritillary,
Marsh Fritillary and Glanville Fritillary (the latter an introduced, but well
established colony) since the start of the Avon Butterfly Project should raise
alarm bells as to the fate of other species which are now declining in the
region. Of these, the Chalkhill Blue, Small Blue, Small Pearl-bordered
Fritillary and Grayling are of great concern and coupled with the Brown
Hairstreak, Grizzled and Dingy Skippers are now the species identified as in
need of special attention by those with responsibility for sites where they
still occur. The species listings below include records of Marsh and
Glanville Fritillaries which apparently contradicts the findings of the Project
that these species have disappeared. In fact the Marsh Fritillary was lost
several years ago and these sightings represent the introduced colony which
may just be clinging on at Folly Farm with regular searches only turning up
a couple of individuals. The Glanville sighting is intriguing as it has not
been seen at its Sand Point location and although the individual seen could
have come from there perhaps it could also represent recently released
stock?

As regards other butterfly sightings during 2003, it was an unexceptional
year. Activity of our over-wintering species began in earnest around the 22
February. Later in the year, vanessids, such as the Small Tortoiseshell,
seemed to be present in good numbers which is good news following some
concerns in previous years over the abundance (or lack of) of some of the
commoner butterflies. Despite it being an interesting year for immigrant
moths, the only immigrant butterflies very much in evidence were Painted
Ladies and a relatively small number of Clouded Yellows.

Once the the butterfly book was completed, work increased on its
companion volume the Moths of the Bristol region. This is an altogether
bigger project given the 1,500+ species that have been recorded in the last

87

two hundred years. The Bristol & District Moth Group continued to hold
light trapping meetings from spring to autumn and to encourage individuals
to take up recording of moths. The greatest gaps of knowledge remain in
the smaller species and particularly where recording is best achieved by
identifying larval mines and the larvae themselves. Historical research on
the moths, in particular of records by previous members of the Bristol
Naturalists’ Society, has identified various species to search for in the
remaining months before publication is expected, hopefully in 2005. Best
records during 2003 include the Small Marbled, recorded at the moth trap of
Bill Dixon, near Portishead. The appearance of this immigrant (only the
second ever noted in the “Avon” area) reflects the excellent year this was
for other immigrants especially the Humming-bird Hawk-moth and the
Convolvulus Hawk-moth. Larvae of the latter species were reported as well
as larvae of the Death’s Head Hawk-moth, always a spectacular species to
witness. A foreign species which appeared in Somerset due to the
international trade in garden and house plants was a Saddle-back Moth. 10
larvae were discovered on a plant thought to have been imported from the
Netherlands, but of North American origin, and came to notice as the larvae
have hairs which irritate human skin.

Of other insect groups, the expansion in range of the Long-winged Cone-
head seems to continue a pace and it can now be expected to be found
throughout our district. I am particularly grateful to Robert Cropper for his
records of this species and other orthoptera. Another example of a species
probably expanding its native range is the Box Bug, Gonocerus
acuteangulatus, which appeared in Bristol and presumably has adapted to
feeding on box in gardens and plant nurseries. These sources of foodplants
are thought to explain the spread of other species such as the Juniper
Shieldbug. Aside from the Hummingbird Hawk-moths and Convolvulus
Hawk-moths, an unconfirmed sighting of one other interesting migrant was
a possible Lesser Emperor Dragonfly at Chew Valley Lake, sadly not seen
long enough for its identity to be assured. The summer of 2003 was
particularly hot and this may account for an apparent increase in the number
of sightings of the large hoverfly Volucella zonaria in and around Bristol
and even in Burnham, as well as sightings of the rarer but closely related
species in our district, Volucella inanis. The latter reflects the national
increase of this species following a retreat into the south east of England
around the 1960s (Morris & Ball, 2003).

My thanks to all who have contributed to this report but also to those who
submitted records which do not appear, these still contribute significantly to
building up a picture of our invertebrate fauna, particularly in monitoring
our commoner species but whose status can change so easily. Thanks also

88

to the Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre (BRERC) and
contributors to the Bristol Wildlife e-group for supplying other data.

Scientific nomenclature follows the names given in Bradley (2000),
Chandler (1998) and Potts (1964).

Species of note in 2003
INSECTA

DERMAPTERA

Labia minor (L.) Lesser Earwig Several found in a dung heap on Westhay
Moor ST459 448 (vc6) 19 October 2003 Robert Cropper, the second record
for this 10km square for this increasing, but easily missed, species.

Forficula lesnei L. Lesne’s Earwig Another increasing but overlooked
species, small numbers were recorded in two separate hedgerows near
Keinton Mandeville ST550 299 and ST550 301 (vc6) 13 September 2003
Robert Cropper. (The latter record is the first known for ST53.)

ORTHOPTERA

Conocephalus_ discolor (Thunb.) Long-winged Conehead Well
distributed in ST66 (vc6) with all the following records by Robert Cropper
on 10 August 2003: good numbers along the eastern verge of the B3116
near Burnett ST666 646, at least one male in rough field at Saltford ST674
464, several in a rough field near Church Farm at Corston ST692 653,
colony in a rough field near the road at Stantonbury Hill ST679 636, a
single male just north at ST679 640. Other reports of this species by Robert
Cropper in vice-county 6 are: a large colony in a rough field at Draycott
ST478 512 11 August 2003, near an old railway line ST470 512 16 August
2003 (first records for this 10km square), a stridulating male at Pendon Hill,
Stawell ST359 380 and another in a field east of the village at ST374 384
20 September 2003 (new 10 km squares), stridulating males on the road
verge at Dulcote ST562 445 and on a field border at Worminster Sleight
ST566 426, plus a colony at Stoodly Hill ST581 418 in a field 27
September (new 10km square records), two stridulating males near Tin
Bridge Roundabout, Glastonbury ST511 404 and one on the verge of the
bypass at ST495 393 1 October 2003.

HEMIPTERA

Gonocerus acuteangulatus (Goeze) Box Bug Clifton, Bristol ST581 733
(vc34) 6 August 2003 Sam Trebilcock, det. Martin Evans. First record in

89

the area of this local species, apparently expanding its national range by
utilizing garden food plants.

Reduvius personatus (L.) Flybug Newton St Loe, Bath ST693 637 (vc6) 6
August 2003 Darrel Watts. One on a wall next to a moth trap. This
interesting species has a larva which coats itself with material from its
surroundings to camouflage itself against predation. The adult is dark
brown and fully winged. The insect is a nocturnal predator of other insects.
In the past it was a more familiar insect in houses where it hunted bed bugs,
for example.

LEPIDOPTERA (butterflies)

Boloria selene selene (D. & S.) Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
Dolebury Warren ST44 58 (vc6) one on 29 May and two on 20 June 2003
Jean Webb. Iron Acton ST692 828 (vc34) 16 August James Bond, the
single butterfly was presumably part of a partial second brood.

Argynnis paphia (L.) var. valezina Silver-washed Fritillary Tickenham
Hill ST445 724 (vc6) July/August 2003 Keith Giles. A mating pair of the
butterflies included a female of the local, dark form known as valezina.

Euphydryas aurinia (Rott.) Marsh Fritillary Folly Farm ST611 603
(vc6) 7 June 2003 Mr Brookman (one seen) and ST611 603, ST 612 603 &
ST613 604 Mary Wood & Craig Stenson 12 June 2003 (singles at each
site).

Melitaea cinxia (L.) Glanville Fritillary Tickenham Hill ST442 723 (vc6)
12 June 2003 Keith Giles. An individual was sketched at close quarters
after it landed on grass. A stiff breeze was blowing from the Sand Point
direction (clearly visible from Tickenham Hill) suggesting that the
introduced colony there has not died out as feared.

Hipparchia semele semele (L.) Grayling Sandford Hill ST42 59 (vc6) 18
August 2003 Jen Le Blanc, Martin Evans, Roger Edmondson. Three seen.

LEPIDOPTERA (macro-moths)
Rhodometra sacraria (L.) Vestal Timsbury, Bath ST659 587 (vc6) 9 — 12
August 2003 Mike Bailey. Several recorded of this regular immigrant.

Charissa obscurata (D. & S.) Annulet Durdham Down, Bristol ST564 747
(vc34) 18 July 2003 Ray Barnett. One specimen taken at light of this local

90

and possibly decreasing species. First recorded at this locality in the mid
19" century, good to confirm its continued presence.

Agrius convolvuli (L.) Convolvulus Hawk-moth — Bristol University,
Woodland Road ST58 73 (vc34) August 2003 per Gareth Jones. Fishponds
Allotments ST6 7 (vc34) 14 September 2003 — full grown larva det Ray
Barnett.

