by David Hall | Mar 26, 2021 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. Lucy Starling...
by David Hall | Jan 18, 2021 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. Lucy Starling...
by David Hall | Jan 8, 2021 | Uncategorised
Photo: Glastonbury Thorn in Bath Botanical Gardens © Helena Crouch Leaders: Rob Randall & Helena Crouch Three members met on a fine cold afternoon for a winter wildlife walk in the park and also to look for plants in flower as our contribution to the BSBI’s New...
by David Hall | Jan 7, 2021 | Uncategorised
This walk was done in preparation for the New Year City Walk the following day. I started on the riverside path opposite St John’s Church. Two peregrine falcons were sitting on the church, the tiercel on top of one of the small towers, and the female well hidden by...
by David Hall | Jan 7, 2021 | Uncategorised
In accordance with Covid-19 regulations, a maximum of 5 members could join the Leader. 4 members joined me by the Beckford Road on a cold and grey early afternoon for a stroll along the canal towpath to Mill Lane (we avoided the riverside fields to Mill Lane due to...
by David Hall | Dec 6, 2020 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. Photo above by Lucy...
by David Hall | Nov 8, 2020 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. Above is a common...
by David Hall | Oct 30, 2020 | Uncategorised
Anyone mourning the effect of Ash dieback on our landscape might want to add to their Christmas wish-list a copy of ‘Ash’, a newly published monograph on this endangered species by tree photographer and author Archie Miles., sponsored by The Woodland Trust and the...
by David Hall | Aug 14, 2020 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. Above is a raven on...
by David Hall | Jul 12, 2020 | Uncategorised
Paul Wilkins reports: Like everyone else the Moth Group has had to cancel their planned moth traps at various sites around the district so far this year, but despite not being able to meet up, this hasn’t stopped the group being just as active, thanks to modern...
by David Hall | Jul 5, 2020 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log for July While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. And...
by David Hall | Jun 3, 2020 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log for June While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. And...
by David Hall | May 14, 2020 | Uncategorised
Contribute to the BathNats Lockdown Log While field trips are suspended do share any sightings of interest within the BathNats area. Use the contact form and if you have any photos to share ask on the form for a direct email link to submit them. Lucy Starling reports...
by David Hall | May 3, 2020 | Uncategorised
David Goode took a recorder out early on 3 May The recording is about one hour long. There were five distinct phases that day . Robins blackbirds wrens and woodpigeons, with occasional croaks from a raven. Ends with the soft notes of a bullfinch Great tits, blackbirds...
by David Hall | Apr 7, 2020 | Uncategorised
by BathNats President David Goode Tawny owls were calling when I opened the window at 5.45 this morning. It was dark but the dawn chorus had already started. Blackbirds and robins were the first songsters, soon joined by song thrushes and the strident voice of a wren....
by David Hall | Mar 8, 2020 | Uncategorised
Leader: Helena Crouch Ten members joined the leader for the walk through Vallis Vale, a biological and geological SSSI, containing ancient woodland and the famous De La Beche Unconformity. After weeks of wet weather, the paths were very muddy but passable, and the...
by David Hall | Mar 3, 2020 | Uncategorised
Monday 2 March at Bath Royal Scientific and Literary Institute (BRSLI) After 30 years as a woodland specialist for the Nature Conservancy Council, George Peterken developed an interest in meadows which led him to write the very popular book Meadows in the British...
by David Hall | Feb 4, 2020 | Uncategorised
With a full house of members at BRLSI, David Goode introduced the speaker, Ed Drewitt, as one of the country’s most knowledgeable peregrine specialists and author of ‘Urban Peregrines’, the first book to highlight the success of this fabulous bird in urban...
by David Hall | Jan 25, 2020 | Uncategorised
Leaders: Andrew and Jane Daw A good number of people joined us at Willsbridge Mill for a field trip which had originally been planned for Kelston, the persistent rain having led to flooding around our original route. Willsbridge Mill Reserve, managed by the Avon...
by David Hall | Jan 5, 2020 | Uncategorised
We met outside the Prior Park Garden Centre at 10am on a mild winter’s morning for our New Year Walk in Widcombe. As usual it was a popular gathering with 28 members present. After a quick look for American crayfish along the stream by Prior Park Buildings, which...
