Ben Locke

Monday 21st April at Stroud Lansdown Hall, 4-7pm.
Speakers: Mary Colwell (Curlew Action), Geoff Hilton (WWT) and our very own Juliet Bailey.
Come and see the Curlew mural by renowned street artist Mark Antony (“ATM”)
Details here:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/world-curlew-day-celebration-tickets-1277859093949

16 GNS members had an interesting tour around Glass Eels UK. Director, Peter Wood took us through the journey of the eel from its egg in the Sargasso Sea to the adult in county streams and lakes. We saw several tanks of carefully maintained glass eels and estimated numbers in 0.5kg. Sweepstake winner Barry will be sharing his winnings with those that attend his field meet later in the month.
We discussed problems faced both by eels and the company. The future doesn’t look bright for either!

Don’t forget the Society’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 26th March at 7:30pm (doors open at 7pm). It will take place at the EdShed, at the back of the Folk of Gloucester museum.

At the end of Society business, you can vote for the overall winner of our photo competition from the winners of the individual categories.

This year’s speaker is Anna Field, who will give a talk “Raptor Monitoring in the Cotswolds: Goshawk, Hobby and Barn Owl”.

The EdShed is accessed from Quay Street GL1 2PG. Tea, coffee and pay bar. Free parking in the car park the other side of Quay Street.

As a follow-up to the GNS field meeting at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Ashleworth Ham reserve on the west bank of the Severn last November, members took part in another field meeting at the Coombe Hill Meadows reserve on the east bank on 8 February 2025. Both sites are important wintering sites for surface-feeding ducks that breed in central and northern Europe and more than a thousand were present on the floodwater on a dull February day, with a Ring-necked Duck as an additional highlight. Full details in a future issue GNS NEWS.

Please note that there has been a minor change to the proposed meeting at the Beaver enclosure at The Pludds in the Forest of Dean. Please also note that it is essential to book a place if you intend to join us. Check the event page for further details.

There is always a risk that field meetings in the Severn floodplain may be affected by floodwater, but the flooding at Coombe Hill has receded considerably over the past few days. Participants will be able to view the area from public footpaths, now free of floodwater, though still muddy, so that wellingtons or very stout waterproof footwear, are essential; a walking stick is also highly recommended. Good numbers of wintering waterbirds are still present, together with the first sign of summer migrants.

14 members took part in a walk around part of Alney Island nature reserve which lies between the east and west branches of the Severn at the western edge of Gloucester city; temperatures were a little higher than the previous few days in part due to the cloud cover and a partial thaw overnight. There were though still areas of frozen floodwater, large patches of ice on the grassland and on the footpath & cycle track; much of the water under the trees and shrubbery in the flooded woodland nearest to the by-pass was frozen over.

In spite of the chill and frozen floodwater a respectable list of 22 species of birds were recorded, among them Teal (Anas crecca) estimated at 60 birds, 2 Gadwall (Anas strepera), 5 Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), 2 Wigeon (Anas Penelope), 1 each Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) and Moorhen ((Gallinula chloropus), 2 Cetti’s Warblers (Cettia cetti) singing, a very obliging Goldcrest (Regulus regulus), a small party of Long Tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus), 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus major), a single Redwing (Turdus iliacus) and a few other common / garden species.

A few varieties of fungi were noted, unidentified large brackets on a Poplar, small Scarlet Elf Cups (Sarcoscypha austriaca) and Yellow Brain Fungus (Tremella mesenterica). Member Tony Hardware also managed to find a new fungus species for Gloucestershire on the Populus nigra trees, Peniophorella guttulifera, a rare resupinate basiodiomycete fungus, tending to grow only on Populus, but also found on Salix. Tony advises there are only 18 only other UK records for this species.

The cattle used for conservation grazing were present at the western end of the site and were the only mammals encountered though there was some discussion regarding what mammals were resident, used the site or had been recorded on site. These included Reeves’ Muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), Otter (Lutra lutra), Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus), Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), Stoat (Mustela erminea) and others.

