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Dear Fellow GNS Members

In the last Chairman’s letter of 2011, I referred to the dry conditions that had prevailed through most of that year, and hoped that winter might bring more rain.  Well, the results have been disappointing so far: some rain in the second half of December and early January, just enough to fill the ditches and scrapes in Severn Vale wetlands like Ashleworth Ham, Coombe Hill Meadows and Walmore Common, and to generate a little surface water in late December and again in early January.  But the cold snap in late January and early February was a cold and dry snap, so there is still a distinct water deficit everywhere, which does not bode well for the coming spring: even the national newspapers have noticed it!  So, I’ll repeat the prayer for rain from my last message.

Come rain or shine however, the GNS Annual General Meeting will take place on Friday 23 March at Shurdington, and I look forward to seeing many members there to review the Society’s past year and look forward to the coming year.  The speaker after the meeting will be from the British Trust for Ornithology, and will report on progress on the BTO’s project to develop a national website for reporting colour-ringed birds, for which GNS provided the initial funding.

Two other items which will no doubt figure on the agenda of the AGM (and at meetings of the Executive Committee and of the Scientific and Publications Sub-committee) are the Gloucestershire Biodiversity Action Plan (“BAP”) and the current state of biological recording at county and national levels.  GNS, under the leadership of its preceding Chairman, John McLellan, played a very active role in the preparation and finalizing of the county BAP, which derived from the national biodiversity plan drawn up in the wake of the Rio Earth Summit back in 1992.  Priorities were defined for all the major habitat types in the county, and targets set for restoration and conservation.  The document is by common consent a magnificent one and serves as a reference and blueprint for conservation action by government and non-government bodies: “Thank heavens it exists!” seems to be the general attitude.  On the other hand, no-one has given a decisive lead in achieving these goals and aims, and there has been inadequate financial support for proper implementation.  So, while the Government’s recent White Paper proclaims that the national BAP objectives are maintained, the county BAP has led to little action on the ground; it is now to be superseded by a new set of initials, LNP (Local Nature Partnerships).  We shall need to watch carefully how LNPs develop, and hope that they produce more real action on the ground.

As everyone recognises, the Internet has produced dramatic changes in every aspect of life; and recording of natural history is no exception.  GNS has long played a major role in the recording of natural history in the county, through its system of county recorders in many different taxa, who know the county intimately, and help check and validate the records, before they are fed into the data bases of the Gloucestershire Centre for Environmental Records Centre.  With the development of the internet and digital recording however, it has become much easier for national recording systems to call for direct submission of records to a central point, sometimes bypassing the essential process of local checking and validation.  Thus we find appeals for records of birds, butterflies, moths (and many other groups besides) to be submitted directly to national data bases; in itself this is an excellent thing, the more so as it is likely to catch the imagination of all those computer-savvy youngsters and potential young naturalists out there, whom we are so anxious to encourage and support.  But, on the other hand, there is a danger of inaccurate, unchecked records being submitted, which county recorders would notice and correct.  So there is a need for the new systems to engage with the old model, to make sure that there is no decrease in accuracy: a task for GNS in the coming years.

With best wishes

Mike Smart

Hon. Chairman

BTO Berks and Oxfordshire have organised a “Birdwatchers’ Forum” conference which will take place on Saturday March 3, 2012 at Benson Parish Hall, Sunnyside, Benson, Oxfordshire OX10.

The fifth of its kind, this exciting conference hosts the broadcaster, Stephen Moss, discusses issues in agri-environment schemes, unravels mysteries behind one of our most iconic African migrants and much more! This event represents a great way of meeting BTO Staff, members and volunteers and there will also be stalls and displays from local bird clubs, conservation and commercial organisations, and a free raffle – how can you afford to not to come?

Conference tickets are great value, at only £14.00 per person which includes ea, coffee and a buffet lunch, so book soon to avoid disappointment.

A link to our Events page on the BTO website where you can find the programme and booking form for the conference is www.bto.org/new-events/events.
Please have a look and we hope to see you there!
Ellen Walford
Membership Promotions Officer, BTO
Phone : 01842 750050

John Sanders has sent me a report into the control measures that have been introduced to control the numbers of gulls using the three main landfill sites in the county.

The County Council, supported by the Environment Agency, have invited Falconers to operate on the three main sites at Hempstead, Stoke Orchard and Bishops Cleeve.

The immediate result has been dramatic but as John says the birds are highly adaptable and the true impact will only be known in the months and years to come.

