Natural History in Barnsley
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.
An afternoon of surprises, as yesterday I found Dog Stinkhorn in Langford Wood, with Blackening Waxcap and Pestle Puffball on the stack at Dodworth . Quite a few Fly Agarics on the climb up to the Stack. Doug
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.
Five Barnsley Naturalists went along to the performance by Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, and his rock band Lyr. Entitled “Barnsley An Unnatural History”, it ‘celebrated Barnsley’s Eldon Street through the lens of its former Natural History Museum’. Yes the old Barnsley Nats museum!
We particularly enjoyed the piece in three parts, ‘A brief chronicle of birds in the Autumn and Winter months of 1886/7’, based on Thomas Lister’s weekly articles of bird sightings in Barnsley Chronicle. Thomas Lister was the President of Barnsley Naturalist Society in our society’s early days.
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.
58 glowing glowworms counted in the cutting along the TPT at Thurgoland on Wednesday evening, 17 August 2022. 78 were counted on Saturday 27 August 2022. Doug Brown carries out a count twice a week each summer.
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.
For our field visit on Saturday 13 August 2022, twelve of us followed a route from the Royd Moor Hill view point above Thurlstone, down High Bank Lane to a former quarry. Four years ago in August 2018, Alwyn Timms led a Barnsley Nats group on a walk to count Wall Brown butterflies in this area. We decided to repeat the walk, a good way to remember Alwyn.
We counted 24 Wall Brown along High Bank Lane, equalling the 2018 number, far more than the recce the previous week.
We also had 8 Small Copper, 4 Red Admiral and 3 Small Tortoiseshell. And single examples of six other butterfly species. There were Gatekeeper in abundance a week ago but only one this time!
Images: Chris Tomson and Peter Roberts
Great Egret photographed at Broomhill Flash by Ron Marshall on Wednesday 27 July
In the summer we intend to have a field visit walking in Alwyn Timms’ footsteps, looking for Wall Brown butterflies on the patch where he recorded them. We will follow a route from Royd Moor viewpoint that Alwyn Timms took us on to count Wall Brown butterflies. Meeting at Royd Moor viewpoint, 10.00am, Saturday 13 August.
The Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly, predominately found in southern England, is expanding its range. They have been recorded at Brockadale, we have been told, for the last four years. Are they likely to be found in Barnsley?
Alwyn Timms recorded one in Hugset Wood in 2014. Here are some of his images:
It’s been recorded occasionally since then.
Worth looking out for!
Five Barnsley naturalists joined the Yorkshire Naturalist Union (YNU) field visit to Brockadale Nature Reserve. It’s a varied site on magnesium limestone. Although the meadows were somewhat parched, highlights for us included sightings of Silver-washed Fritillary and copious Banded Demoiselles over the river Went.
