Author: Barnsley_Nats

This is an addition to our Spring/Summer Programme.

We are continuing our ‘looking at a hedgerow with a Naturalist’s eye’ series on the evening of Wednesday 7 August – with a walk with Catherine Artindale along Stead Lane, Hoyland Common. Again we will be testing the Hooper Hypothesis on dating an hedgerow. This field visit should put our knowledge to the test too. Those of you who helped with the hedgerow survey we conducted in March near Stairfoot will know what an interesting evening it will be. We will be hearing a little about its history as well as looking at the plant species and wildlife of the hedgerow. We will draw our conclusion; the age of the hedge, using the Hooper Hypothesis guideline.

The level of this walk is easy, with plenty of time for discusing our conclusion and resulting age of this hedgerow.

Our walk takes us from Stead Lane towards Skier’s Spring Wood. We are meeting at 7pm at the junction of Stead Lane and Warren View, in Hoyland Common [post code S74 0BZ; grid reference SK361999]. There’s enough road-side parking.
To get there, go down Sheffield Road (the A6135) through Hoyland Common and turn off into Parkside Road, which is the third road on the left from the Hoyland Common crossroads. Then take the second road right which leads to Stead Lane, where you turn right again to get to our meeting place.
Looking forward to seeing you.

Following an excellent field visit walk along the Mucky Lane hedgerows and through Dearne Meadows on Saturday, we are meeting again this coming Wednesday evening for a field visit to Barrow. Again this should be a highly interesting evening with many of our usual flora and fauna favourites to spot; and hopefully something new too.

We are meeting at 7pm and parking in Edmunds Road just below the Boatman’s Rest pub where a footbridge crosses the river Dove and leads to Barrow along Dark Lane and Powder Mill Lane. Leader Ron Marshall
Grid reference SE 361035 Post Code S70 4TD.
After our walk some of us may retire to the Boatman’s Rest!
Looking forward to seeing those who can make it.

We had to take a slight change of route on the actural walk. Having had a bad thunderstorm earlier that made for some tricky ground. We still had plenty thought to keep us occupied. Amoungst our finds was a horseraddish; which I beleive is the first we have spotter this year.

Our field visit starts from Ardsley, dropping down Mucky Lane to the River Dearne and the meadows that run alongside it; and coming back through Horsecarr wood and back up Mucky Lane.

Meeting for 10 am near the junction of Penrhyn Walk and Ennerdale Road in Ardsley, grid reference SE384059; postcode S71 5DR.

With our Spring / Summer 2019 programme coming to an end shortly, may we say a very big “thank you” to all of our guest speakers and field visit leads.

Wednesday July 10th & Thursday July 11th

This field visit is an exception to our usual plans. Not only will we be meeting at a later time, this is to be followed by us being kindly invited to Jill and Doug’s the following day. The meeting point is Cote Lane, south of Thurgoland (Grid reference SE 291 003).

Our field visit to the TPT near Thurgoland led by Doug Brown and Jill Hayler started with setting up some moth traps; it was getting a little dark for identifying plants but we managed to spot two bat species, common pipestrelle and noctule; and then counted 43 glowworms along the trail.

This was a couple of very interesting and intense meetings for both the 10th and 11th. The glowworm count was over 40; while the moths traps had an array of different species.

The moths recorded were:
GEOMETRIDAE: Riband Wave, Northern Spinach, July Highflyer and Peppered Moth
SPHINGDAE: Elephant Hawkmoth
ARCTIDAE: Buff Ermine and Cinnabar
NOCTUIDAE: Heart and Dart,Large Yellow Underwing, Double Square- Spot, Common Wainscot, Dark Arches, Uncertain, Silver Y and Beauitiful Golden Y
MICRO MOTH: Small Magpie

This evenings field visit is to Royd Moor Reservoir Local Wildlife Site (LWS). Meeting on Royd Moor Road, Thurlstone at the footpath towards the reservoir for a 7pm walk start. At grid ref SE224041, or Google Maps type in Royd Moor Road, Thurlstone.
If you have an interest in the nature around us feel free to come along.

Moorland Birds at Langsett
Colin and Linda Graham are leading a field visit this Wednesday evening with moorland birds as the theme. It’s along ‘Swinden Lane’ and ‘Hordron Road’ up from the Flouch roundabout above Langsett. 

The Swinden Lane and  Hordron Road walk is 3 to 4 miles altogether. Strong footwear is advisable as it could be very wet. Please let us know if you are intending to join us. 

Parking for the  walk is near the junction of Swinden Lane and the A628 (on the left – travelling west) near Ellerslie Lodge. Care needs to be taken as the lane is used by a number of nearby residents.

It’s one mile west of the Flouch roundabout:Grid ref – SE 18264,01198 (SE182011), Postcode – S36 4HH, Lat 53.507156, Long -1.7260907 

We will be meeting just before 7pm start.

Our field visit this coming Saturday, 8 June, is to Wharncliffe Heath and Crags. This follows the presentation by the Wharncliffe Heathlands Trust earlier in the year about the local nature reserve there with its heathland, grassland, ponds, woodland and even wood pasture. Now we are having some warmer weather we are spotting more wildlife on our field visits. With the trusts plan to manage this site by natural means we should have plenty to see.

Meet on Station Road, Deepcar, at 10am near the bridge over the river Don from which we will walk up to the Heath and Crags. We recommend good footwear. Grid Reference SK291981. Post Code S36 2SQ.

This Barnsley Nats field visit is to part of the Falthwaite and Lowe Wood local wildlife site which is off the road between Gilroyd and Stainborough.

Led by Alan Crossland, the site includes wooded and grassland areas, a stream and some reedbeds. The Dove Valley Trail skirts the site. It’s a good time to visit for both birds and plants. 

Meeting: 7pm Wednesday 29 May; in the car park area on the way into Strafford Industrial Park off Gilroyd Lane. Grid reference: SE324041; Post code: S75 3EJ.

For this weeks evening walk we have Philip Jay as our leader. Philip will be taking us for a look at the nature around Cortonwood. With Philip working in the area he has seen a wide variety of wildlife; so there should be plenty to see.

Our meeting point is the Asda Living / Halfords car park. Grid ref: SE407014 or Google Maps postcode S730TB. With our usual 19:00 start time

This field visit is to Knabs Wood; Jill Hayler will be our leader for the evening. Our main topic will be woodland flowers. Because of the beautiful weather we have just now this should be an action packed outing; with the late spring flowers merging with the early summer flowers. With the usual multitude of questions from the group, I’m sure Jill will be busy. As usual there will be a keen interest in anything we spot along the way.
Doug Brown will be helping Jill lead the group.
This is a Woodlands Trust site; with more information on the area on their website.

We will be meeting for a 7 pm start at grid ref SE295040 or at the junction of Moorend Lane (S754QZ) and House Carr Lane, for Google maps users. There looks to be limited parking at the entrance to the woods so please take care if you need to park near properties by leaving residents enough space.

We will be having a look at the Wogden Foot LNR and the TPT. With the recent publicity in the Barnsley Chronicle about work due to commence that will see this section of the TPT being dug-up and out of action for possibly three years.

This will be a field visit with a difference; it is the last planned visit this area, as a group, before this work commences. Hopefully we will be able to obtain a good biological record.

The meeting point for this walk is the car park at grid ref. SE158024 or if you are using Google Maps you need Windle Edge, Dunford Bridge,the car park is across the road from Don View