Acherontia atropos (L.) Death’s Head Hawk-moth Yatton ST4 6 (vc6)
Tony Moulin two larvae on potato.

Peridea anceps (Goeze) Great Prominent Tucking Mill, Bath ST764 615
(vc6) 9 May 2003, Bristol & District Moth Group. A very local species
known from larger woodland such as at Browns Folly and Wetmoor.

Noctua pronuba (L.) Large Yellow Underwing Shute Shelve ST424 549
(vc6) 23 March 2003 Paul Fletcher. A very early date for this common
species not usually seen until June.

Mythimna obsoleta (Hb.) Obscure Wainscot Portishead ST457 745 (vc6)
16 June 2003 Bill Dixon. Of localized occurrence in the region.

Eublemma parva (Hb.) Small Marbled Portishead ST457 745 (vc6) 6 July
2003 Bill Dixon, only the second known record in the “Avon” area for this
rare immigrant. The previous occasion was 2 March 1977 when Stephen
Blathwayt captured a specimen at Weston-super-Mare. There had only
been three previous records to that for the whole of Somerset.

Helicoverpa armigera (Hb.) Scarce Bordered Straw Timsbury, Bath
ST659 587 (vc6) 24 August 2003 Mike Bailey. A fairly regular immigrant.

Silene sp. Saddle-back Moth Brent Knoll ST3 5 (vc6) per Sam
Trebilcock 29 January 2003. Ten caterpillars of this North American moth
were discovered on Areca Palm plants at a garden centre. The route of
importation is thought to have been via nurseries in Holland. The larvae
have irritating hairs that can cause a painful reaction.

LEPIDOPTERA (micro-moths)

Adela croesella (Scop.) Urchin Wood, Congresbury ST449 641 (vc6) 6
June 2003 Bristol & District Moth Group. Littlewood, Kenn Moor ST438
683 (vc6) 8 June 2003 Ray Barnett. Stoke Bishop, Bristol ST760 553
(vc34) 16 June 2003 Martin Evans. Considered a very rare and unusual
species in our area until this clutch of records this year.

oi

Haplotinea insectella (Fabr.) Pilning ST556 849 (vc34) 14 July 2003 John
Martin det Mike Bailey. A scarce species nationally. Larvae scavenge
detritus and on fungi.

Monopis crocicapitella (Clemens) Pilning ST556 849 (vc34) 13 July 2003
John Martin det Mike Bailey. Another species which scavenges as a larva.

Tachystola acroxantha (Meyr.) East Wood, Portishead ST465776 (vc6) 26
September 2003 Bristol & District Moth Group. Well established alien in
the Weston-super-Mare area, originally from Australia, the larva feeds on
ornamental Eucalyptus trees.

Pseudatemelia josephinae (Toll) Brown’s Folly ST79 66 (vc6) 11 July
2003 Mike Bailey. The first record for our area, which as an adult requires
identification by reference to microscopic characters.

Blastodacna atra (Haw.) Apple Pith Moth Redding Pits, Winford ST533
639 (vc6) 4 July 2003 Bristol & District Moth Group. The larva feeds in
the flower and leaf bud causing the shoot to whither.

Pammene fasciana (L.) Redding Pits, Winford ST533 639 (vc6) 4 July
2003 Bristol & District Moth Group. A local species, larva in the fruit of
oak or sweet chestnut.

Thisanotia chrysonuchella (Scop.) Fry’s Hill ST43 55 (vc6) 5 May 2003
Paul Fletcher, two seen. A localized grass moth, restricted to relatively few
sites in the region.

DIPTERA (true flies)

Bombylius discolor Mik. Shute Shelve ST42 54 (vc6) 29 March 2003 Paul
Fletcher; Lower Woods, Wetmoor ST74 87 (vc34) 31 March 2003 Martin
Evans & Roger Edmondson; Cat Grove, S. Glos. ST661 959 (vc34) 14
April 2003 Martin Evans & Roger Edmondson; Siston Common ST668 743
(vc34) 22 April 2003 Martin Evans & Roger Edmondson. Much more
local than the common Beefly, B. major.

Volucella inanis (L.) Stoke Bishop, Bristol ST760 553 (vc34) 15 August
2003 Martin Evans. Rather similar to the following species. Was very rare
but is now increasing across southern England from the population
concentration in the south east.

oD

Volucella zonaria (Poda) Burnham-on-Sea ST311491 (vc6) 15 August
2003 Robert Cropper, one seen on a garden fence 1s the first record for this
10km square that we are aware of. This large hoverfly is widespread within
the city of Bristol and has benefited from milder winters recently and is
increasing.

Asilus crabroniformis Sandford Hill ST429 587 (vc6) 19 & 20 August
2003 Martin Evans & Roger Edmondson. A rare and localized species
found at scattered locations throughout the region.

REFERENCES

BRADLEY, J.D. (2000) Checklist of lepidoptera recorded from the British
Isles. (2nd edition, revised). D.J & M.J.Bradley, Hants.

CHANDLER, P. (1998) Checklists of insects of the British Isles (New
Series) Part 1. Diptera.
London, Royal Entomological Society.

MORRIS, R.K. & BALL, S.G. (2003) The changing distribution of
Volucella inanis (L.) (Diptera:Syrphidae). Br. J. Ent. Nat. Hist., 16 (4):
224-227,

POTTS, W.H. (1964) Kloet & Hincks, a checklist of British insects, part 1.
Small Orders and Hemiptera (2nd edition, revised). London, Royal
Entomological Society.

Ivy-leaved toadflax

93

Bristol region Invertebrate Report, 2004
RJ Barnett
City Museum, Queens Rd BS8 IRL
E-mail: ray_barnett@bristol-city.gov.uk

INTRODUCTION

2004 was a fairly quiet year with regard to invertebrate records. Butterfly
activity began in late January with movements of the usual hibernating
species such as the Peacock. However this was curtailed by some colder
weather in late February. The most interesting observations early on were
the reports of: Hummingbird Hawk-moths in March. Following the
exceptional number of these immigrant insects which were seen in 2003 it
would seem highly likely that these represented individuals which had
managed to over-winter, a recent phenomena noted elsewhere in England in
the last few years. A record of a further immigrant, the Dark Sword-grass
moth, in February could suggest that the Hawk-moths did actually result
from immigration but it is very unusual for these moths to arrive early in the
year. Over-wintering still seems the most likely explanation.

Other moth records of significance include the arrival of a species which
has been increasing across the British Isles since it first colonised our shores
a few years ago. Argyresthia trifaciata feeds on Leyland Cypress
Cupressocyparis leylandii and the like and has been aided in spreading
across the country by the trade in garden plants. It was only a question of
time before it was found here. Two other new species were Cydia amplana
and Crocidosema plebejana which have only recently been recorded as
regular immigrants to the British Isles. Their discovery, on subsequent
nights in the same light trap, coincided with very large numbers reaching
the south coast of England. Numbers of more usual immigrants were
generally surprisingly small. However Ken Poole was delighted to record a
Striped Hawk-moth in his garden a first in all his years of trapping there. A
second new species to his garden list in 2004 was the Chocolate-tip bringing
his garden list total to 360. Aside from immigrants, a Forester moth was
discovered by Dave Pritchard at Bannerdown, a species easily confused
with the Cistus Forester, and a species for which records had been appealed
for in 2003 with no success.

The occurrence of a single Colorado Beetle on an organic farm in Abbots

Leigh was undoubtedly due to importation of crops from Spain where the
beetle is known to occur.

94

A record of the very rare soldierfly Villa cingulata at Tucking Mill, near
Bath was reported in the Proceedings for 2000. To find this species in 2004
at Leigh Woods, during a public walk to look at the variety of insect life,
was a great surprise. This brings the recent British localities where the fly
has been seen to about half a dozen. Whether this apparent resurgence is
due to recent mild winters, and whether it will continue, are questions that
are difficult to answer. The mildness of our winters at present must be
responsible for the incredibly late report of a Common Darter in December
and also the continued reports of worker bumble-bees into the middle of
winter.

My thanks to all who have submitted records directly to the Society, to the
Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre (BRERC) and to the Bristol
Wildlife e-group. The importance of receiving, not just the records picked
out here, but those of perhaps less noteworthy species cannot be understated
in terms of monitoring the ever changing status of the invertebrate fauna.

Scientific nomenclature follows that given in Bradley(2000), Brooks
(1997), Chandler (1998), Duff (1993), Fitton et a/ (1978) Hayward ef al
(1996) and Potts (1964).