Read the full report here.(This is a large pdf file and may take a few moments to load. You will also need Acrobat Reader installed to read the file).

As you may have read in the local press the County Council has closed the Wilderness Centre and other environmental education centres in the county and plans to sell them to raise money.

A campaign group “Friends of the Wilderness Centre” was set up to fight the closure and come up with an alternative solution.

The group attempted to block the sale by legal means but the High Court has rules that they do not have a legal argument to stop the closure. See this report from the BBC.

The executive committee have contacted the Friends of the Wilderness Centre to offer our support in principle and discuss possible ways of supporting the campaign.

GNS Field Meeting at Brim’s Pill, Awre (12 December 2010, contributed by Juliet Bailey with pictures by Sheila Lisster)

This GNS walk was at the Gloucestershire Wildfowlers Association reserve at Brim’s Pill and was led by Mike Smart.

It was foggy and frosty, and the hoped for waterbirds were hardly evident. There was the occasional Lapwing appearing out of the mists, and Redshank and Curlew calls, but the ice and fog, with bursts of watery sunlight from time to time, made it a most atmospheric meeting. We walked across the field where channels have been dug to turn the field back to saltmarsh, by frozen rhynes lined with golden reed, through secondary woodland of a failed dockside railway development, and out onto the Severn-side pastures where stacked metal putchers witness the last remnants of the once thriving salmon fishery. The pictures below show the GNS group, the reed lined rhyne and the metal putchers.

Fourteen members met in the Cotswold Gateway Centre car park on a beautifully sunny morning. The walk was short in length (only about 650 metres on the outward leg) along the towpath of the disused Thames-Severn Canal but there was plenty to see and we identified at least 119 species of all sorts. The birds alone accounted for 40 species and along with the many every-day species a big surprise was a Grey Cockatiel flying along the canal calling loudly, probably an escape. A number of summer residents had moved in – Sedge Warblers calling from the reedbeds, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Blackcap and a possible Garden Warbler calling from the trees, and from the side of the towpath a blast of song from two Cetti’s Warblers. At the end of the walk a lone Swallow flew over determined to be somewhere else.

Spring butterflies were very much in evidence with Orange-tips, Green-veined Whites and Brimstones showing frequently with occasional Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and a Comma, and right at the end of the walk back in the car park was a newly-emerged Speckled Wood. Several animals commanded particular attention and among them was a harvestman (Platybunus triangularis) with its pair of googly eyes perched on top of its body surmounted by a spiky crown, a species that matures earlier in the year than most others. Another species of interest and a first for many people was a pseudoscorpion (Chthonius tetrachelatus), all of 2mm long and living under a stone on the boundary wall. They are very distantly related to true scorpions but do not have the poisonous tail, are all very small, and feed on springtails and other small animals. Also residing under these stones in large numbers were the young larvae of the Buff Footman moth and a single larva of the Common Footman, many accompanied by moulted larval skins. Members of the Footman family feed on lichens growing on trees and walls and can be found all over the Cotswolds.

Some of the early flowers were out with abundant Butterbur, White Violets, Lesser Celandines, and Dandelions in evidence with Ground Ivy and Cuckoo flowers just appearing but, most spectacular of all were the Kingcups on the ditch sides, large and bright against the vegetation clearance going on alongside.

An enjoyable walk in good company, and thank you to all those who contributed records.

The forecast for this morning meeting was for heavy rain, but the thirteen people who were present enjoyed sunny spring weather. The meeting was primarily for amphibians. Pond-dipping was engaged in enthusiastically and two Palmate Newts and several newt larvae were netted, the latter having over-wintered in the ponds.

We had placed bottle-traps in two of the ponds the evening before to demonstrate one method of newt surveying. This yielded numerous Palmate Newts of both sexes, but only one male Smooth Newt. Comparisons were made between the newts that had been bottle-trapped overnight, and Great Crested Newts, both male and female, that we brought to the meeting. People could therefore see the differences between the three species that are present at the site.

The picture above (taken by Tiz Butler) shows the difference between a great crested female (below) and smooth male (above), showing how much bigger the great crested is. It isn’t a trick of perspective as they were pretty much in the same plane. In fact, you can see that the rear foot of the smooth is over and across the crested. This would have been in a “black boxing glove” if it had been a palmate newt. So the thin whip-tail at the end of the smooth newt’s tail is just because it is folded over. It isn’t the needle of the palmate.