One member, who we will not embarrass by naming her did a sterling job of litter picking all the way around, a great effort, much appreciated, well done!

Andrew Bluett

13^th January 2024

Sherborne National Trust estate falls largely into three habitats – tenanted arable farmland, water-meadows and woodland/wood-pasture.  Having walked round the second of these last year, eleven of us met to walk around the wooded part; given Storm Darragh the previous week, we wondered what we might find.

The walk started at the top of the hill with wood-pasture and a mixture of Beech, Lime species and Ash grouped in shelterbelts and an avenue of mature trees.  There were small flocks of Redwing and Starling moving around, and skulking Wren and Chaffinch.  We’d already heard a Green Woodpecker from Ewe Pen car-park without managing to locate it.  At a larger open field we came upon a loose herd of Roe Deer numbering about 20, coming into and out of view from the dead ground as we passed by.

When we moved into the wooded Pleasure Grounds, Yew and Elder became more prevalent, also some Box, and we found Jelly-ear fungus and Nectria (Coral Spot).  Later. other fungi included Witches’ Butter, Velvet Shank and King Alfred’s Cakes.  Nuthatches were occasionally heard as were Goldcrest, and, briefly, a Bullfinch. 

A large fallen Ash showed some of the damage the storm had done.  The tree was otherwise healthy but had been snapped off close to its thick base.  Further on an even larger Beech had been uprooted and had brought down a nearby conifer; although the Beech was sheltered in the woodland interior it had a noticeably shallow root system.

Sherborne Broad Water lies at the bottom of this hill.  It was originally ornamental but now left wild and eventually feeds into the Windrush.  Here we found about 60 Wigeon.  These were difficult to count as a large flock was spooked by something and wouldn’t settle – normally the Sherborne Wigeon will graze on the grass and then lift off only as far as the water if disturbed.  We were alerted to two Little Grebes by their call, and then saw a Kingfisher perched by the weir. 

The walk back produced a Marsh Tit in a village garden and a plantation of Larches in Ragged Copse.  Surprisingly for this area it was a morning without a Red Kite.

Andy Lewis

The results of the GNS 2024 Photographic Competition are now available to view using the links below. The finalists in each category were shown in the Zoom meeting which took place on Wednesday 18th December, the winner in each category will go forward for a vote to decide the overall winner at the GNS AGM at The Folk, Westgate Street, Gloucester on Wednesday 26th March 2025.

The Finalists – View PDF

The ‘Best of the Rest’ – 

Part 1 – Any Species in its Environment – View PDF

Part 2 – Behaviour & Interaction – View PDF

Part 3 – Plants & Botanicals – View PDF

Part 4 – Habitats & Landscapes – View PDF

Part 5 – Portraits – View PDF

Part 6 – Fun & Amusing – View PDF

Our thanks go to all of the entrants for submitting a wide range of excellent photographs and our congratulations go to the category winners.

All being well we will be running the competition again in the coming year, so bear that in mind when you are out and about in 2025 and photographing the fascinating wildlife and environment in Gloucestershire and beyond so that you are ready to submit entries when we appeal for them next November.

by Mike Smart

“The meadows of the Severn floodplain are of interest to naturalists for different reasons at different times of year. The suite of hay meadows at Ashleworth and Hasfield Hams, on the west bank of the Severn opposite Wainlodes Hill, have been recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Natural England for their wintering waterbirds and their ditch flora. Part of the site is a nature reserve purchased in the 1960s by the late Peter Duddridge (a former active member of GNS, who gifted the land to the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust – GWT), part is made up of land owned and farmed by the Hasfield estate and other landowners. The nature reserve can be conveniently surveyed from several hides overlooking the main reserve field along the road from Ashleworth to Tirley; other sections can be accessed by public footpaths.