Species of note in 2004

INSECTA

Odonata (damselflies and dragonflies)

Hairy Dragonfly Brachytron pratense (Mull.) Weston Big Wood ST 45 75
(vc 6) 29 May 2004 Ray Barnett. (A local species but widespread in the
region, often hunts in woodland away from water.)

Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum (Charp.) Meare Heath, Somerset
ST4 4 (vc 6) 17 December 2004 Maggie Gamble. (A very common
species but an extremely late date.)

ORTHOPTERA

Long-winged Cone-head Conocephalus discolor (Thunberg) Gee Moor,
S. Gloucestershire ST656 729 (vce 34) 23 August 2004 Jenny Dowell &
Vicky Hale; Claverton Down, Bath ST77 63 (vc 34) 29 July 2004 Alan
Barrett; Chilcombe Bottom ST770 685 and ST764 685 (vc 34) 21 August
2004 Alan Barrett; Charmy Down Farm ST768 689 (ve 34) 21 August 2004
Alan Barrett; Near Charmy ST765 688 (ve 34) 21 and 28 August 2004 Alan
Barrett; Bathampton Down ST775 655 (ve 34) 10 and 19 August 2004 Alan
Barrett; Bathwick Fileds ST760 645 (vc 34) 10 August 2004 Alan Barrett;
North Road ST764 648 (ve 34) 10 August 2004 Alan Barrett; Bathampton
Meadows ST782 671 (vc 34) 17, 27 30 July, 10 August, 9 and 15

D5

September 2004 Alan Barrett. (A species which continues to expand its
distribution across southern England and within the Bristol region. Many of
Alan Barrett’s records were achieved by using a bat detector to detect the
calls of the insect.)

HEMIPTERA (true bugs)

Thyreocoris scarabeiodes (L.) Walton Common ST42 73 (ve 6) 03 May
2004 Ray Barnett. (A small species which is therefore often overlooked.)
Corizus hyocyami (L.) Weston Big Wood ST45 75 (ve 6) 24 April 2004
Ray Barnett. (The striking red and black bug is associated with the coast
but seems to be increasingly recorded more inland.)

Stictopleurus abutilon (Rossi) Siston Common ST668 742 7 September
2004 Martin Evans and Jim & Janet Boyd. (This bug was taken in the south
east of England in the 19" century but not seen again until the 1990s since
when it has been found at several sites in southern England. It is likely that
the species has colonised following the accidental introduction of specimens
from the continent into this country and it is now expanding its
distribution.)

LEPIDOPTERA (butterflies)

Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola (Ochs.) Brandon Hill, Bristol ST579
727 (vc34) 27 June 2004 Ray Barnett; Redding Pits ST533 637 (ve 6) 3
and 31 July 2004 Melanie Patch; St Catherine’s Valley ST769 713 (ve 34)
1 August 2004 Andrew Daw. (Undoubtedly regularly passed over as a
Small Skipper but the species is still inceasing in the region and becoming
more common. )

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary Boloria selene (D. & S.) Dolebury
Warren ST 451 589 (vc 6) 10 June 2004 Jean Webb; Sandford Quarry
ST42 59 (ve 6) 24 May 2004, Kurt Vickery & Paul Fletcher (over 25
individuals counted by KV on a day in June). (The future of this butterfly
in the region still looks bleak, where possible steps should be taken to
safeguard the remaining populations.)

LEPIDOPTERA (micro-moths)

Argyresthia trifaciata Stdgr. Filton, Bristol ST60 79 13 May 2004 Andy
Pym (First record for vc 34 and Bristol region, a species which was first
reported from the south east in 1982 and since it has been spread across the
country.)

Apodia bifractella (Dup.) Dryham Park ST7 7 (vc 34) March 2004 Mike
Bailey. (Larvae collected in March and reared to adults in July. An
inconspicuous and over-looked species.)

96

Crocidosema plebejana Zell. Pilning ST556 849 11 August 2004 John
Martin (First record for ve 34 and Bristol region, an increasing immigrant
to the south coast where it may be established.)

Cydia amplana (Hb.) Pilning ST556 849 10 August 2004 John Martin
(First record for vc 34 and Bristol region, a sporadic immigrant which
appears to be appearing more frequently in the British Isles)

Palpita vitrealis (Rossi) Timsbury, Bath ST659 587 (ve 6) 30 October
2004 Mike Bailey. (A fairly regular immigrant.)

LEPIDOPTERA (macro-moths)

Forester Adscita statices (L.) Bannerdown, Bath ST 79 68 (vc 34) 22 May
2004 Dave Pritchard. (A very localised species, easily confused with the
Cistus Forester.)

Cistus Forester Adscita geryon (Hb.) Walton Common ST42 73 (vc 6) 29
May 2004 Paul Chapman. (A nationally scarce species found in the Bristol
region on calcareous downland.)

Red-belted Clearwing Synanthedon myopaeformis (Borkh.) Victoria Park,
Bedminster, Bristol ST (ve 6) 7 June 2004 Andrew Duff. (Populations
breeding in street trees in Bristol may represent relicts from pre-
urbanisation times which have managed to maintain themselves despite the
growth of the city around them.)

Mullein Wave Scopula marginepunctata (Goeze) Wain’s Hill, Clevedon
ST39 70 (ve 6) 27 May 2004 Paul Chapman. (A species of local
occurrence along the coast of the region.)

Ruddy Carpet Catarhoe rubidata (D. & S.) Carlingcot, Bath ST695 582
(vc6) 28 June 2004 Martin Hunt. (A national scarce species of very
occasional occurrence in the Bristol region.)

Grass Rivulet Perizoma albulata albulata (D. & S.) Bannerdown, Bath
ST 79 68 (ve 34) 15 May 2004 Ray Barnett. (A local species confined to
meadows where Hay Rattle grows.)

Pinion-spotted Pug Eupithecia insigniata (Hb.) Near Portishead ST457
745 (vc 6) 08 May 2004 Bill Dixon. (A rare and unusual species even
though the larvae feed on Hawthorn.)

Death’s Head Hawk-moth Acherontia atropos (L.) Bedminster, Bristol
ST5 7 (vce 6) July 2004, identified at Bristol Zoo, unrecorded source; larva
at Weston Airfield ST34 59 (vc 6) Raymond Cook. (A scarce immigrant
but one or two appear in the region most years.)

Hummingbird Hawk-moth Macroglossum stellatarum (L.) High
Kingsdown, Bristol ST58 73 (vc 34) 17 March 2004 feeding at daffodil
Brian Tizard; St Andrews, Bristol ST 59 74 (vc 34) 24 March 2004 feeding
at Aubretia; Clifton, Bristol ST 5 7 (vc 34) 29 March 2004 feeding at
Viburnum tinus Richard Bland; Blagdon STS 5 (ve 6) 11 June 2004

97

Warwick White; Pilning ST556 849 (vc 34) 07 & 18 July 2004 John
Martin; Timsbury, Bath ST6 5 (vc 6) 28 August 2004 Cyril Matthews.
(The very early dates of appearance, the very high numbers of immigrants
moths recorded in 2003 and the lack of a similar immigration in 2004 all
point to the records early in the year representing over-wintered
individuals. )

Striped Hawk-moth Hyles livornica (Esp.) Weston-super-Mare ST33
61 (vc 6) 11 June 2004 Ken Poole. (A rare immigrant only very
occasionally reported from the region.)

Elephant Hawk-moth Deilephila elpenor (L.) Whitchurch ST6 6 (ve 6)
August 2004 Rich Andrews. (Larva found feeding on water lily in garden
pond!)

Buff Footman Lilema depressa (Esp.) Newton Park, Newton St Loe, Bath
ST693 639 (vc 6) 28 July 2004 Darrell Watts. (A species of local
occurrence but perhaps overlooked amongst Dingy Footman.)

Dark Sword-grass Agrotis ipsilon (Hufn.) Bishopston, Bristol ST58 75
(vc 34) 5 February 2004 Rupert Higgins. (A common immigrant but
included because of the very early date.)

Old Lady Mormo maura (L.) City Museum & Art Gallery, Clifton, Bristol
ST581 732 (vc 34) 01/07/04 and another individual 14/07/04 Ray Barnett;
Bishopston ST58 75 (vc 34) 31 August Rupert Higgins (6 in one night).
(Of local occurrence and unusual for so many to be seen together on one
night in the city.)

Small Yellow Underwing Panemeria tenebrata (Scop.) | Bannerdown,
Bath ST 79 68 (vce 34) 15 May 2004 Ray Barnett. (Probably over-looked
but still a localised species.)

