Asides

South Yorkshire Natural History Day 2023

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.

South-Yorkshire-Natural-History-Day-2023Download

Carlton Marsh Nature Reserve –12 March

On Saturday morning, 12 March, we visited Carlton Marsh Nature Reserve. A mix of reedbed, fen, scrapes, marsh, meadows and wet woodland makes Carlton Marsh a great place to visit, enjoy some birding, and spot signs of Spring!

Cliff Gorman who has been involved with Carlton Marsh over many years joined us and posted this account on the Barnsley Bird Sightings blog:

The Barnsley Naturalist Society visited this morning providing the following:
4 Buzzards in the air together, 5 singing Chiffchaffs, 1 singing Cetti’s warbler, 3 singing Reed Buntings, 1 yaffling Green Woodpecker, 1 Linnet, 1 Greenfinch, a male Grey Wagtail and 6 Common Gulls.

The first flowers of Cowslip were showing in the western Meadow along with Dogs Mercury and White Dead Nettle on the embankment.

4 Smooth Newts and a Froglet from last year were found under an old sleeper and a Lemon Slug was under a rock.

A fresh dead Wood Mouse was another interesting find.

It was really good to see old friends from this group again, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you for coming and being so enthusiastic.

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)

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

Jill’s lenten quiz

QUESTION 1
What is the flower in the picture?
a) Ramsons
b) Snowdrop
c) Lily of the Valley

QUESTION 2
Can you identify this spring flower?

QUESTION 3
Can you identify this spring flower which can be found on hedge banks and woodland clearings?

QUESTION 4
Can you identify this tree from the picture of the male and female flowers?

QUESTION 5
Can you identify the tree from the male and female flowers?

QUESTION 6
Of which Elm are these buds from?

QUESTION 7
What sort of organism is this?
a) Plant Gall
b) Fungi
c) Lichen

QUESTION 8
Which plant was collected and dried in large quantities for the Great War?
a) Coltsfoot
b) Crocus
c) Sphagnum Moss

QUESTION 9
Which two British mammals turn white in winter?

QUESTION 10
Which Raptor generated a great deal of interest on the Uplands locally in 2020?

CAN YOU NAME THE BRITISH WILD FLOWER FROM THESE STATEMENTS
QUESTION 11
Shabby Bird

QUESTION 12
Amphibian Linen

QUESTION 13
‘They seek him here, they seek him there’

QUESTION 14
Prudish National Emblem

QUESTION 15
Is this insect a
a) wasp
b) hoverfly
c) solitary bee?

QUESTION 16
What sort of insect is this?
a) cockroach
b) soldier beetle
c) long horn beetle

QUESTION 17
Can you name this bird and what family does it belong to?

QUESTION 18
Can you identify this bird and can you name the plant which is believed it spreads?

QUESTION 19
Can you identify this secretive bird ?

QUESTION 20
Can you name this bird and what family does it belong to? Where in Barnsley town centre does it roost?

Answers available at Easter!

Images of birds: Thanks Ron Marshall

Recording wildlife sightings- some questions

Some questions for everyone: Do sightings need to be out of the ordinary to be worth recording? What makes sightings worth recording?

And how do you record what you see? Do you make a list on paper or on a computer? Do you send in your records? Perhaps you use online recording and do you recommend iNaturalist, iRecord, iSpot or get online another way?

Let’s hear what you think!