Natural History in Barnsley
Great to see so many this last Saturday morning at RSPB Adwick Washlands; a good birding session with splendid weather! Thanks to Lesley for leading the field visit and for producing the bird species list. As usual, great for a variety of wintering birds; a highlight was the five or six Tree Sparrows in the hedges at the Bolton-upon-Dearne end of the reserve. And of course we examined the lichens as well!
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the excellent Nats Christmas Fuddle. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.
We are now looking forward to next years programme of indoor and field meetings, so till then a Happy Christmas and New Year.
All the Best, Doug and Jill
Thanks to everyone for coming to our Christmas Social yesterday and making it such an enjoyable event.
Thanks to Jill for a very enjoyable quiz. The nature table with rocks, lichens, beach finds and a 1950’s collection of eggs, kept people interested. Thanks too to Alan for downsizing the contents of his book shelves. And then Dennis showed us his invertebrate collection; yes all alive and fascinating.
Many thanks too for all the delicious food which was brought and sampled, a very good end to an enjoyable year of field visits and nature talks.
Wishing you all a happy Christmas and see you again in 2024, with our first field visit to Adwick Wetlands, on Saturday January 13th.
Our hope that the weather was better than last weekend’s, came clashing down with lashing rain! Still six Barnsley Nats members visited Anglers Country Park, dashing from hide to hide, and saw a surprising number of birds on the feeders and indeed on the water. And towards the end some sun! Just before we enjoyed a warming drink in the café.
And here are some lichens observed between the hides …
Here are some of Ron Marshall’s photographs of Redstarts and Whinchat taken at Broomhill in August 2023.
Images by Ron Marshall
Ron Marshall gave a brilliant account of his ‘Birdwatcher’s Year’ at the Barnsley Nats meeting on Wednesday 22 November in our new venue at Worsbrough Common Community Centre.
Great images and presentation as always!
For some of his local images have a look at:
www.barnsleynats.org.uk/category/ron-marshalls-images/
Spoonbills have been seen in the Dearne Valley wetland reserves for a just a few years. Here are some images taken by Ron Marshall in 2022 and 2o23.
Our Barnsley Nats monthly indoor meetings are at
Worsbrough Common Community Centre (Vera Mawby Centre)
Warren Quarry Lane, off Park Road (A6133), Barnsley.
Post Code: S70 4ND
What Three Words: ///daring.medium.weds
There’s parking in the Centre Car park and on the Warren Quarry Lane roadside.
The Wednesday evening dates for our talks (at 7pm) are:
Wednesday 25 October 2023: A Carrion Crow in Close-Up by Steve Byers
Wednesday 22 November 2023: A Birdwatcher’s Year by Ron Marshall
Wednesday 21 February 2024: Ancient Woodland Inventory Review by AWIR Project leaders, Nick and David,
Wednesday 20 March 2024: Wildflower Meadows by Chris Tomson.
Our Christmas Social is on Wednesday 20 December 2023 and our AGM on Wednesday 24 January 2024.
Our full programme including field visits can be seen on our programme page, see tabs above or go to: barnsleynats.org.uk/programme/
Our walk around Royd Moor Reservoir. As well as the reservoir and ponds, this local wildlife site has areas of woodland and heath, so lots to see.
There was an impressive flight of around 300 Greylag geese landing on the reservoir with some remaining in nearby field. On the reservoir too were Canada Geese, Tufted Duck, Mallards and plenty of Black headed Gulls with Teal displaying and a pair of Little Grebe at the silt pond. We also saw 3 Rooks, Carrion Crows, male and female Blackbirds, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Mistle Thrush, Jay, Robin, Wren, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Yellowhammer, and Chaffinches.
We spotted a number of flowering plants, just about still in flower:
Yarrow, Ragwort, Zigzag clover, Mallow, Hawkweed sp., Harebell, Broom,
Hogweed, Herb Robert with Goat’s Rue not in flower.
And then Insects: Zebra spider, a snail eating beetle, Harlequin ladybirds;
Galls: Lots of Pineapple galls, one Oak apple and a Marble gall on Sessile Oak, possibly some Cola nut galls; and Fungi:
Wednesday, 25 October 2023 brought the first of our Barnsley Nats monthly indoor meetings this year. Steve Byers gave a presentation on ‘A Carrion Crow in Close-Up’ in our new venue, Worsbrough Common Community Centre.
With humour and insights into the behaviour of this species, it was well-worth attending.
Wortley Hall parkland was the place for our field visit this Saturday morning, 14th October. With a total of 14 members from Barnsley Nats and Friends of Wortley Hall Gardens, the weather was typical for Autumn with blue skies and sunshine with a north westerly wind making to feel cold in the shade, at eight degrees!
We did a circuit of the gardens, admired the ancient oak tree and the fossilized tree stump, and found most of the fungi on the grass lawns.
This site appears locally important for fungi and deserves further visits.
Our next field visit takes place on the evening of Wednesday, 20th September. We will be watching bats on Elsecar reservoir and nearby. We will bring some bat detectors! Leader Doug Brown.
Meet at the car park at 6.45 pm on Wentworth Road near Elsecar Heritage Centre and opposite Elsecar Park. Grid Ref SK 38449976. What 3 words: ///aunts.wanted.cuddled. Nearby post code: S74 8EP
Some of us joined the Plant Gall Society at Seckar Woods on Wednesday.
For over 300 years Seckar Wood was part of the Wentworth estate until it was purchased by renowned local photographer Warner Gothard in 1923 and later left in his will ‘for the people of Wakefield and Barnsley’. Seckar Wood has ponds and some heathland as well as ancient woodland. It is a SSSI and Local Nature Reserve, managed by Wakefield Council.
On Saturday 9th September, our field visit is to Rabbit Ings, near Royston; meeting at 10:00 am in the car park off Lund Hill Lane S71 4BB
What3words: ///extreme.seemingly.grid. Grid reference: SE375117
Rabbit Ings is a country park located on the former colliery yard and spoil heap of the Monkton Colliery and then the Royston Drift Mine, which closed in 1989. The renovated 64-hectare site, situated near Royston, has a range of habitats including grassland, woodland, ponds and wetland areas. It can be a hotspot for dragonflies. Leader Michele Winder.
Doug Brown, one of our members, goes out on a regular basis to do a glowworm count on a transect of the TPT near Thurgoland. This Wednesday night, for our planned field visit, several other Barnsley Nats members went along too. We had a count of around 70 glowworms a-glowing; quite difficult to see but an impressive number these days.
Doug also set up a moth trap at the side of the trail for while we are counting the glowworms. And the following morning we assembled at Doug and Jill’s to see the moths collected on the TPT.
So a good conclusion to our summer field visits.