Scarce Bordered Straw Helicoverpa armigera (Hb.) Timsbury, Bath
ST659 587 10 August 2004 Mike Bailey. (A fairly regular immigrant.)

COLEOPTERA (beetles)

Amara curta Dej. River Avon, Bristol ST574 722 (ve 6) 1 July 2004
Andrew Duff. (A Nationally Notable species of very localised occurrence,
Duff, 1993, for example, only gives three records for Somerset.
Sinodendron cylindricum (L.) Leigh Woods, Bristol ST55 73 (vc 6) 07
June 2004 Ray Barnett. (Widespread but local in woodland.)

Notoxus monocerus (L.) Sand Bay, Weston-super-Mare ST328 634 (vc 6)
08 May 2004 Ray Barnett. (A speciality of sandy coastal habitats, recorded
previously at Sand Bay in 1978 by Robert Cropper, for example, (Duff,
1993).)

Agrilus pannonicus (Pill. & Mitt.) Siston Common ST668 742 (vc34) 05
July 2004 Martin Evans and Jim & Janet Boyd. (First record for the Bristol
region and probably for vc 34, an adult beetle now in the collection of Janet
Boyd. This family of beetles (Buprestidae) is represented in the British

98

Isles by a small number of rather inconspicuous species but an important
part of the deadwood fauna.)

Colorado Beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) Near Bristol ST53 74
20 May 2004 per City Museum & Art Gallery. (An infamous but unusual
accidental import, thought to have arrived on produce from Spain.)
Platyrhinus resinosus (Scop.) Leigh Woods, Bristol ST55 73 (vce 6) 07
June 2004 Ray Barnett. (Widespread but local in woodland.)

HYMENOPTERA (bees, wasps and ants)

Hornet Vespa crabro L. Bishop Sutton ST585 598 (vc 6) one on 10
August caught in wasp trap and one in house 6 September, never seen
before in this garden between 1963 and 2003 inclusive, David Warden;
Walton Down ST4 7 (vc 6) 2004 Keith Giles; Horton Great Trench, Lower
Woods ST745 876 (vce 34) 16 May 2004 Martin Evans & Carolyn Lamb
and on 08 June 2004, Martin Evans & Roger Edmondson; Lower Woods,
ST751 883 (ve 34) 2004, Hazel Willmott (nest discovered).

Bombus terrestris (L.) Corsham, Wilts ST876 695 28 December 2004
Darrel Watts. (A very late date, bumble bee workers continued to be seen
in the region into the New Year.)

DIPTERA (true flies)

Villa cingulata (Meig.) Leigh Woods, Bristol ST555 731 (ve 6) 11 July
2004 (2 individuals, one taken) Ray Barnett. (After an absence of about 80
years, this species was re-discovered as a British insect in 2000 and since
has been found at a small handful of sites including, now, Leigh Woods.)
Meliscaeva auricollis (Meig.) (var. maculicornis (Zett.)) St Andrews,
Bristol ST59 74 (vc 34) 14 February 2004 Simon Randolph. (A very early
date, Levy & Levy 1998, for example quote the earliest ever known record
in Somerset as 21 February.)

Parhelophilus consimilis (Malm) Shapwick Heath, Somerset ST421 409
22 May 2004 Martin Evans & Roger Edmondson. (A Red Data Book 2
species known to be present on the Somerset Levels where it may be easily
over-looked.)

Volucella inflata (Fabr.) Weston Big Wood ST 45 75 (vc 6) 29 May 2004
Ray Barnett. (Widespread but local in woodland.)

HYDROZA

Chondrophora

By-the-wind Sailor Ve/ella velella (L.) Severn Estuary (vc 6 and 34) late
September 2004, many observers.

99

References

Bradley, J.D. (2000) Checklist of lepidoptera recorded from the British
Isles. (2" edition, revised). D.J. & M.J. Bradley, Hants.

Brooks, S. (1997) Field guide to the dragonflies and damselflies of Great
Britain and Ireland. British Wildlife Publishing, Hants.

Chandler, P. (1998) Checklists of insects of the British Isles (New Series)
Part 1 Diptera. Royal Entomological Society, London.

Duff, A. (1993) Beetles of Somerset. Somerset Archaeological & Natural
History Society, Taunton.

Fitton, M.G., de V. Graham, M.W.R., Boucek, Z.R.J., Fergusson, N.D.M.,
Huddleston, T., Quinlan, J. and Richards, O.W. (1978) Kloet & Hincks, a
checklist of British insects, part 4.._Hymenoptera (2"4 edition, revised).
Royal Entomological Society, London.

Hayard, P., Nelson-Smith, T. & Shields, C. (1996) Collins pocket guide
Sea shore of Britain & Europe. Harper Collins, London.

Levy, E.T. & Levy, D.A. (1998) Somerset hoverflies. E.T. & D. A. Levy,
Yeovil.

Potts, W.H. (1964) Kloet & Hincks, a checklist of British insects, part 1.
Small Orders and Hemiptera. (2" edition, revised). Royal Entomological
Society, London.

Fish on the River Chew
RL Bland from data supplied by the Environment Agency

The River Chew emerges from a spring in long dry valley at Chewton
Mendip at about 130m ASL, flows through Litton, is joined by three
streams emerging from springs above East Harptree, and is then rather
abruptly halted by Chew Lake, at a height of about 110m. This was flooded
up just fifty years ago, and is now a mecca for sailors, birds, and fishermen.
It is a wonderful wildlife habitat, well managed, and well stocked with fish.
Below the lake the river re-appears at a height of 90m, and flows for 12 km
to join the River Avon at Keynsham at a height which is just two metres
above the level of the highest spring tides. It is thus a vigorous stream,
falling a metre for every 130 metres of length. It also draws on a whole
series of minor streams draining Winford and Dundry to the north as well as
the Marksbury and Chelwood areas to the south. A minimum flow is
guaranteed, but in times of flood it can rise very abruptly and its bridges all
have high arches. For much of the way it lies between steep and
occasionally precipitous sides.

Its fish are monitored by the Environment Agency who carry out surveys at
four sites along its length, just beyond the Chew Dam, at Pensford,
Compton Dando, and Keynsham Park. Their results in terms of fish biomass
can be compared with those of around 1000 other sites in Britain. The Chew
ranges from exceptional below the Chew Dam to average at Compton
Dando and below average at Keynsham. Table | lists the sites and species
numbers. The numbers are distorted by the Chew Dam results; the Compton
Dando results are average.

FL Chew Dam | pene Compton | Ke stam
[Fel = | 67
|Gudgeon | 54
| Brown Trout | 2 | | 64
|Dace | | 62
| 20

ey

110 1080

Table | River Chew 2004. Fish caught at the four survey sites

Gs
ae
oe

101

They found 13 species present. Bullheads, Minnows and Stoneloach were
present at every site, and their numbers and biomass were discounted. 68%
of the fish caught were Roach, but this was because they were present in
huge numbers, 692, at the first survey point, just below Chew Dam, where
there is the sewage works outfall, which produces perfect conditions for
Roach. The biomass present at this site is higher than that of any other site

in the country, as the river, though not broad, is deep. In 2004 it also held
double the number of that in 2003.

The next commonest fish were Eel, and Gudgeon were found at every site,
commonest at the Chew Dam. 64 Brown Trout were found, mostly at
Pensford and Compton Dando and there were none at Keynsham. 62 Dace
were caught, and they had an almost identical distribution. There were 20
Perch, mostly at the Chew Dam, 18 Grayling, mostly at Pensford, eight
Chub in the lower reaches, and one Rudd and one Pike at the Chew Dam.

Chart 1 below shows the pattern of fish biomass along the length of the
river. The left hand scale is kilogrammes per hundred square metres

eee
i | t t + {
Dae 4-2-3: “4006 Pe- 7-+8 CD10 teak

Chart |.River Chew. Fish biomass at the four survey sites, bars, in
Kg/100m’ and , dotted line, interpolated values.

102

Sharp Eyes

“So fair and foul a day I have not seen” Macbeth

The weather has seldom been far from the lips of an Englishman, or a
Scotsman, but it has been fascinating to watch the way in which “Climate
Change” and “Global Warming” have moved up the political agenda. That
there are two phrases, not one, suggests a degree of fudge about the issue.
The study of climate is ancient, and arcane. We need to understand why, in
recent geological time, the climate has swung between the extremes of ice-
age and inter-glacial. That there are complex feed-back processes at work is
obvious, but what tips the world between the two systems is quite unclear.
Within historic times minor climatic swings have led to the rise and fall of
civilisations. The past two hundred years have seen an unparalleled human
population growth. The boxing-day tsunami demonstrated vividly the
degree to which this has created a situation where normal, if rare, natural
events can have dramatic human consequences.

