Month: June 2015

Damselflies hatching in kitchen sink pond

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In my back garden in Warden Hill, Cheltenham I have used an old white Belfast style sink to create a water feature.  This has been in-situ for around 5 years, so I’d say is ‘mature’.  Initially I filled it with rain water, placed in some local rocks (to allow larger animals to escape if they fell in) and then ‘kick-started’ it with some water from a local pond (which included some pond weed and a few snails).  For the last couple of years I’ve noticed the moults of damsel flies and this year just happened to be outside recently when I noticed the latest nymphs climbing up the reeds and changing to adults.  They are not brilliant photographs (I’d left my good camera at work and these are from my iPhone), but are not too bad.  I think they are Large Red Damselfies (Pyrrhosoma nymphula).  It just goes to show that nature will find a way!

Hatched damselfly 2 Large Red Damselfly Pyrrhosoma nymphula Nymphs climbing sink reeds edit

Victoria Park Bioblitz and Wildlife Day, Windmill Hill, Bristol. July 3 and 4.

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Dear Glos Nats

I am organising a bioblitz and wondered if any of your members may be interested in coming along?

Some of my friends at Bristol Naturalists Society and Somerset Rare Plants are coming, but I thought you might be interested too as we are in West Glos vice county.

Thanks and best wishes
Alex Morss

Victoria Park Bioblitz and Wildlife Day, Windmill Hill, Bristol

Fri July 3 & Sat July 4, 2015

Please bring your curiosity, or your specialist knowledge, and your friends to this natural history fun event – all ages and abilities welcome. As part of the Bristol Festival of Nature, our free, public Bioblitz involves two days of activities aimed at finding, identifying and discovering more about Victoria Park’s wildlife.

* 9.15am – 3pm Friday July 3: This period is exclusively for primary school children – but BNS helpers are welcome to come along to assist with species identification.

* 9.15pm, Friday July3: Public bat walk led by David Brown.

* 9pm, Friday July 3: Public moth trapping evening led by Neale Jordan-Mellersh.

* 10am – 4pm Saturday July 4: public bioblitz, mixing science and discovery with a wildlife-themed day of walks, talks, identifying things, arts, crafts, family fun, story telling, games and more.

This year, the mowers have been turned off, across half the park, and efforts made to welcome back wildlife – so it’s a good opportunity to find what’s here. Victoria Park is on an important urban wildlife corridor through the heart of our city. As well as its wonderful trees and curious moving springs, the park was chosen as a study site by Bristol University researchers, who recently made some promising finds here as part of their UK-wide Urban Pollinators research experiment.

For detailed activity times, please visit: www.bnhc.org.uk/festival-of-nature

To help, please contact the organiser Ms Alex Morss: morzojunk@yahoo.co.uk

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