Field meetings » Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society

Cinderford Linear Park & Northern Quarter 28th April 2013

May 302013

On a bright sunny morning Andrew Bluett was joined by eight GNS members for a field meeting of general interest looking at the Cinderford Northern Quarter site and the CinderfordLinearPark (north). The group met opposite the Winner (Skoda) Garage in the Forest Vale Industrial Estate and looked at maps illustrating the relationship of Cinderford Northern Quarter development site with the Linear Park and surrounding areas, then at some historical photographs of the area illustrating the very different landscape that prevailed in the 1950s and early 1960s so that it could be appreciated just how much the environment had changed over the intervening 50 years or so.

Historically the valley was an industrial landscape based on coal extraction, both deep mine and opencast, clay extraction (for Coleford Brick & Tile Co) and railway and colliery dram tracks. Large areas in between were either bare where waste material was accumulated or clothed in thin Sheep-cropped grass. This provided an ideal habitat for Woodlark, a few pairs of Wheatear, Chats & Pipits. In the years after World War 2 R J B Christian found some 28 pairs of Woodlark in the valley and adjacent ridges, Snipe and Reed Bunting breeding in the boggy areas and Red Backed Shrike in the plantation edges (Sketches of Dean’s Birds, Christian, 1999).

The group first walked up to the Steam Mills Lake past Dam Green in the Northern Quarter area viewing two very recent, and therefore bare and undeveloped ponds along the way. Whilst there was much fishing activity, a number of water birds were evident including Greylag Goose, Coot, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Lesser Black Backed Gull. From there the party walked down the track towards the central area of the Linear Park as far as Laymore Quag and the large open meadow beyond Lennetshill Plantation. The return was via a secondary track leading to the Forest Vale Industrial Estate road and back to Winner Garage.

This walk which follows the lines of forestry and old railway tracks took in a variety of habitat types, conifer plantation, deciduous and mixed woodland, open scrubby grassland, industrial buildings, the lake and ponds, boggy areas (Laymore Quag) etc and produced a respectable list of species.

Fresh-water or Swan Mussel shells (Anodatea cygnea) were discovered by the lake, the largest being some 10cm long, Pond Skaters were evident on all the water bodies especially in the ditches and puddles, Butterflies were represented only by Small Tortoiseshell. Birds were more abundant with Tree Pipit, Willow Warbler and Chiff Chaff, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Robin, Great, Blue, Long Tailed and Coal Tits, Blackbird and Song Thrush, Buzzard, Wren, Dunnock, Swallow, Blackcap, Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Jay, Wood Pigeon, Pied Wagtail, Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker. Neither Raven nor hoped for Goshawk appeared but towards the end of the walk, a solitary Hawfinch flew over towards the Crump Meadow Inclosure.

Juliet Bailey identified a series of flowering plants – Field Horsetail (Equisetum arvense), Pussy Willows (Salix sp), Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), Colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara), Dandelion (Taraxacum aggregate), Field Wood-rush (Luzula campestris), Daisy (Bellis perennis), and Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis). Some remnant Heather was also noted at one point.

It was considered that flowers are very late this year – at least a couple of weeks behind normal, and that the flowers seen on this walk were later than in the Vale by about a week, presumably because of the altitude (approx 140 metres / 450 feet above sea level).

Cinderford Linear Park & Northern Quarter

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Apr 232013

At Cinderford Linear Park & Northern Quarter – a morning field meeting of general interest and birds of the area, meet at Winner Garage on the Forest Vale Industrial Estate – SO 645 151 at 11 am – to be led by Andrew Bluett. Resident birds breeding, migrants becoming established and possible early butterflies if the sun shines…! All welcome.

Field Meeting at Coombe Hill Canal, 24 March 2013

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Mar 242013

Poisonously cold for Palm Sunday with a biting northeast wind, a speckle of snow flakes in the air and snow on the Cotswolds. And we had been hoping for summer migrants!

Two members accompanied Mike Smart, the leader, along the muddy towpath from which there were good views across the flooded meadows, which looked pretty desolate.

Little bird song – the odd Dunnock, Wren, Greenfinch. Only four Lapwings, one or two Curlew with a little bubbling, one Little Egret, one Grey Heron, one Cormorant in flight, a Sparrowhawk hunting along the towpath, and a Tree Creeper in the withy bed

However, some shots from the Apperley side (presumably for clay pigeons) put up the ducks from the Long Pool, and it transpired that there were still good numbers of Teal, about 370, with 7 Wigeon, 6 Shoveler, and the odd few paired Mallard. A more careful look revealed a male Garganey skulking in the withy bed, and keeping rather separate from the Teal, so we did have one migrant.