The arrival of satellite technology, and computers, has enabled the
measurement of some of the factors controlling climate change, such as
ocean temperature and the ozone layer. But of all the environmental
problems the world faces global warming is the one whose causes are least
understood, whose effects are most likely to be felt in the distant future, and
which is the least accessible to human action and control. A cynic might
suggest that governments are concentrating on it to avoid seeking solutions
to the destruction of forests, the shortage of water, desertification, the
chemical pollution of the seas, the nitrate pollution of our rivers, the impact
of acid rain, the use, in just a couple of generations, of the whole world’s
supply of hydrocarbons, and, above all else, the continuing expansion of
world population.

Since 1853, when GF Burder began his thirty year study of the rainfall of
Clifton, members of the BNS have been recording the local weather in
detail. Their records show that there has been a warming process. The figure
for a rolling twenty year average annual temperature since 1881 shows that
temperature rose on average by 1.0C between 1900 and 1925, stayed at the
new level until 1960 and fell by 0.5C to 1980. Since then it has risen back to
the long term average since 1881, but we are still 0.3C degree colder each
year than we were fifty years ago. This does not mean that the science of
global warming is wrong. At the end of an interglacial one might expect the
world to be warming. It does mean that we would be foolish to assume that
carbon-trading will solve all our problems. The world will have to change
much more fundamentally than that. But let us take a crumb of comfort.
Environmental problems have reached the top table. They won’t be going
away.

103

Obituary. Rae Vernon 1929-2005

Professionally Rae Vernon worked as entomology adviser for the Ministry
of Agriculture, but he was always a bird-watcher at heart and became
actively involved in the fieldwork of the Ornithological Section of the
Society in the 1960s. In particular he participated in the early extension of
the winter duck counts, organized by the Wildfowl Trust from the early
1950s, to the waders and gulls of estuaries. This has since become a single
survey, known as the Wetland Bird Survey which every winter counts all
ducks and waders throughout the British Isles. He also became involved in
counting Rooks nests. This was a species that was very well studied because
many farmers regarded it as an agricultural pest, though there were others
who suggested that the damage it did by eating grain was counterbalanced
by its impact on wireworm. The area between the A38 and the Severn
Estuary had been counted annually from 1933 to the war by Brunsden
Yapp, who was a great pioneer of the systematic study of bird populations,
and a series of counts of the same area in the 1960s revealed a substantial
population fall from a peak in 1956.

This local work was to lead to the second national Rook survey organized
by the BTO in 1975. Bryan Sage and Rae were responsible for organizing
this and the results were published in Bird Study in 1978. It was a much
more effective study than the previous one in 1945. Five years later the
BTO organized a sample survey to check on population change, and the
opportunity was taken to re-survey the whole of Avon county. The national
results were published in bird Study 1985, the local ones in the Fieldwork
Review 1983. Rae was responsible for counting two 10km squares in that
survey. Subsequently counts have been organised every five years, and a
summary of the whole history of Rooks in the county written by Rae has
been published posthumously in the Avon Bird report for 2004.

In the 1980s Rae retired and moved across the river to Chepstow, and began
working on what was to be his magnum opus, an Atlas of the Birds of
Morocco. This was published in 2004, and voted one of the best bird books
of the year by British Birds in March 2005 who called it “a milestone in
African ornithology”.

Rae followed in the footsteps of a long line of notable local ornithologists
who have done so much to turn ornithology from a simple hobby to an exact
science.

R.L.Bland

104

Society Business

President and Council for 2004

The following officers and members of Council were elected at the AGM
on January 24'"2004. They are the Trustees of the Society.

Officers
President; Mr. S Carpenter.
Hon. Treasurer; Mr. RG Symes. Hon. Secretary; Ms. A M Leivers.

Hon. Librarian; Mrs. AF Hollowell Hon. Editor; Mr. P Belcher.
Hon. Membership Secretary; Mrs AM Wookey.

Hon. Distribution Secretary; Mr B Frost. Hon. Archivist; Mr SM Taylor.
Hon. Bulletin Secretary; Mr. DB Davies. Webmaster; Mr. D Strawford.

Section Officers.

Geology; Mr. DW Cope. Botany; Mrs. P Millman
Invertebrates; Mr. R Barnett, Mr AG Smith. Mammals; Mr DPC Trump
Ornithology; Mr. RL Bland, Dr. M Hill.

General Section; Miss S McCarthy.

Ordinary Members.
Miss SM Garden. Mr. T Corner. Mr.SJM Reece. Mr.R Muston.
Ms.A Pedlow. Mr. N JWray. Mr. HG Morris. Dr. WE Dixon.

Mr. E Drewitt.

Report of council for 2004

Simon Carpenter
This is an edited version of the report submitted to the Charity Commission.
Sections omitted repeat information available elsewhere in this publication.

In the course of 2004 the Society held 38 Field meetings and 27 indoor
meetings. Significant contributions were made by the Society to the Festival
of Nature held in the City in October. (see below). The Society’s President
organised an extraordinary meeting at Bristol Museum in July to provide
ordinary members with an opportunity to discuss the ‘way ahead for the
society.” Many aspects of the Society’s work were discussed and an action

105

plan produced by the President to highlight areas of the Society’s business
that could be improved and made more effective. David Hill, our
professional facilitator from Bristol University, was thanked for his support
and input on the day. Society representatives also met with the Managers of
Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre (BRERC) to discuss a
closer working partnership between the two organisations. In particular, the
sharing of data was discussed and plans outlined to enable this to happen.

Two members of the society were publicly honoured during the year. David
Warden was given the Tucker Medal at the British Trust for Omithology
conference in December for fifty years of Nest Recording, and Hugh H
Boyd was awarded the Order of Canada for his work with Canadian
wildlife.

Research and Conservation

Records of observations made by members as part of both local and national
recording schemes were submitted to Bristol Regional Environmental
Records Centre (BRERC). Members of the Society assisted with data entry
at BRERC. The Society maintained close local links with The City Museum
& Art Gallery, with Bristol University (especially the Earth Sciences Dept.),
with both the Avon and Somerset Wildlife Trusts, VOSCUR (The Voice of
Bristol’s Community and Voluntary Sector), Avon Gorge & Downs
Wildlife Project and with Bristol City Council. A grant of £1000 was made
from the Memorial Fund (£500 from each of the bequests made to the
Society by Mrs J Morgan and Mr W J Redmond) to the Avon Wildlife Trust
as a contribution towards the purchase of Prior’s Wood. Regionally the
Society linked with the South West Naturalists’ Union, and nationally it was
involved with the British Trust for Ornithology, Botanical Society of the
British Isles, the Woodland Trust and Royal Entomological Society. The
Society continued to be represented at meetings of the Leigh Woods
Advisory Committee. The Committee received presentations concerning the
proposed management of the Woods by the National Trust and their
programmes of public access and education.

Promotion and Publicity

Posters announcing forthcoming meetings were produced on a regular basis
and those and membership leaflets were displayed particularly in libraries.
In order to promote the Society's activities and to attract new members,
stands were taken at Bristol Water’s Chew Valley Open Day, Bristol’s
Festival of Nature, the Gorge-ous Wildlife Family Fun

Day, the Rock & Fossil event, Abbot’s Leigh Parish Day, and at a British
Association meeting. The biggest wildlife promotion event in Bristol took
place during the entire month of October — called the Bristol Festival of

106

Nature. This month-long event was supported by the Bristol Natural History
Consortium, which is a collaboration between At-Bristol, BBC, Bristol Zoo
Gardens, University of Bristol, University of West of England, The
Wildscreen Trust and WWF-UK. Wildlife and conservation organisations in
the Bristol area were invited to run activities and events throughout the
October period. The Society was responsible for twelve successful events,
attracting large numbers of people and distributed over 4000 copies of a
leaflet about the wildlife of Bristol produced in cooperation with the Avon
Wildlife Trust and Bristol Parks Department. The leaflet initiative was
welcomed and supported financially by the Society of Merchant Venturers
and Bristol City Council. Avon Wildlife Trust provided illustrations. The
Geology section created a separate leaflet promoting the rocks and
landscape of the Bristol district. The cost of that leaflet was supported by
the Society with a contribution from Bath Geological Society. Publications
produced by the Society were offered for sale at events. The revenue from
these was small, and the main benefit of attending was to promote the aims
of the Society. In the course of the year a new logo for use on publicity
material was produced for the society.

