Bradford on Avon, 4 July 2023

Leader Felicity Gilmour

 Bath Nats members joined the leader outside Bradford on Avon’s station defying the dire weather forecast. Before we could depart however, we were soundly reprimanded for loitering by both the coffee van lady and the taxi cab lady – what an unusual Bradford welcome!

We hastily hurried off to look for waterlife at the McKeever bridge over the river, and were rewarded by the sight of a banded demoiselle and also admired the cheerful yellow waterlilies decorating the water, while a buzzard was heard overhead.

We investigated Holy Trinity’s small churchyard wildlife patch which was a riot of ox-eye daisies, but unfortunately too damp to attract butterflies, although we caught sight of a grey squirrel scampering past. The Saxon church of St Laurence, just opposite, proved interesting to the historically minded members (most of us), but we were disappointed that the swifts we’d seen swarming around the roof 2 years ago, were sadly not in evidence today, although we saw one low-flying swift which was probably nesting nearby.

As we walked along Barton Orchard, keen-eyed Lucy spotted a swift entering a nest hole in a nearby roof so we trained our eyes and binoculars on it, before continuing to the railway crossing and into the meadow area. Given the damp and grey conditions, I was not expecting to see any butterflies, but amazingly ringlets, meadow browns and a small skipper were seen. Our attention was also caught by Roesel’s and dark bush-crickets which were very well-disguised amongst brown seedheads of meadow cranesbill. This area has an abundance of wildflowers so I was pleased to have Theresa’s expertise to help us with identifications. Chicory, meadow scabious, bird’s-foot trefoil and purple loosestrife were some of the flowers providing colour amongst the grasses, while Graham found some unloved Himalayan balsam to uproot.

As we approached the Packhorse Bridge, we spotted some pale damselflies, one of which Lucy confidently identified as a white-legged damselfly. Some were immature forms so ‘Britain’s dragonflies’ by Smallshire and Swash was helpful in aiding identification. Crossing the bridge, we saw the resident pair of swans with four cygnets and as we set off along the riverside towards the canal swing bridge, we heard and saw a pair of ravens overhead.

Returning along the canal towards the Tithe Barn, we had good views of common and blue-tailed damselflies, along with more demoiselles, numerous marmalade hoverflies and a pupating ladybird.

We finished up near the swimming pool where Lucy heard a treecreeper although we were unable to spot it amongst the foliage.

The kingfisher also eluded us this time, but we ended up with a lengthy list of species considering the poor weather, and we all felt fortunate that the rain had decided to hold off until after a our walk. Many thanks to all the Bath Nats members who joined me and shared their expertise and good humour!

Felicity Gilmour