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The first field trip by the then newly formed GNS took place in 1948, the rendezvous point being “A Bus Stop” on Leckhampton Hill. No details of the trip were recorded and there is no known anecdotal evidence of where the trip actually took place, or of what was observed. However, it was decided by the committee that a celebratory and commemorative general walk and field trip ought to be undertaken by some of the society’s present members.

The date was set for 13th December 2008, the meeting point being the former Brownstone Quarry at SO 951 179 which is in itself a Local Nature Reserve. The meeting was led by Andrew Bluett, the membership secretary and attended by 10 members, Mike Smart, Juliet Bailey, Colin & Ingrid Twissell, Ken Cservenka, Drs M Astle & M McEllin and their daughters, Alice & Katie McEllin, two of the younger and newer members of the Society. The final member of the party was Brian Bailey, both as a member, and in his capacity as BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s roving reporter on matters of countryside and nature and whose work features in Vernon Harwood’s radio show on Sunday mornings and which celebrates the “Spirit of Gloucestershire”.

The party took a route from the quarry car park to Hill Farm, then roughly north-east across the cultivated land to the intersection of the Cotswold Way which was then followed along the ridge of Charlton Kings Common from which there were magnificent and uninterrupted views to the west and north as far as the Black Mountains and Clee Hill, then roughly south over Hartley Hill to Hartley Farm and back along the minor road to the start point.

Wildlife noted during the walk featured an impressive list of birds (given that it was a very cold, frosty and windy day on an exposed hilltop) including a flock of up to 65 Golden Plover, a similar number of Lapwings, flocks of finches, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, Buzzard & Kestrel, a few Tits and winter Thrushes and a mixed flock of Corvids (all of which were recorded as “Roving Records” for the BTO Atlas project) . Dr Astle discovered a large lump of the local soft Oolitic limestone embedded with a variety of ancient fossilised marine shells, Juliet Bailey identified 19 species of Lichen and noted 5 flowering plants – Gorse, Dandelion, Groundsel, Oilseed Rape and Sherherd’s Purse. Mammals seen included 2 Roe Deer and Rabbits, the local Hares proved elusive.

Hartley Farm is in itself interesting, the farmer, Mr G Powell, is very conservation minded and keeps footpaths open and well marked, rotates a variety of crops, keeps a flock of true Cotswold Sheep (now a rare breed), maintains Badger gates and two large areas of Grass Ley which have been undisturbed for many decades and are therefore wild flower rich. The Roe Deer are regular and reasonably easily seen, game cover for Pheasant shooting interests provides both food and habitat for a variety of birds and other animals. In good years up to 3 pairs of Lapwings breed, usually on the Linseed drilled fields, there are perhaps a dozen pairs of Yellowhammer, resident Kestrel, Buzzard, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks and occasional Grasshopper Warbler. Migrating birds pause on the hilltop and farmland including Wheatear, Ring Ouzel, Stonechat, Cuckoo and the like.

For those interested in taking a walk anywhere on Leckhampton and Hartley Hills, apart from the above, Charlton Kings Common attracts a variety of wildlife, is reasonably good for Butterflies, is an excellent place for reptiles with both Adders and Lizards easy to find, holds Edible (Roman) Snails and is an excellent viewpoint, whether just taking in the scenery, or for watching passing bird life. The area is interesting for geologists and for industrial archaeologists alike. There are a number of marked footpaths offering a variety of routes – the only limit is the amount of energy one is prepared to expend…!

During the walk, Brian Bailey recorded some material which was later broadcast on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Sunday 18th January 2009.

To those who took part, thank you for your company, to those unable to join us, I recommend a walk on Leckhampton & Hartley Hills, the area is both fascinating and invigorating, whatever your field of interest.

Sound Files

Sample the GNS field trip from the comfort of home and listen to these sound files made by Brian Bailey for BBC Radio Gloucestershire during the 60th Anniversary Leckhampton trip.

20081213 GNS_60_Pt_1 (1.2MB)
20081213 GNS_60_Pt_2 (1MB)

The files include interviews with GNS recorders and give a flavour of this key part of the Society’s many activities. 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.