Thanks

The Society is indebted to the large number of its members who gave their
time freely to support the activities of the Society and in some cases
generously donated funds to the BNS. This help was much appreciated by
the Society and was vital in helping it to meet its many objectives. Special
mention must be made of members of the Society who continue to save the
Society substantial postal charges by delivering Society publications by
hand. The Society acknowledges with gratitude the facilities and support
given by the Earth Sciences Department, University of Bristol, Dr M S
Spurr, Headmaster of Clifton College and Mr Simon Garrett, Head of
Education at Bristol Zoo Gardens for the use of their premises for meetings
and Mr Paul Barnett, Head of Cultural Services, Bristol City Council for
continued support of the Society Library located within the City Museum &
Art Gallery.

107

Library report for 2004
Roger Symes

Reports of new accessions, featured regularly in the Bulletin, again
interested members. Details of all journals held, and of about 900 books,
were included on the computer database. Accession labels were added to
those books which had been recorded. Development work included
producing a range of reports, and starting to make the database more user-
friendly. The Committee completed the year’s work well within the budget
agreed by Council,

An “Open Day”, held in October jointly with the Bristol Museum Natural
History Section, attracted a small number of new and existing members and
visitors. During the year 37 members (46 in 2003) made 332 (279) visits to
the Library and borrowed 256 (298) items. 6 (6) of these visits were made
by new members and 3 visits were by members of the Museum staff. 18
journals were received by subscription, 25 by exchange. 9 books were
purchased. 94 books (some 70 of which were given by Miss Margaret
Rogers), 64 issues of journals, and 5 pamphlets/ off-prints and reports,
which had been donated, were accepted into the library stock. A further 70
books and journals offered by Mr Fred Peddle were being assessed and
processed. Special name plates were added to items donated. For these
donations we were indebted to Dr R Bradshaw, Dr MH Martin, Mr PJM
Nethercott, Mr FH Peddle, Miss MH Rogers, Dr WI Stanton, Mr RG
Symes, Mr BA Tizard, Mr DPC Trump, Mr DA Wilson, and also to Avon
Biodiversity Partnership, Bath Natural History Society, The Biodiversity
Directorate, Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre, and the
University of Leeds, Botany Dept.

The Society’s Council considered the need for insurance cover for books
and furniture. A risk assessment had been produced, and advice was sought
from an Insurance Broker, and from the Charity Commission. The Trustees
concluded that threats to library stocks and equipment were mainly from
water damage (from flood or from fire hoses), fire, physical damage from
unsuitable handling, or loss (accidental or theft) and that none of these was
considered as very likely. The Library had been in its present location since
1922 and the only significant factors known were losses due to theft many
years ago, before new entry procedures had been introduced. The impact of
losses of individual items would not have a serious effect on the working of
the Society, and the Society had reserve funds which could, if necessary, be
used to re-stock, as Council might decide was appropriate. The costs of the
premium were considered to outweigh the benefits that such a policy might

108

provide, and it was decided that it would be more cost efficient to bear any
loss that might occur. Council asked the Library Committee to consider
whether any measures were needed to protect books on high and low
shelves from possible water damage.

In accordance with the charitable status of the Society, but subject to
appropriate security considerations, access to the Library was made
available to others, particularly by arrangement with the University of
Bristol. Three visits were made by members on the staff of the City
Museum. The Society thanks the Head of Museum Services, Bristol City
Council, for continued use of the Library room, and for the assistance given
to members during the year by Museum staff, and welcomes the continued
use made by the Library by Museum staff.

Mrs. A.F. Hollowell was re-elected as Honorary Librarian. The Library
Committee met on three occasions. Members were Mr. R.G. Symes
(Chair), Mr. R.L. Bland, Mr. P.J.M. Nethercott, Mr. B. Tizard, Mr. D.P.C.
Trump, Mr. D.A. Wilson, Mrs. A.M. Wookey, and Mr. M.A.B.
Wordsworth. The Society’s Archivist was invited to attend meetings.
Members continued to staff the Library from 12.30pm to 1.30pm on
Wednesdays, and from 10.15am to 12.00pm on Saturdays. All members of
the Committee are thanked for their assistance during 2004. Sadly Mr PJM
Nethercott felt unable to stand for re-election for 2005. Philip had been
instrumental in establishing the Library Committee, and had been a stalwart
in contributing to, and helping to maintain the standard of the Library for
many years. The importance of his involvement in the development of the
BNS Library to its present excellent condition cannot be over-emphasised
and most sincere thanks are due to him.

Publications Committee Report for 2004

Richard Bland

Volume 63 of Nature in Avon had been sent to the printers in September,
but not printed by them until December. They were then distributed in
January 2005. The Committee felt that, having been so seriously let down,
they must find a new, reliable printer. He said that the Committee deeply
regretted the disappointment of members, and intends to produce the next
volume by October 2005. The Editor, Mr Peter Belcher has announced his
desire to resign after two years, and two excellent productions. Mr Bland
has offered to take on the job.

109

The Avon Ornithological Group also had to announce that the Avon Bird
Report would not be available until January 2005 as a result of a
fundamental change in the computer language in which it is written. This
should result in an improvement in the report’s appearance and assist in the
early production of the 2004 report.

The monthly bulletin was continuing to provide members with information
and interest, and it has tended to increase in size. Mr Bland congratulated
Mr D Davies for his hard work in producing the Bulletin.

The website is providing a regularly updated news page, and some reports,
as well as the current Bulletin, a diary, and outlines of the Society’s
activities. It is hoped that an even wider proportion of the membership will
use it. The Committee expressed gratitude to Mr D Strawford, webmaster.
At the December meeting of Council it was agreed to create a committee to
investigate the desirability and costs of creating a website independent of
the City Council, who have been our hosts since 1997.

Botany Section Report 2004
Pam Millman
At the AGM on 20 Jan the Officers and Committee were re-elected:
President! Mr A.G.Smith, (prop J.Millman,sec © M.Webster),
Hon.Secretary/Treasurer: Mrs P. Millman (prop M.Webster, sec C.Kitchen.)
Committee Members: Ms L. Houston, Mrs C.Kitchen, Mr M.Kitchen,
MrC.Hurfurt, Mrs M.Webster. Mrs S.Parker, Mr T.Titchen. Ms Mary Wood
was elected on to the committee.

Section Meetings
Five meetings were held with talks and seven field meetings in the White
Sheet. In addition there were several evening field meetings led by members
of the committee.

26 Jan AGM and members evening

24 Feb British Ferns Pat Hill-Cottingham
22 March Moving a Botanic garden Nick Wray

17 April Priors Wood, Portbury Pam Millman
20 May Keynsham Humpy Dumps Chris Hurfurt
22 May Castle Combe area Chris Hurfurt
5 June The Downs Libby Houston
10 July Max Bog Tony Smith

4 Aug Tytherington Mark and Clare Kitchen
7 Aug Lawrence Weston Moor Mary Wood

5 Sept Tidenham Chase, Forest of Dean Tony Titchen

110

2>-Oct Native Orchids of Britain Tony Hughes
22 Nov Tyntesfield Trees Tony Titchen
D9 Wec Plants of the Picos de Europa Mark and Clare Kitchen

In addition this year we continued the two year survey noting change in our
local flora as part of the BSBI project for the three tetrads in ST66 based
around Stockwood Vale, Stanton Wick and Stanton Prior. We held six
recording meetings led by five different members and about 2000 records
were made over the two years. Details were given in each month’s Bulletin.
I will report on feedback from the BSBI on this project.

For the Bristol Festival of Nature in October Justin Smith introduced a very
large group of the general public to the exciting world of fungi; Tony Smith
and Pam Millman also led a walk looking at the ferns and mosses of the
Frome Valley. Hopefully these events will have encouraged people to join
the BNS.

We continue to send records to BRERC. Members are involved with the
Somerset Rare Plants Group.

We are very pleased to welcome Dr Clive Lovatt, who has taken over from
Professor Willis as Editor for Bristol Botany. His work on the ecology of
the Avon Gorge is well known. As a token of the thanks of the Bristol
Naturalists’ Society in general and the Botanical Section in particular, the
Society has procured a specially made and signed Bristol Blue vase
standing 16cm high and which has been deep-engraved with silver in
honour of Professor Emeritus A.J. Willis of Sheffield University. It will be
presented to him early in 2005.

eet

Report of the Invertebrate Section, 2004
Ray Barnett

Ray Barnett and Tony Smith were re-elected Honorary President and
Honorary Secretary, respectively at the AGM held at the City Museum &
Art Gallery, Bristol. Following the precedent established in 2003, the
President suggested that the membership be particularly asked to report if
they found particular species during the year and the following had been
selected for 2004: Garden Snail Helix aspersa, Clothes Moths Tinea
biselliella or Tinea pellionella and the Woodice Spiders Dysdera crocata
and D. erythrina. The previous year’s appeal had produced some sightings
of the Rose Chafer beetle Cetonia aurata.

