Saturday 13 November: Dodworth pitstack
Our visit to Dodworth pitstack concentrated on identifying fungi in the grassland and woodland found there. A number of plants including polypody, were also recorded.
Category: Field visits
Stranglers at Wortley Hall
Saturday 2 October: Wortley Hall parkland and walled garden.
Doug and Barry led us on a visit last Saturday to Wortley Hall for fungi and veteran trees. A good visit made more exciting by Doug’s earlier discovery of a special rare fungus: one that parasitises and grows out of another!
The greyish parasite fungus (the Powdercap Strangler, Squamanta paradoxa) grows out of the much more common yellow host fungus (Earthy Powdercap)
Under the wind turbines above Carlecotes
Saturday 28 August: A good number of naturalists visited the Banks Renewables site with its heathland habitat, with lots of interest.
YNU VC63 excursion
Saturday 23 July saw the Yorkshire Naturalists Union yearly meeting for south-west Yorkshire. We met near Monk Bretton Priory and walked downstream along the river Dearne. Unfortunately there was torrential rain but we made our way through the dense vegetation along one side of the river, had lunch sheltering under a viaduct, and after some botanising in a meadow made our way back along the other side.
Our first field visit in 2021
Midsummer in a Worsbrough meadow
Our first Nats evening nature walk in 2021 was on Wednesday 23 June to Worsbrough Country Park. We used the wider paths and more open areas to help with social distancing.
We enjoyed exploring the flowering plants in a meadow and seeing chimney sweeper moths in an area with their food plant pignut
Boylins – July 2020
Some Barnsley Nats members gathered on Wednesday evening at the Strafford mine water treatment scheme near Stainborough for a socially-distanced field visit. Mainly looking at and admiring the matrix of flowering plants in this former industrial site. Images to follow.
A Broad Leaved Helleborine SE 321039 found by Kent and Doug that Wednesday in a wooded area near Boylins.
Trees in Winter
Saturday 14th March
On this field visit we will be led by Doug Brown; looking at the trees in Cawthorne Park.
With the recent restoration work in the park it is expected to still be muddy in places. Please dress for the weather
The meeting point will be the main car park at Cannon Hall; SE272079, post code S754AT. Meeting for our usual 10am start. This is a pay and display car park, £1 for two hours and £3 for all day. For anybody travelling by bus you need the 94 route from Barnsley. This is a limited service on Saturdays. Please check time with the service operators; it is a approximately one hour travel time and then a walk to the meeting point.
Rockley
On Saturday 8th February, we have a field visit to Rockley. Our leader for this will be Geoff Jackson. There is usually plenty to see on our, now annual, visit to Rockley. As the weather is some mild just now we could be in for some early sightings.
We will be meeting at 10:00 am at the car parking area for Rockley Furnace on Rockley Lane which is opposite to the entrance to Rockley Abbey Farm S75 3DS (Grid Ref. SE337020). Please take care not to block any of the residents access when parking. If needs be please park under the MI flyover and walk back down to the meeting point
The area is usually quite muddy; please dress for the weather; boots, hats, gloves etc…
Barnsley Canal and Wilthorpe Marsh
Our field visit on the morning of 11 January is a circular walk along Barnsley Canal and Wilthorpe Marsh.
We are meeting at 10am in the car park down Smithies Lane opposite The Fleets (a former pub now a Barnsley College sports centre).
Grid Reference: SE346078. Postcode S71 1NL.
If the car park is full, there are local side streets. Bus number 12 runs regularly down Smithies Lane: the 09.37 and 09.52 buses from Barnsley Interchange get there for 10am.
Looking forward to seeing everyone
2020
May we take this opportunity to wishing everybody a Happy New Year.
You are more than welcome to come along and join us for any of our meeting or field visits.
We kick start 2020 with an indoor meeting on January 8th.
This will be a presentation by Alwyn Timms; entitled The Discreet World of Barnsley’s Small Blue Butterfly
We also have a field visit on January 11th. Details to be confirmed.
And on January 22nd our indoor meeting is a members short presentations. This is very much a nature wide array of topics.
Our updated 2020 Spring Summer Programme will be available for viewing shortly.
Saturday 7th December we have a field visit
This field visit will take place at the Anglers Country Park . Our group leaders for this field visit are Colin and Linda Graham. Colin and Linda will be giving us an insight into the Gull Roost at this park. This is a popular area for winter ducks too.
We are meeting at 1 pm in the main car park at Anglers Country Park, Haw Park Lane, Wintersett, WF4 2EB, grid reference: SE375153.
Good footwear and warm clothing may be a good idea. The cafe there will be open when we arrive.
We do have a later start time for this field visit of 13:00.
Saturday 9th November
Fungi
Our next morning field visit is to the area around Worsbrough Reservoir country park looking at the fungi there.
Geoff Jackson is leading the walk from the main car park [grid reference SE351033] on Park Road along the track on the south-side of the reservoir towards Shaw Bank wood and Rockley Old Hall.
Meeting at 10 am. All welcome.
Please note the car park has a small charge.
Wortley Hall Parkland
Our next field visit is on Saturday 12 October to Wortley Hall Gardens and Parkland where the ancient trees will attract our interest alongside other natural history.
The leaders are Doug Brown and Barry Tylee (Friends of Wortley Hall).
We are meeting at 10 am with parking alongside the drive on the way into Wortley Hall grounds.
The Grid Reference for the meeting point is SK312995: The postcode for Wortley Hall is S357DB
There are twenty six acres of grounds to explore at this former stately home, so we should have an interesting field visit, like we usually do.
Many thanks to our leaders, Doug and Barry, on what proved to be a fascinating walk; their combined knowledge is immense. Barry gave us a brief insight into the history of the grounds before we set off. The walk was aimed to be a look at the tree that had been planted over the last 200 years. An arboretum of many American trees which contains a Giant Redwood, a Brewers Weeping Spruce, a Bald Cypress and Black Locus. We had a good look at the grounds possible oldest resident,a Sessile Oak which is estimated at 350 to 500 years of age. One of the group said “if trees could talk what interesting stories would they be able to tell”. This set me thinking too; what could these trees have witnessed. So I intent to provide some additional information; my personal view on on the events that they have lived though along with some fact about the species . We had many other interesting observations too; morel, stinkhorn, fly agaric and jellyear mushrooms and a ladybird larvae to name a few.
Wortley Hall gardens and parkland
A field visit to Wortley Hall gardens and parkland led by Doug Brown (Barnsley Nats) and Barry Tylee (Friends of Wortley Hall Gardens).
Meeting at 10am on Saturday 12 October; parking on the drive on the way into Wortley Hall
September 8th
For those interested, Tom Higginbottom is leading a Plant Gall field visit at Newmillerdam; 10.30 start. Details -including contact info for Tom are given at https://www.britishplantgallsociety.org/events.html .
The meeting point is in the car park; which operates a Pay and Display system. so please have some change for this; estimated at £1.70. Please bring a packed lunch if you want.
There is also a drop-in bioblitz at Cannon Hall country park: http://www.cannon-hall.com/bioblitz .
Apologises for the short notice on these two activities. These are not our organised activities, so please refer to the links for correct information.