by David Hall | Dec 18, 2019 | Uncategorised
Leader: Philip Delve Given the run of wet and windy days this month, those attending this meeting were blessed with reasonable conditions for our walk; for although we needed to wrap warm against a cool breeze the morning remained rain free. Having assembled at the...
by David Hall | Dec 8, 2019 | Uncategorised
Leader: Terry Doman Four members joined the leader for a day at Chew Valley Lake. We met at Herriot’s bridge on a cold and windy day with the threat of rain. The water levels were high due to the recent weeks of rain. There was the possibility of a rare American Green...
by David Hall | Oct 31, 2019 | Uncategorised
On a bright but slightly overcast morning of Wednesday 30th October a group of around 18 members plus several visitors gathered in the classroom at Friary, Hinton Charterhouse, by kind invitation of Penny and Richard Williamson, and were treated first of all to coffee...
by David Hall | Oct 19, 2019 | Uncategorised
A dozen of us gathered for this meeting on what was to turn out to be a mostly dry, bright Autumn day with sunlight sifting down at times through the tree canopy to dapple the ground below. From the reserve entrance we made our way down to the petrifying stream marked...
by David Hall | Oct 9, 2019 | Uncategorised
Leaders: Alice and John Nissen Ten of us met on what threatened to be a hopelessly wet day at the golf course carpark (with permission) on Lansdown. We decided to shorten our route, leaving out the planned start which had been to skirt Weston Wood and dip down into...
by David Hall | Sep 25, 2019 | Uncategorised
A group of thirteen of us gathered for this meeting on a day that was to prove to be mostly dry, mild and dappled with sunshine. And, as on previous visits, we had a fungal treat in store for us despite the long dry spell that had preceded the meeting. We started with...
by David Hall | Sep 3, 2019 | Uncategorised
Leader Lucy Delve Ten members and one non-member joined me at 10am in Ham Wall RSPB car park and we promptly headed towards Noah’s Hide, Shapwick Heath where the adult Osprey was located, for, possibly, the 11th or 12th consecutive year. It is commonly referred to as...
by David Hall | Apr 26, 2019 | Uncategorised
A group of 14 of us gathered in the car park of the American Museum on a sunny, mild morning, and were joined by the Head Gardener, Andrew Cannell and Matt Postles from the Bristol Natural History Consortium, who told us about the purpose of the international ‘City...
by David Hall | Feb 6, 2019 | Uncategorised
By 10AM, when thirteen of us met at Slimbridge WWT, the early mist had given way to sunshine. Entry formalities over, we headed out to the Holden Tower, from which to view both Tack Piece and the Severn Estuary foreshore. Arriving shortly after a high tide ensured...
by David Hall | Jan 31, 2019 | Uncategorised
On a bitterly cold winter’s day, twenty members met to explore this small Local Nature Reserve in Twerton, which includes woodland, grassland and a small stretch of the Newton Brook and was designated in 2006 as an “urban fringe” LNR. After admiring the frosted...
by David Hall | Jan 15, 2019 | Uncategorised
The fossil cast of the dinosaur Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni provided an interesting backdrop and contrast of scale as we set up for our workshop on ‘Bryophyte Ecology’ which was attended by 20 Bath Nats members and visitors. For this workshop we started with the premise...
by David Hall | Jan 10, 2019 | Uncategorised
We gathered above Pulteney Weir on an unseasonably mild morning for a stroll around the southern margins of the city. By the time we set off there were twenty-three of us and soon we were all clustered around a tree beside the riverside walk whose trunk was covered in...
by David Hall | Dec 9, 2018 | Uncategorised
Fifteen of us, including one non-member, gathered on a very windy but sunny morning in the RSPB reserve of Greylake car park off the A371. We were surrounded at one point by a very large flock of Lapwing and Golden Plover, clearly disturbed by a bird of prey. It was...
by David Hall | Nov 15, 2018 | Uncategorised
A group of 17 of us gathered in the car park of the American Museum on a brilliantly sunny, mild morning, and were met by the Head Gardener, Andrew Cannell, who provided us with some helpful background information and advice. Most of us, apart from a small group of...
by David Hall | Oct 31, 2018 | Uncategorised
On the brilliantly bright and crisp morning of Wednesday 31st October a group of around 17 members met in the classroom at Friary, Hinton Charterhouse, by kind invitation of Penny and Richard Williamson, and were treated first of all to coffee and biscuits while...