The following indoor meetings were held:

18" January Section AGM

14" February Tony Smith Hemiptera Identification Workshop

18" March Mike Bailey Moths — identifying the key factors
affecting survival

24" November Paula Donnelly Conservation of Mole Crickets

at Bristol Zoo Gardens

and the following field meetings:

17" April Ray Barnett, British Plant Gall Society & Somerset
Invertebrate Group Walton Common

8"" May Tony Smith Sand Bay

29"" May Bill Dixon Weston Big Wood

13" June Ray Barnett, Tony Smith & Bristol & District Moth
Group Wetmoor

18" July Tony Smith & Bristol & District Moth Group Wetmoor

[t2

Ornithology Section Report, 2004
Mary Hill

At the 2004 AGM, held on January 16™ 2004, Richard Bland agreed to
continue as Acting President and Mary Hill as Secretary and Treasurer.
Paul Farmer, who had previously been co-opted onto the committee, was
elected to it and he joined Joyce Callard, Richard and Ann Crawford, Ed
Drewitt, Alison Levinson and Mike Taylor who were all re-elected for a
further year. Brian Tizard had finished his term of service and was thanked
for his contribution.

In 2004 there were 6 lecture meetings and 18 field meetings. They are
listed below. The meetings were well attended (see numbers listed). We
are very grateful to all our speakers and field meeting leaders.

Lecture meetings, 2004

January 16" AGM + Don Cullen Impressions of
Borneo

February 11" Emma Smith Beasts in Battle
March 10" David Boag The Changing River
October 20" Peter Exeley A Future for
Farmland Birds

November 10" Dick Best Wild bird casualties —

The ethics, significance & practicalities of
intervention in 'natural' processes’.
December 8 Paul Chadwick Birds at both ends of
the Andes
Average attendance 40.2
(c.f. 38.5 in 2003 and 47.3 in 2002)

Walks, first winter period 2004

January 21° W Slimbridge Trevor Evans +
Warden

February 7" Sat Barnes WWT with General Section
March 27" Sat Brean Paul Farmer

Average attendance 15.7

Summer walks 2004:

April 15" Thu —_ Leigh Woods Richard Bland
April 24" Sat Forest of Dean Tim Fretter
May 8" Sat Chew Ed Drewitt

May 13"Thu Frome Valley Richard Bland

113

May 19"Wed Newton StLoo Paul Farmer
June 3 Thu Walton Common Richard Bland
June 16" Wed Goblin Coombe Paul Farmer

July 6" Tue Marshfield Pauls Chadwick &
Farmer
August 28" Sat Ringing Demo Lyndon Roberts

Average attendance 13.3
Walks, second winter period 2004
More walks than usual were held in October in connection with the Bristol
Wildlife Festival

October 9" Frome Valley Richard Bland
October 10" Ashton Court Richard Bland
October 17" Blaise John Tully

rained off
October 23" Chew Paul Farmer
November 21° Cotswold water park Sue and John Prince
December 29" Chew Paul Farmer

Average attendance 14.8
Average attendance over all walks 14.2 (c.f. 9.63 in 2003)

Fieldwork 2004.

Members of the society were involved in a wide variety of national and
local surveys in 2003. These included: The national Breeding Bird Survey,
which monitors all common species annually and covered 190 local squares
this year; the Waterways survey; the Heronry survey; the WeBS counts of
waterfowl and waders; the BTO National Gull Roost survey; the BTO
national Nightjar Survey; the BTO national Swallow Feeding survey, the
national House Sparrow survey; the Nest Record Card Scheme; and the
national ringing scheme.

They also participated in BTO Garden Birdwatch, Bristol Birdwatch, and
the society’s own 30 year old Winter Garden Survey. They continued to
monitor wintering Blackcap and Chiffchaff populations, and winter
populations through the Winter Bird Counts.

Involvement with Local Authority.

The results of BBS work are sent to the four Unitary Authorities’
Environmental departments, and in Bristol these results are used as part of
the annual Quality of Life Audit. Bristol Birdwatch is part of the work of
the Local Agenda 21 Biodiversity Committee, which has revealed the
substantial role played by gardens in sustaining the City's biodiversity.

114

Geological Section Report 2004
Simon Carpenter

In collaboration with Bath Geological Society and the West of England
Geologists’ Association another successful ‘Rock & Fossil’ event was held
on the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, on August 29". The aim was to
promote local geology and geomorphology to the public. Local newspapers
picked up on the press release and ran the story on their pages. Over 400
members of the public stopped to find out more on the day. The Geology
section worked closely with the Avon RIGS Group (Regionally Important
Geological and Geomorphological Sites), to protect, conserve and promote
the region’s geological heritage. A geological site clearance project was
undertaken in October to expose Jurassic rocks on the Railway Path at
Saltford — to improve an existing site and to involve members in practical
geological conservation work.

Mammal Group
David Trump

In March a very successful mammal training day was held at Clapton Moor
Nature Reserve as part of the North Somerset Levels and Moors Project run
by the Avon Wildlife Trust. It is hoped to repeat the course in 2005. The
secretary was persuaded to dress up as a badger for the Gorge-ous Wildlife
Family Fun Day in Leigh Woods in June. Links continue to be maintained
with BRERC, the Avon Wildlife Trust and the Avon Bat Group. Since the
re-formation of the Mammal Group in 1989, it is estimated that about 4,000
mammal records have been submitted to BRERC. This year c1,000 ‘old’
records (for the years 2000-2003) were submitted electronically to BRERC
—a first for the group. From 2004 onwards it is hoped that all records will
be submitted this way.

ELS

Bristol Naturalists’ Society Annual Accounts 2004
RG Symes, Hon. Treasurer

The accounts were approved by the Council, (the Trustees), on 8" June 2005. The Society’s
accounts for the past few years, which have not been published in the Proceedings because of a
variety of technical problems, are available from the Treasurer.

Bankers. Lloyds TSB 58 Queens Rd BS8 1RQ
Auditors. Harwood Lane &Co Units 1-4 Crossley Farm Business Centre, Swan Lane,
Winterbourne. BS36 1RH

Report of the Auditor

We have audited the financial statements which have been prepared under the historical cost
convention and the accounting policies described. This report is made solely to the charity's
Trustees, as a body, in accordance with the Charities Act 1993. Our audit work has been
undertaken so that we might state to the Charity's Trustees those matters we are required to
state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by
law we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity's
Trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. We
conducted our audit in accordance with Auditing Standards issued by the Auditing Practices
Board. An audit includes examination, on a test basis, of evidence relevant to the amounts and
disclosures in the financial statements. It also includes an assessment of significant estimates
and judgements made by the trustees in the preparation of the financial statements, and of
whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the charity's circumstances, consistently
applied and adequately disclosed. We planned and performed our audit so as to obtain all the
information and explanations which we considered necessary in order to provide us with
sufficient evidence to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from
material mis-statement, whether caused by fraud or other irregularity or error. In forming our
opinion we also evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the
financial statements. In our opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of the
state of the charity's affairs as at 31 December 2004 and of its incoming resources and
application of resources, including its income and expenditure, in the year then ended and have
been properly prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Charities Act 1993.