“Winter visits to the Hams are conditioned by the state of flooding, which can often make the Ham Road impassable: autumn 2024 has started very wet, with one major flood in late September (during which the Severn broke its banks and flooded the whole of the area) and a second flood episode in mid-October; the latter has subsided during the dull anticyclonic weather of the last two weeks, so the area was easily accessible to the dozen or so GNS members who met on the morning of Saturday 9 November. Wintering ducks are very much a feature of both Ashleworth Ham and its sister GWT reserve at Coombe Hill on the east bank of the Severn, only three miles or so away as the duck flies. Recent studies by GNS members have shown that the ducks that winter in the Ashleworth and Coombe Hill sectors of the floodplain tend to stay on the spot once they arrive, moving round to other sites like Longdon Marsh in south Worcestershire if the floods become too deep for them to feed; there is little or no evidence to support the old theory that these ducks move between the floodplain and the Severn Estuary Special Protected Area. This year, many of the ducks moved to Longdon during the heavy flooding of September and October, but with subsiding water levels have moved back to the Gloucestershire sites. On 9 November, duck numbers on the wetland areas of the reserve were relatively low but will no doubt increase as the winter advances, as more birds arrive from breeding grounds in central and northern Europe: perhaps 60 Teal and 15 Wigeon, the latter coming from as far as western Siberia, as demonstrated by ringing recoveries. Other ducks present were about 100 noisy Mallard and a couple of Gadwall (probably locally bred). Four Little Grebes were of particular interest, inobtrusive divers, rarely seen in large numbers, and their presence something of a mystery; were they a family party that had bred on the spot and not been noticed (which seems a likely explanation)? Or were they incoming migrants from further afield? It was rather a surprise to find, on consulting the reference sources, that little is known about the migrations of this species; because it is so difficult to catch; only a tiny number have been ringed over the years, and there are very few ringing recoveries to show their movements – the BTO website mentions only 42 recoveries, which must be a record for a relatively common bird. The other noteworthy waterbird on the reserve was the equally discreet and inobtrusive Water Rail, which called from the vegetation.

“Another item of interest was the botany of the site. In November one would not of course expect to find flower-rich hay meadows in full bloom, but two plants, Trifid But-Marigold and Reed Canary-Grass, attracted members’ attention after a very wet spring and summer. Trifid Bur Marigold has a yellow flower and is attractive to pollinator insects; it flowers in autumn and has fiendishly designed seeds with hooks that catch onto any passing animal or the clothing of anyone rash enough to venture through a patch of it; their clothes become covered with these little seeds, which are difficult and tedious to remove and are the origin of the alternative name of Devil’s Beggarticks. The plant grows on bare ground and flowers in autumn; this year there are vast patches of it around many pools and ponds, so thick that it discourages wintering ducks that feed around the edges of the water. Reed Canary-Grass is the plant which replaces the Common Reed in this section of the hams: strange as it may seem, this area of the Severn floodplain is simply too wet for reeds, though they occur in other parts of the Severn Vale; reeds cannot survive the long periods of deep flooding which are regular here, so are replaced by Reed Canary Grass which invades the wetter meadows, and is not palatable to cattle, hence not appreciated by farmers.

“A walk through the footpaths crossing the Hams enabled the meeting to appreciate the flat landscape with long vistas and hedges dotted with willows and oaks. The willows were particularly fascinating because of the shapes into which they grow when pollarded – old, gnarled boles which provide nesting holes for Redstarts in spring, some of them with such a heavy load of fast-growing branches that the trees may crack under the weight, giving the name of Crack Willow; in times past the thick off-cuts were used as fence posts, thinner branches for making wattles to fence in cattle; other species of willow were grown in cultivated osier-beds (local name “persh”) and used and for basket-making. These older uses have vanished nowadays and cutting back the luxuriant growth is a real headache for land-owners; there must surely be some way the high fertility of these willows could be profitably used? At this time of year, there are no animals out in the wet meadows, too wet for arable crops, which is why traditional farming practices involve taking a late summer hay cut as the meadow vegetation develops, with cattle (and nowadays very often sheep) grazing the aftermath: a system which provides a wealth of interest from the ornithological and botanical point of view, not to mention support for a host of invertebrates like dragonflies.”