The party then walked along the track, stopping at another pond where frogs had been present in good numbers a couple of weeks earlier, with numerous clumps of spawn, and here we looked for newt-eggs on the leaves of pond vegetation, but none were seen. We moved on to Laymoor Quag, a Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Reserve, where squares of roofing felt had been placed some weeks earlier in the hope that reptiles might be observed under or on top of the felts. Unfortunately they yielded nothing, although a brief glimpse of a disappearing Common Lizard was seen nearby.

We then viewed the new ponds next to Laymoor Quag which had been dug in the autumn of 2009. (Cinderford Linear Park is one of five areas in the county where new ponds are being created in order to enhance and encourage meta-populations of Great Crested Newt under the Biodiversity Action Plan partnership.)

Following the cycle track southwards towards Bilson Halt, where other ponds have been dug, we saw two Fallow Deer, and a Fox Moth caterpillar (big as a lady’s finger) was photographed. Here lichens were gathered by Juliet Bailey who gave us a brief lesson in the identification of them. A total of fourteen species were identified; the beard lichen (Usnea) being the star.

Of the birds present we heard Chiffchaff calling and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming, heralding the arrival of spring.

The main focus of this walk was to see a Hairy Dragonfly and hear and/or see a cuckoo. Five GNS members, including a junior, met at 11am after a torrential rainstorm and a short sunny spell. It was cloudy when we set off over Splatt Bridge, Frampton, and travelled southwards along the towpath of the Sharpness – Gloucester Canal. It was too windy for flying insects, but we did see a drinker moth caterpillar, a dark bush-cricket nymph, and heard the lovely sound of birdsong in the bushes – blackcap, sedge warbler, chiffchaff and lesser whitethroat. We passed through the gate to cross the two fields towards Green Lane, and here we had a botany lesson from Juliet who explained the characteristics and differences between three species of buttercup. By the gate into Green Lane, a small copper butterfly and another drinker moth caterpillar were seen. Once in Green Lane we started to look carefully for any signs of the Hairy Dragonfly, but unfortunately all we saw were damselflies – Large Red, Blue-tailed, Common Blue and Azure – sheltering in the vegetation, as well as an alien Harlequin ladybird, a 14-spot joined ladybird, a Cardinal beetle, and Orange Tip and Green-veined white butterflies. As we entered a short way into the WWT 100 Acres, another drinker moth caterpillar was spotted, which Amy is holding in the picture below. We also saw a 19-spot (water) ladybird, a green-coloured leaf beetle, black and red frog-hoppers, and a poisonous plant – Hemlock Water Dropwort. Whilst here the rain that had threatened for most of the walk began to fall and we beat a hasty retreat back to the cars. The highlights of the meeting were a quick glimpse of a grass snake as it disappeared into the vegetation, and walking back along the canal we did hear a cuckoo. It was just a shame that the conditions were not right for us to see a Hairy Dragonfly.

The GNS field trip to Garden Cliff at Westbury-on-Severn took place on a gloriously warm and sunny day which had all the signs of a promising Spring about it. The meeting point at Westbury Village Hall proved to be a good location where cars could be left and the assembled company of 14 members led by Membership Secretary Andrew Bluett walked down Strand Lane to The Strand at the end of the public road on the river bank close to the western end of Garden Cliff.

After clambering down over the river wall onto the “beach” the members were led along the foreshore below the cliff to the eastern end, then up and over the river bank and back via the public footpath along the top of the cliff back to Strand Lane.

Garden Cliff is one manifestation of the mudstone beds that are evident throughout the Severn Valley and exposed at Wainlodes in the north, Garden Cliff, Newnham, Bullo and Box Wood (Awre) in the west, Hock Cliff in the east and Aust Cliffs (adjacent to the Severn Bridge) in the south. Sometimes referred to as Keuper Marls, the mudstone (which is so friable and soft as to barely warrant the title “rock”) was formed in the upper Triassic some 200+ million years ago and marks the boundary with the later Jurassic period. With its stripes of green-grey and red strata, Garden Cliff stands out as a visible landmark in the alluvial plain. Within the strata the stone is visibly globular and breaks down into characteristic near spherical and curved, sharp edged fragments and even in the light winds during the visit, was constantly being wind eroded with small falls of rock occurring most of the time. The beds were formed in arid, semi-desert conditions before being overlaid by brackish and marine water borne sediments of the early Jurassic.