Restricted General 2004 2003

Notes Funds Funds Total Total

Incoming Resources

Voluntary sources ps 1150 9770 10920 9414
Trading activities 3 0 992 992 870
Investment Income 4 1179 0 1179 1035
Sections Income 0 1655 1655 3937
Miscellaneous 5 0 44 44 14
Total Income 2325 12461 14790 15270
Resources expended

Cost of generating funds

Direct Charitable expenditure 6 4246 9661 13907 11429
Fundraising costs 0 702 702 390

116

Charitable expenditure
Management and Administration

Total resources expended
Net incoming/outgoing
Resources for year

Transfer between funds
Balance brought forward
As previously reported
Prior period adsjustment

As restated

Balances carried forward
Balance sheet as at 31/12/2004
Current assets

Debtors

Investment Accounts

Cash at bank and in hand

Creditors; amounts falling due
Within one year

Net current assets

Total assets less total liabilities
Capital

Designated Funds

Restricted Funds

General Funds

Notes

2

Voluntary sources
Subscriptions (including income
tax refund)

Bequests

Donations

- General Fund

- Memorial Fund

- Conservation Fund

Notes

14
15

14

12/14
12/14
14

Hey

4246
-1917
Restricted
Funds
32,371
-225
32,146
£30,229
2,499
11,427

27,161

41,087

769

1291

11654

807

General
Funds

9,282

0

9,282

£10,089

40,318
£40,318

24,852
D570
10,089

£40,318

2004

9297
500

473
250
400

£10,920

129]
15900
-1100

2004

Total
41,653
“225
41,428
£40,318
2,405
1 ee |

30,068

43,744

2,316

1554
13373
1897
2003
Total
39,531
0

39,931

£41,428

41,428
£41,428

26,959
Le!
9,282

£41,428

505

2h 7

£9,414

3

Trading Activities
Publications Sales
Library Sales
Plant Sales

4

Investment Income

Interest on deposit accounts and
on

Income tax refund

5
Miscellaneous receipts

6

Direct Charitable expenditure
Meetings

Library

Proceedings and Avon Bird
Report

Bulletin Printing

White Sheet Production
Publications Distribution
Donations and Grants to other
Organisations

Special Funds Expenditure
Sections Expenditure
Subscriptions to other
Organisations

Publicity

7

Managements and Administration
General Printing and Stationery
General Postage and Telephone
Software

Subscription Refund

Bank Charges

Public Liability Insurance
Audit Fee

Miscellaneous Expenditure
Sections Expenditure

118

£1,179

44
£44

2004
538
553,

3,417
902
66
814

52
4,246
2393

45
O51
£13,907

93

8
Surplus resources expended

Audit fees (VAT included) 7 494

s)

Debtors

Trade Debtors 1,114 528

Prepayments 383 413

Subscriptions (Income tax

refunds) 1,002 391

Other Debtors 0 1073

£2,499 £2,405

10

Investments

National Savings Income Bonds 10,000 10,000

National Savings Investment

Account 1,427 L227)
£11,427 £11,271

11
Creditors; Amounts falling due
within one year

Trade Creditors 0 87

Subscriptions in Advance 252 1,306

Accruals 517 494

Other Creditors 0 429
£769 £2,316

Note 12

Funds of the charity

The General Fund is the charity’s operational fund used for its day to day activities

The Memorial Fund combines the former Williams fund money with a legacy from Mrs
Milton and with small amounts in the Harry Savory Illustrations fund, and substantial bequests
from others. The Memorial fund receives legacies and donations from friends in memory of
pastr members. Grants are paid at the discretion of the Council, there being no specific amim
for this fund.

The Conservation Fund is the name accepted as that of the former conservation appeal. It
receives ad hoc donations, and the council makes occasional awards from thsiu fund.

Library Fund This was initially the balance from a previous sale of surplus books from the
Library which realized £3300, included in the 1995 accounts. Payments from the fund are at
the authorization of council.

The Hector Hockey fund is treated as an endowment fund which sup[ports projects and has a
set of rules under which the HHF Trustees work and recommend to Council any grants to be

he

made. It is represented by the National Savings Bonds and is part of the National savings
Ordinary Account.

Milton Fund. Because the Hockey Fund attracted only small amounts of income as interest,
and so only relatively small grants could be made, Council decided that £5000 of the bequest
from Mrs Milton would also be put into income bonds and that income used to back up the
Hockey Fund, working to the same rules as that fund. The Milton fund is not an endowment
fund

Ornithology Section fund. This is reserved by the section as seed-corn funding should
publ;ication of an avifauna of the county become feasible.

Sustrans/curry fund This operated in 2003 as a one-off. Grants were received from the
geologists association Curry fund, and late from Sustrans. They were used to purchase banners

for a geological event on the Bristol-Bath cycle path. The banners will be used in future.

13

Analysis of net
assets between
funds

General Permanent Special
Fund Endowment Funds Total

Current Assets 10,858 3.301 24,852 41,087

Current

Liabilities -769 0 0 -769

£10,089 £5,377 £24,852 £40,318

14 Income Dec
Statement of At & At

funds 01.01.2004 Transfers Expenditure 31.12.2004 2003
General Fund 9,282 12,461 -11,654 10,089 9,282
Special Funds

- Memorial

Fund 15,844 1,349 -3,466 13.927 15,844
- Conservation

Fund 1387 456 0 1,843 1,387
- The Library

Fund 2,889 104 -780 223 2,889
- Ornithology

Section Fund 1,000 40 0 1,040 1,000
- Milton Fund 5,839 190 0 6,029 5,839
- Sustrans/Curry 0 0 0 0 0
Total

Designated

Funds 26,959 2,139 -4,246 24,852 26,959
Permanent

Endowment

- The Hector

Hockey Fund Se hee 190 0 3,300, SHS 7
Total Funds £41,428 £14,790 (£15,900) £40,318 £41,428

15 Prior period adjustment This is the result of an over statement in debtors in the pervious

years accounts.

120

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

The editor welcomes original papers on the natural history of Avon and surrounding areas
for consideration for publication in the Proceedings. Inexperienced authors may obtain
advice from members of the Publications Committee. Authors should remember that their
readers may not be specialists in the particular subject, and that unnecessarily technical
language can be a barrier to understanding.

All papers for consideration should reach the editor by the end of November for
publication in the following year. If there is likely to be a problem with this, the author
should contact the editor in advance. All Society Reports and Biota should reach the
editor by the end of January in the year of publication.

Whenever possible, text should be submitted on a disk as a file produced using a recent
word-processor program (preferably Word 2000). Please specify the software and version
used. The disk and a final hard copy version of the manuscript, if submitted, should match
exactly. The wording should follow the style and format of the Proceedings, 1.e. Titles in
10pt Arial Bold and body text in 10pt Times New Roman on an AS page. An abstract
should be supplied, and the text should be organised with appropriate headings and sub-
headings. Submitted manuscripts should be double-spaced with wide margins and printed
on one side of the paper only. Authors should retain a copy. Captions to illustrations
should be given separately at the end of the text. Abbreviations should be defined on first
use, but these should be avoided in the abstract.

Originals, not copies, of photographs, slides, line drawings, diagrams and maps should be
submitted, returnable on request. Drawings and other diagrams should not be more than
twice final size and made in monochrome. Photographs may be submitted as prints in
colour or monochrome. These will normally be reproduced in monochrome, though
consideration will be given to their publication in colour. Graphs, charts and simple
diagrams should be produced by computer graphics: advice and help with this are
available. Permission to reproduce copyright material is the responsibility of the author.

References should be listed at the end of the text, in alphabetical order of the first author's

name, and should take the following form. (with book and journal title in italics and first

line hanging).

Book: Author (Date). Title. Place of publication: Publisher. - e.g.

Rackham, O. (1986). The history of the countryside. London: J.M. Dent.

Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. (1952) Flora of the British Isles.
Cambridge at the University Press.

Paper: Author (Date). Title. Journal Name, volume (part), page nos. - e.g.

Ross, S.M. and Heathwaite, A. L. (1986). West Sedgemoor: its peat stratigraphy and peat
chemistry. Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society, 44, 19-25.

The copyright of all newly published material will belong to the Bristol Naturalists'
Society, whose Council may authorise reproduction.

WVU
3 9088 01209 6509

VOLUME 64 (2004)

CONTENTS

2 Editorial
3 Weather 2004 — Richard Bland
8 Sand Bay — Tony Smith

18 Phenology 2004 — Richard Bland
26 Avon BAP — Jenny Hayward
29 Hot springs of Avon Gorge — William Stanton
31 Narroways Reserve — H McPhillimy
34 Turbulent Avon — William Stanton
ro 36 South Gloucestershire BAP — Alison Slade
[2X 37 Bristol Botany — Clive Lovatt
pes) lee 55 Invasive Aliens — Richard Bland

(eee) “eee 61 Poppies — Richard Bland

Ages (eS) 62 Ancient hawthorns — Richard Bland
rn SY Mig res 63 Mycology 2004 — Justin Smith
66 Mammals 2004 — David Trump
87 Invertebrates 2003 — Ray Barnett
94 Invertebrates 2004 — Ray Barnett
101 Fish on the Chew — Richard Bland
103 Sharp Eyes

104 Obituary, Rae Vernon

105 Society Business

Inside back cover — Instructions for Authors

Rerum cognoscere causas - Virgil

Front Cover Rosebay Willowherb
Chamaenerion angustifolium