by David Hall | Sep 16, 2018 | Uncategorised
A group of four revisited Primrose Hill to repeat the biodiversity measurements begun in 2012. It was an autumn day after a dry summer which will have not helped the growth of our target organisms. There were many visitors to the site (plus dogs). We found that there...
by David Hall | Sep 5, 2018 | Uncategorised
A group of nine of us gathered under the magnificent veteran oak trees outside East Woodlands Church on a morning that began coolly but became increasingly warm and sunny towards lunchtime. As in 2017, and despite the hot, dry early-mid-Summer weather, we had...
by David Hall | Jun 23, 2018 | Uncategorised
Leader: Lucy Delve Eleven members gathered in the Caen Hill Locks car park in glorious sunshine; the leader had high hopes of finding Scarce Chaser dragonflies, and lots more besides. The first dragonfly species seen was a male Emperor hawking over and the side pound...
by David Hall | May 26, 2018 | Uncategorised
Expectations were high in the weeks leading up to this trip to the chalk hillside of Pewsey, as the trip last spring was awesome….but as 15 of us assembled in the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust car park at the base of the Downs, we were not too confident of a good...
by David Hall | May 10, 2018 | Uncategorised
Leader Lucy Delve Nine members gathered in the Ham Wall car park for a 9.30am start on a fairly breezy morning, after a very short delay for a passing rain shower. From then on there was ever-decreasing cloud and we enjoyed viewing and listening to birds, among...
by David Hall | Apr 7, 2018 | Uncategorised
Leaders : Tom Pinckheard and Lucy Delve Only 4 members plus the leaders braved the grey morning day with the forecast of initial heavy rain. However, we were immediately rewarded with a pair of Kestrels hovering above us, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were singing and a...
by David Hall | Mar 21, 2018 | Uncategorised
Twelve of us gathered on a cool but quite sunny morning, with snow still lingering in drifts and patches from the heavy fall the previous weekend. As we set out for our morning exploration of the woodland in the vicinity of Smitham’s Chimney, we were quickly rewarded...
by David Hall | Feb 11, 2018 | Uncategorised
Four of us decided to make ‘a day of it’ and leave for Ham Wall at 9.30am on Sunday morning. We arrived around 10.15 in freezing conditions, and braced ourselves against frequent squally showers of sleet and hail as we made our way down towards the 1st...
by David Hall | Dec 6, 2017 | Uncategorised
Leader Terry Doman Fifteen members joined the leader in the car park at the Selwin Hall, Box. After a safety brief we proceeded to the adjacent ‘Rock Circus’, where the leader explained that it had been constructed as an educational structure for anyone...
by David Hall | Nov 18, 2017 | Uncategorised
Greeted by what is known as a mizzle, ten of us gathered in the first field at the top of the Midford Brook. The work to develop the 11 acre field owned by Avon and Tributaries Angling Association as a wildflower meadow has had to be put on hold while the Environment...
by David Hall | Oct 28, 2017 | Uncategorised
Frills, Spills and Crossbills in Alfred’s Tower Woodlands A group of 17 of us gathered in the National Trust car park near Alfred’s Tower on what was to turn out to be a very pleasant, mild and often sunlit October day, with much to see and appreciate in varied...
by David Hall | Oct 4, 2017 | Uncategorised
Early arrivals reported Bullfinches by Lacock Road car park, where 15 Nats members met to walk the Corsham Court parkland. We entered the park directly across the road, emerging through boundary trees into open parkland, pasture, freestanding oak trees and the lake...
by David Hall | Sep 27, 2017 | Uncategorised
Scarlet Berry Truffle and Other Exciting Fungal Finds Ten of us gathered for this meeting in hazy, mild dry and calm conditions. We were in for even more of a fungal treat than in 2016, with around 70 species being recorded in the morning, including several...
by David Hall | Sep 17, 2017 | Uncategorised
Leader Alan Feest We gathered as a small group in the small car park at the foot of Dolebury Warren on a misty morning and I explained the nature of the site and the intention to look for CHEGs (Clavaria, Hygrocybe, Entoloma, Galerina) species, which are...
by David Hall | Sep 11, 2017 | Uncategorised
I watched an Otter in the River Avon from about 10.55-11.10am on Sunday 10 September. My first sighting in the city centre! The animal kept close to the far bank and within the bank-side vegetation. It was actively hunting for food. It dived a few times and I was able...
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