Coombe Hill field meeting on 24 March to go ahead

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Mar 232013

The field meeting at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserve at Coombe Hill Meadows on Sunday 24 March will go ahead. Meet at the car park by The Wharf at 10.00 a.m. Following recent rain, water levels are rising in the River Severn, so water levels on the meadows are likely to be rising too. Wellingtons or waterproof shoes are therefore absolutley essential. Times of rising water level are often of special interest, not only for wildlife, but from a hydrological point of view: which ditches fill first, which fields flood first, how does the water affect wilfdlife – both flora and fauna.

See you there

Mike Smart

Sunday’s field meeting at Upham Meadow to go ahead

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Feb 202013

The GNS Field Meeting, at Upham Meadow on the Avon near Twyning, planned on Sunday 24 February is to go ahead (unlike the January meeting at Lower Lode, which had to be cancelled because of flooding). The flooding along the Avon has subsided, so that the meadow is accessible, though still very wet underfoot,

so wellingtons or waterproof footwear are essential.

To get there from Twyning (beyond Tewkesbury, in the extreme north of the county), take the left turning on the green just past the school towards Strensham, then turn down the second right turn, along the road to the Cotswold Grange Country Park at SO 908371. The leader will be waiting by the turning to the Park from 9.45 a.m. Park by the chicken sheds just past Sandacre Farm. A couple of hours walk around the meadows and along the Avon over the river from Bredon.

This is one of the largest meadows in England, of great botanical, ornithological interest, and a fascinating survival of old farming techniques. The visit is at an unusual time, right at the beginning of the spring, to give guidance for later visits at prime bird and flower time.

Cancellation of field Meeting at Lower Lode on Sunday 6 January

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Jan 042013

The proposed field meeting at Lower Lode at 11.00 a.m. on Sunday 6 January had had to be cancelled because the river banks are inaccessible as a result of flooding. The level of the Severn has been very high since Christmas, and though the Severn has dropped a little, most of the riverside meadows are still deeply flooded. Thus the main B4213 is still closed at Haw Bridge, and minor roads like the road from Tirley to Forthampton, and the road leading to Lower Lode are still under deep water. In the Coombe Hill area, the whole of the meadows are under water, and the course of the River Chelt is invisible, so deep is the water.

We will hope to re-arrange the meeting at a drier date!

Cotswold Water Park, 9 December 2012

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Dec 132012

Ken Cservenka led a walk round some of the lakes in the Cotswold Water Park, starting from the car park at Lower Mill estate. It was bright, but with a biting cold wind. The main focus of the walk was waterfowl. Special birds seen included about a dozen Goosander, and 3 female Smew, but the most spectacular sight was a raft of 70 Red-crested Pochard. These can turn up as genuine wild vagrants, though the Water Park birds are probably the results of an original introduction or escapees. Remarkably, given the time of year and the cold wind, a butterfly was seen, flying too fast for certain identification but most likely a Red Admiral.

Bird watching at Lower Mill

Farmland Walk, Standish, 23 September 2012

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Sep 242012

Six members attended the Farmland in Autumn meeting. Because of heavy rain, the walk was shortened to a quick tour of the new orchard where there are nearly 90 varieties of Gloucestershire apple. Despite stories to the contrary in the press about the fruit harvest in Britain this year, there is a reasonable crop here, though it is ripening several weeks later than usual.

Tasting Lake’s Kernel, a dessert apple originating in Gloucestershire

Cleeve Hill limestone heath, 19 August 2012

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Aug 212012

Heather in bloom

Ellie Phillips led a GNS field meeting to examine the limestone heath of Cleeve Hill. There are several patches of heather (Calluna vulgaris) on Cleeve Hill near the Masts, currently in full bloom and alive with bees. Cleeve Hill, (about the highest point on the Cotswold ridge) rears up above Prestbury near Cheltenham, and is oolitic limestone, so heather would seem an unlikely plant to find there, but it picks out the small patches of Harford Sands. Some parts were fenced off about 20 years ago to protect the heathland flora from stock grazing for most of the year. It is very striking that you can be walking through the enclosures and move from an acidic flora (the heather) to a limestone flora (tor-grass) within two paces.

GNS Field Meeting at Brim’s Pill, Awre

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Dec 122010

GNS Field Meeting at Brim’s Pill, Awre (12 December 2010, contributed by Juliet Bailey with pictures by Sheila Lisster)

This GNS walk was at the Gloucestershire Wildfowlers Association reserve at Brim’s Pill and was led by Mike Smart.

It was foggy and frosty, and the hoped for waterbirds were hardly evident. There was the occasional Lapwing appearing out of the mists, and Redshank and Curlew calls, but the ice and fog, with bursts of watery sunlight from time to time, made it a most atmospheric meeting. We walked across the field where channels have been dug to turn the field back to saltmarsh, by frozen rhynes lined with golden reed, through secondary woodland of a failed dockside railway development, and out onto the Severn-side pastures where stacked metal putchers witness the last remnants of the once thriving salmon fishery. The pictures below show the GNS group, the reed lined rhyne and the metal putchers.

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