On Tuesday 2 December 2008, nine members of the GNS lichen group met for an indoors study day on the use of microscopes. The tutor, David Hill, showed how to get the best from our microscopes, both dissecting microscopes with up to 40x magnification for morphological details, and compound microscope with up to 1000x magnification for anatomical details.

We prepared sections and had “fun with crystals”. Some lichens produce characteristic colour changes and form crystals when certain reagents are added to the slide, which can be seen developing before your very eyes. A very enjoyable day.

This was a lunch time birdwalk with Lakers School Birdwatching Group, led by Mike Smart, Andrew Bluett and Juliet Bailey. Birds seen recorded:
Blue Tit, Great Tit, a good show of Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch (heard), Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Jay, Buzzard, 6 Redpoll flying over, Siskin flying over, one Wren, several Nuthatch, Mallard, Tufted Duck, one Greylag Goose, one Cormorant, Moorhen, Coot, ringed Mute Swan with several cygnets, several Mandarin Duck and Woodpigeon. The walk was enjoyed by all and the group learned a great deal, including not to trust botanists who invite you to lick some white lichen which tastes very bitter! This was a great experience and we hope to work together again in the future.

And a note from Juliet (the botanist in question):
“Just to defend botanists from accusations of perfidy – I had a quick look at the lichens on the trees when we were at Cannop Ponds with the group from Lakers School. The standard field test to confirm one species – Pertusaria amara – is to moisten the end of the finger and rub it over the white powder (soredia) on the thallus surface. You then gingerly dab it onto your tongue, and wait a few seconds to see if a bitter taste develops. Then spit! I invited Andrew Bluett to try the test and describe what he noticed. He said it was like juniper berries – news to me, I think it is just nastily bitter. Then the students wanted to try too, so having confirmed with their teacher that this was all right, most people had a go.”

During the course of the meeting as well as recording some 50 mosses, we saw at least six Brimstone butterflies together with early Bluebells and Butterbur and heard the song from many Chiffchaffs.

Photographs from the Midger Wood Meeting

The pictures below were taken by Rob Bacon during the joint GNS-Bristol Naturalists meeting. They are of a variety of mosses, liverworts, fungi and lichen. Of the species shown the liverwort Nowellia curvifolia was a particularly good find.

Dicranum scoparium on Nowellia curvifolia

Thuidium tamariscinum and Polytrichum formosum

Reticularia lycoperdon

Scarlet Elf-cup (Sarcoscypha austriaca)

Scleropodium purum

Euryhnchium praelongum

Yellow Brain (Tremella mesenterica)

Thuidium tamariscinum

Isothecium myosuroides

Peltigera praetextata

Pellia epiphylla

Nowellia curvifolia

Mnium hornum

Frullania dilatata

Plagiochila asplenoides

Nine members met near Haresfield Beacon for a session identifying trees and shrubs in winter. We saw 20 different kinds up close, plus alder, pine and larch at a distance. We considered many aspects – the twig characteristics, any remaining leaves and fruit, leaves on the ground, and distance recognition from silhouette.

We used the winter twig pdf from the Nature Detectives website as our crib sheet in the field. This shows 18 common species in colour. http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/344CA3AC-3973-465F-9E30-828247B9770D/0/twigs.pdf

The Science and Plants for Schools website has an excellent twig key, but you need to take the specimen to your computer. http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/trees/index.htm

Also useful are the tree identification activity sheets on the Woodland Trust website http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/discovery/images/treeid_activity.pdf

The Cotswold top woodlands of Haresfield Hill are dominated by ash and beech, with hazel and hawthorn in the understorey. The adjacent limestone grasslands have a light smattering of scrub species, especially hawthorn and blackthorn with ash, oak and birch also colonising. Other highlights of the meeting were 5 Roe Deer. Some of us were lucky enough to see a Woodcock fly across the lane as we made our way back to the cars in the twilight.

