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Rabbit Ings: Flowers and Insects

Our field visit on the 12th July is to Rabbit Ings in Royston; details have been emailed out already, please drop us an email if you request this information.

While we intend to look at flowers and insects; there are plenty of other species groups that we never miss. And this site, which we do visit occasionally, offers an array of species for a young Country Park, so there should be plenty to see. The sites that we visit regularly allow for comparison data to be collected, which is an added benefit; having said this we always manage to spot something different. Hopefully the return of water voles, as the reed beds have had some extensive clearing work done to aid their habitat requirements

Featured

Alderman’s Head SSSI meadows

Our additional Barnsley Nats field visit this Saturday morning [28 June] is to Spring Meadows, Alderman’s Head and Cox Croft Meadows, to the south of Penistone.

These are traditionally managed hay meadows designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). They are adjacent to the ancient woodlands of Hollin Wood and Spring Wood. The visit has been arranged by Mitch Greenhalgh and is by courtesy of the farm owner.

For details email: [email protected]

Darfield Church

Darfield Church is the starting point for our next walk; on 18th June . This is an evening walk, to an area that some of our members visited on a morning walk from our programme last year. So providing an opportunity to do a comparison of species. On last year’s list we had goldcrest, a good number of interesting invertebrates, like the Volucella pellucens – Hoverfly which is a bee mimic, and marsh willowherb.

Further information can be email out on request to [email protected]

The Dawn Chorus

On May the 10th we will be heading to Worsbrough Reservoir, we have yet to confirm the meeting point. As the saying goes ” the early bird catches the worm”. This walk is a 5am start to listen and see the birds as they start their day, and hopefully spot other animals that are not usually about later in the day.


There are activities at the Mill later in the day, starting at 10am; to celebrate the Mills 400 years history. If anybody wants to make a longer day of their visit.

Whitwell Moor field visit, Saturday morning, 12th April

Whitwell Moor above Stocksbridge was the place for our field visit on Saturday morning, 12th April. We were looking for the wildlife on this former grouse moor and saw breeding lapwings, curlews, stonechats, and lots of others.

With the end of management of this site, it’s becoming better for wildlife. The views are fantastic too! Thanks Chris for taking us again to this fantastic place and pointing out the highlights!

Up and coming events

This Saturday our walk take us to Burton Bank; on the look out for signs of Spring. Meeting at 10am the walk will be around two hours. We have already emailed members of the meeting point, along with some background information on the area. Drop us an email if you want to join us.

And on Wednesday the 19th, for our last indoor meeting, we have a presentation entitled Yorkshire’s Birds & Wildlife; by our guest speaker John Gardner.
Everybody is welcome.

Spring is in the air – Our next field visit (15th March)

Pictures of wood anemone which will soon be flowering and a hoverfly on its own little bit of sun. These are just two of the many finds for spring: Which is the aim of our next outdoor field visit. There is a change of date from the programme and now will be on 15th March.

If you want to join us please drop us an email for the meeting time and place. [email protected].

February 19th

Sorry for the late posting regarding our next indoor meeting.

This will take place this Wednesday (19th Feb) at Worsbrough Common Community Centre, on Warren Quarry Lane. Starting at 7pm and to finish at approx 9pm.
The presentation is by Jeff Lunn on his work on ‘The Garganey Trust’, which is close to the RSPB site Wombwell Ings, which we paid a visit to recently. While there we spotted thirty nine species of birds.
Jeff has done a few talks for us in the past and our regular members know these to be entertaining.

Bees, Beekeeping and the Asian Hornet

Asian Hornet. Photo: Creative Commons (BY 2.0 UK) -Jean Haxaire

Our Barnsley Nats talk on Wednesday 20th November had Gordon Madden, secretary of Barnsley Beekeepers Association and a Barnsley Nats member, gave an illustrated presentation on ‘Bees, beekeeping and the Asian Hornet’.

Gordon had brought along various items of beekeeping equipment and his talk provoked a lot of interesting discussion.

YNU AGM in Barnsley on Saturday 16 November with blue plaque unveiling and presentation by Jeff Lunn

A special meeting was held on Saturday 16 November at the Library@the Lightbox. Barnsley Nats hosted the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union (YNU) Annual General Meeting and naturalists gathered from most of the areas of Yorkshire.

As part of the event a Blue Plaque was unveiled by the Mayor of Barnsley opposite Barnsley Town Hall.

The photograph shows the Mayor, Mayoress and Young Mayor together with Linda Burgess, Chair of Barnsley Civic Trust, and Jeff Lunn, President of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union.

The blue plaque commemorates Thomas Lister, Quaker, Poet and Naturalist, who was Barnsley Postmaster on the site from 1839 to 1870. As well as being President of Barnsley Naturalist and Scientific Society for 20 years, he was a prominent member of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. Thomas Lister attended the first YNU AGM held in Barnsley in 1884, 140 years ago! A good reason for welcoming the YNU back!

Before the blue plaque unveiling Peter Roberts gave a presentation covering highlights of the history of Barnsley Nats and the story of Thomas Lister: his bird reports in the Barnsley Chronicle and the stories of the Barnsley Nats’ Museum have been celebrated in Eldon Street Heritage Action Zone, not least by Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, and his band LYR.

In the afternoon, Jeff Lunn, 2024 YNU President, gave a stunning presentation with the title: ‘A Sense of Place, A Sense of Purpose’, covering his life in conservation and full of anecdote, humour and interest.