Natural History in Barnsley
Stuart Foster is giving an illustrated talk on the fascinating True Bugs on Wednesday evening, 22nd March, 7pm at Barnsley Town Hall. It’s a chance to find out how to identify the different species and the habitats where they are found.
All welcome: just ring the bell at the Experience Barnsley door
Around 20 people joined our field visit that was postponed to Saturday 18th March to measure some veteran trees at Cannon Hall. We mainly looked at the notable oak trees below the stream and lake, coming back past the old yew tree.
If you’d like some information on ancient and other veteran trees, and how to recognise them, just let us know.
Chris Tomson is giving a talk on Rewilding on Wednesday evening, 22nd February at Barnsley Town Hall. Your chance to find out ‘what’s it all about’!
Chris’s illustrated presentation looks at the larger rewilding projects including Glen Feshie, Carrifran, Haweswater and Knepp but also looks at smaller scale projects in Yorkshire.
We are really looking forward to Chris’s talk and the discussion it will no doubt generate. It’s an opportunity to learn more about a hot topic.
Everyone is welcome at this Barnsley Nats event, so if you know someone who would be interested, do let them know.
Wednesday 22nd February, Barnsley Town Hall, 7pm.
[use the Experience Barnsley Entrance and ring the bell on the left of the door to get in]
Now with SSSI status, its mix of reedbed, fen, scrapes, marsh, meadows and wet woodland makes Carlton Marsh a great place to visit, in any season.
It was quite quiet when we visited; we were pleased to see the two Whooper swans, as well as mallard, moorhen, gadwall and almost 20 teal; and in the bushes some dancing long-tailed tit. And of course we looked at the fungi, lichens and plants.
A highlight was searching for over-wintering herald moths!
https://www.ywt.org.uk/nature-reserves/carlton-marsh-nature-reserve
A good number of Barnsley Nats folk joined naturalists from across South Yorkshire for a programme of talks and chat on Saturday 18 February. Highlights included a tour of Brockadale nature reserve and the story of Scruffy the Crow! We’re looking forward to next year’s day of natural history.
Click on the blue link for the programme.
Here is our programme to September 2023.
From April it consists of fields visits on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings.
There are two indoor meetings: a talk on ‘Rewilding’ by Chris Tomson on February 22nd and a talk on ‘True Bugs’ by Stuart Foster on March 22nd.
You can see the programme on the ‘Programme’ page. To see it here without downloading it, just click on the blue link.
‘Aspects of Biodiversity in Barnsley’ was a presentation given by Peter Roberts at the Barnsley Nats meeting at Barnsley Town Hall on Wednesday 25 January, following the AGM. His presentation included lots on the landscapes, habitats and wildlife found in Barnsley. He touched on the problems they face as well as on what we should do to conserve them. Peter also covered the importance of wildlife records and the role of the Barnsley Biological Record Centre.
His talk was based on the information in the Barnsley Biodiversity Action Plan. Have a look, it’s online at http://barnsleybiodiversity.org.uk/ Comments welcome!
The records that Barnsley naturalists and others provide are really helpful. Let’s carry on recording the wildlife of Barnsley.
A trip down the microscope with Howard, Jill’s Christmas Quiz, and Cake!
Thank you to everyone who came to our Christmas Social; a nice get-together.
Thanks especially to Howard for his great presentation exploring the microscopic world — how he, together with Alwyn, matched the music with the movements was brilliant!
Thanks too to Trevor for thinking of showing us the video on the ‘power of nature’. If anyone missed it, we can forward it to you: just get in touch.
And thanks as always to Jill for setting the annual Christmas Quiz. It was a great quiz, and nice to be able to do it in person this time rather than online.
And good to have time together to chat with some cake!
Doug gave out copies of a New Year Quiz —here it is.
[Click on the link to view without downloading]
Here are the answers!
Wildlife on the Yorkshire Coast, a presentation by Geoff Carr on Wednesday 23rd November was fascinating. Geoff covered a whole stretch of coastline with great images of the birds and other wildlife to be found. He pointed out for us the slippages down the cliffs that have preserved former grassland habitats now lost above the cliffs. A great talk that provoked a lot of discussion.
On Saturday 12th November we have a field visit to Anglers Country Park for the birds of open water and scrub; looking for fungi as well. We will start with the hide(s) and go on round the water and possibly into some woodland areas.
We are meeting at 10 am in the main car park at Anglers Country Park, Haw Park Lane, Wintersett, WF4 2EB, grid reference: SE375153.
Car parking free for 2 hours, £2 for 3 hours.
After looking for fungi at a number of sites we decided to go back to Dodworth Stack on Saturday, 8th October. We had a productive and enjoyable visit; our thanks to Doug for arranging and leading this field visit. Watch out for his report.
‘The Catastrophe of Bare Peat’ a talk by Robbie Carnegie on the work of Moors for the Future
Our next meeting is a talk entitled ‘The Catastrophe of Bare Peat’ by Robbie Carnegie. It will give an overview of the work of Moors for the Future, the issues they are tackling, and what they are doing now and in the future.
The talk is on Wednesday 19th October at 7pm in Barnsley Town Hall, S70 2TA. Finish by 9pm
Everyone is welcome so if you know of others interested in moorlands, the issues they face, and the work of Moors for the Future, then do pass on the invitation.
For those who haven’t been to a Barnsley Nats meeting at the Town Hall before, use the Experience Barnsley entrance and ring the bell!
Parking on council car parks and on-street parking spaces nearby is free after 6pm. Some town centre on-street parking may have different rules.
Barnsley Nats talks are back! Ron Marshall gave a stimulating talk on wildlife in Scotland at our first indoor meeting for two years, on Wednesday 21 September.
Illustrated by fantastic photographs, Ron took us from Ardnamurchan to the Hebrides, from the Cairngorms to the Shetland islands.
He shared with us his experiences of pine martens and otters, ptarmigans and mountain hares, and a considerable range of birds of land and sea.
A great commentary Ron, giving us an insight into the behaviour and characteristics of Scottish wildlife. We can’t wait to visit the places you told us about.
Saturday September 10th, 10.30 am: A visit to Worsborough Mill Country Park , looking in particular for plant galls. We had have the benefit of Tom Higginbottom and some other members of the Plant Gall Society. More on what we found to follow.
Our Wednesday 24 August evening field visit was a walk around Dearne Valley Country Park. We had a general look around the park along the canal, before using our bat detectors to identify the different bat species when it started to get dark.
The highlight of the evening was seeing the Daubenton bats skimming insects off the surface of the water. We had five species: three pipestrelle, noctule and Daubenton.
Thanks to Mark and Kevin for their support. It was good to have a number of bat detectors for people to try out.