GNS Field Meeting Haresfield Beacon, Paul Tyers, December 2007

Five members gathered on a calm morning at the top of the Canal, then walked along the former towpath to the meadows; they completed the circular walk round the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserve, visiting the Grundon hide, which overlooks the shallow pools excavated in the meadows, then the hide looking into through the old withy bed into the willow-encircled pool, returning along the towpath. At this early stage of the winter, only a few ducks had arrived, but Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Shoveler were noted on the Long Pool. A few passage waders, including a Greenshank and a Ruff had joined the wintering Snipe on the scrapes. The heavy southward passage of Swallows and Meadow Pipits noted in the previous week had diminished sharply, and instead a pair of Stonechats, just arrived for the winter, was noted.

Much interest was devoted to the state of the vegetation: many of the meadows had been “topped” by neighbouring farmers ie. a mower had been driven over them in an attempt to remove the mat of dead vegetation caused by summer flooding; in fact this seemed to have had little effect other than compacting the matted dead grass; however the leaves of many typical meadow plants (cinquefoil, burnet, silverweed, grasses and sedges) were pushing through the gaps in the matting, and there seemed hope that the mat of dead vegetation would disappear naturally with the frosts and rain (and probably more flooding, hopefully light) of the winter. Along the hedgerows a tidemark several feet up was still clearly visible, but the tops of the bushes and tress seemed t have survived and there were some signs of new shoots, and even some flowers, among the dead branches of hawthorn and dog rose. But it look like a poor crop of berries for the wintering thrushes.

Seven members met for the group’s first meeting of the year. This set us off to a good start, recording more than 80 species (our average for a Gloucestershire churchyard would be more like 50-60). The Cotswold churchyards of east Gloucestershire do seem to be better than average – have they escaped the pollution of the Severn Vale? – and this one had a surprisingly large number of old siliceous tombstones for a Cotswold site, boosting the chance of picking up a large number of species.

Five people met for a beautiful hot afternoon at Purton on the south bank of the Severn. We followed the towpath of the canal towards Sharpness, then went out onto the saltmarsh and shore, examining the barge hulks beached there, distant views of Gatcombe where Sir Francis Drake kept a mistress and more recently Railtrack cut down the rare Service Tree (Sorbus domestica), and the site of the Severn Rail Bridge disaster which fell into the river one foggy night in 1960. This was very much a recording meeting, with highlights including finding of a rare Notaris weevil, refinding the canal spider (Larinioides scopetarius), the bug Podops inuncta, the ants Lasius nylanderi and L brunneus, and the pseudoscorpion Roncus lubricus. We counted six Little Egrets on the river, and heard Reed Bunting and Cetti’s Warbler from the timber ponds. Botanically there was a very fine show of English Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia anglica). We discussed the implications of the proposed barrage on the natural history of the area.

Purton Field Meeting, April 2007, Andrew Bluett

Under the leadership of the county bryologist Peter Martin, a select band of members enjoyed the mosses and liverworts of Cooper’s Hill Wood, recording some 50 species including the local speciality Oxyrrhynchium schleicheri (Eurhynchium schleicheri) seen here in the foreground with the much commoner Eurhynchium striatum behind.

Mosses at Cooper’s Hill Wood, March 2007, Juliet Bailey

A group met at Keynes Country Park for a walk around a number of gravel pits at various stages of development. Working, recently worked out, almost restored and flooded pits were visited to see the lifecycle of gravel extraction. The trip included visits to areas usually inaccessible to the general public.

A highlight was the vigorous discussion on the processes of restoration, contradictory habitat demands for different species and the impact of a pit’s final use on habitat regeneration. The effect of a gravel pit’s lifecycle on the movement of Sand Martin colonies was discussed as the group watched c.250 pairs on a temporary sand cliff face in a working quarry.

The best technique for creating the profile of a restored gravel pit’s floor was described along with the effect the profile has on sedimentation and aquatic plant development. For most present this raised a new and interesting point that we could see was clearly important for plant diversity.

Observations made during the trip included:

Immature Hobby that perched on a bank about 100m metres from the group and gave all a chance to examine the raptor in detail and at leisure. Common Terns including a nest with chicks; Little Egret; Sand Martin colony; Stock Dove; Grey Herons; Roosts of Black Headed Gulls in the gravel quarry floor; Lapwings; and singing Skylark.

This was a very interesting and informative trip that included usually inaccessible reaches of the water park.