At the eastern end of the cliff the strata dips down so that the overlying beds of shale, sandstone and limestone are visible and within reach. The foreshore at this point is littered with slabs of fossilised beach fragments, the ripples clearly visible and diagnostically marine formed as evidenced by their profile. (The varied strata in the cliff are clearly shown in this picture taken by Ingrid Twissel.)

Within these beds there are fossils of sea shells and marine creatures including fish whose teeth, scales and bones can be found along with Ichthyosaur and Pleisiosaur bones, coprolites (fossilized excrement), Shark’s teeth, and the remains of choristoderes, these being marine, lizard-like creatures which grew to 1m in length. It is also possible to find deposits of Pyrites (Fool’s Gold) with particles from dust size to crystals several millimetres across and in both gold and a copper-red colour, several members collected samples of both.

More detail on Garden Cliff and the other sites in this geological group is available here.

On arrival at the site it was immediately clear that the river level was at its lowest ebb, there were large expanses of sand exposed and covered with hundreds of Gulls of several species, mainly Lesser Black Backed interspersed with Greater Black Backed, Herring, Common and Black Headed Gulls and Crows. Within minutes of walking along the beach Colin Twissel had located the first of seven Smooth Newts (see Colin’s picture below) whilst turning over driftwood in search of insects. Much speculative discussion took place as to why these creatures were present in what appears to be an alien environment for them. One specimen could be seen to be accidental, but seven suggests something different. Is this in fact a habitat where they occur naturally? Or are the Newts casualties from washout of watercourses after the flooding and snow melt that have made landfall on the foreshore and taken temporary refuge? The question remains to be answered.

On the cliff face there was evidence of roosting Peregrine and Kestrel in the splashes of “whitewash” littered under several perching points, unfortunately neither bird was present, and 3 Mallards floated offshore.

At the eastern end of the cliff the party spent some time searching for fossils and for Pyrites with some success and with helpful comments on geological and paleontological matters from Dr Mike McEllin, before scaling the river bank and beginning the trek back along the cliff top footpath towards the start point.

In the fields stretching back from the cliff edge flowering Speedwell was located, two Rabbits and Two Hares were seen, there were Buzzards and a flock of up to 30 Reed Buntings frequenting the thorn thicket on the cliff edge and flying out from the bushes to alight and feed in the grass. Dead Elms were scattered along the cliff top, none more than 10 inches in diameter and all victims of Dutch Elm Disease. The first butterfly of the year, a small Tortoiseshell, flew by and a Raven called from somewhere across the river.

Other species noted during the walk were freshwater shrimps (Gammarus) under stones and driftwood, a singing Blackcap at The Strand, a Green Woodpecker and Little Owl calling near Moys Hill Farm and a Cormorant over the river. Footprints of a mammal were found on the foreshore, a round pad with five smaller round toe prints which were possibly Otter and there were a few Snowdrops in full flower on the walk back to the Village Hall.

Altogether a very enjoyable and successful walk with a few surprises and with both river and weather conditions being near perfect it was enjoyed by all present.

Field Trip Sound Files

Recordings made on the field trip to the Garden Cliffare available here:

20090221 GNS Garden Cliff 1 (1.7MB)

20090221 GNS Garden Cliff 2 (1.5MB)

The recordings are from Vernon Harwood’s radio show “The Spirit of Gloucestershire” made available by courtesy of Brian Bailey and BBC Radio Gloucestershire – copyright remains with BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

Eleven members met for a field meeting of general interest on Haresfield Hill. We walked out across the plateau, admiring the Cotswold landscapes, the sweep of the Severn, including the bridges some 25 miles away, the Forest of Dean on the far shore, and Wales beyond. Descending the scarp, we examined the cliff faces of old quarries and discussed their geology, looked at lichens, saw roe deer, fox and evidence of rabbits. There is an unusual station for the introduced umbellifer Alexanders tight under the cliff. Normally this has a coastal distribution, (though it is also abundant on the roadside near Deerhurst and no doubt other places in the county). A dozen species of birds were recorded, with Bullfinch probably the most notable. Walking back towards the top we came across an area of cowpats where grazing has been reinstated (though stock removed for winter). Here, the coarse Tor-grass (Brachypodium pinnatum) was evident in and among young thorn bushes where it had been protected, with a tight sward elsewhere. We had a very interesting group discussion, on the merits and problems of controlled burning of common land, and whether you would restart it after it had fallen into abeyance for 40 years. The picture below was taken by Brian Bailey.