Brenda Betteridge writes:
Julia’s pop-up walk on 18 September was a great success. Thirteen of us enjoyed spending this sunny Sunday morning in the Windrush Valley. After walking through the village of Asthall, our starting point, we took the lane which leads to Toque House and Asthall Farm where, on the south side of a barn, we noticed a vigorous member of the Amaranthaceae family.
The nearest identification I could find for it was Many-seeded Goosefoot (Chenopodium polyspermum) but it may have been a species introduced in a bird-seed mix. Our route continued as a bridle track all the way to Worsham. Here we crossed the river and made our way up Worsham Lane as far as ‘Stonefold’ where I used to live. On the verge we noted the Wild Liquorice (Astragalus glycyphyllos) plant which grows there.
Just before we left Worsham Lane we watched Ivy Bees busy gathering nectar from Ivy flowers in the hedge. We then followed the footpath down to Kitesbridge. Before the descent into the valley, we stopped to admire the view up the Windrush Valley. The footpath passes a south-facing bank, where we noted the basal rosettes of leaves of Wild Clary (Salvia verbenaca) with the dead flowering stems still attached. From Kitesbridge, the footpath back to Asthall is through rough grassland close to the river. On the bridge we looked at the carving of a gun in the stonework. It seems that nobody really knows how it came to be there or how old it is.
On the walk we noted four late-summer butterflies enjoying the sun. Although late in the season I recorded 25 plants in flower. Thanks to Sue’s bat detector we heard several crickets in rough grass. Except for a flock of Rooks in a meadow just after we left the village and a Buzzard flying overhead no other birds were recorded but there may have been other which I didn’t notice.
A full species list can be found here.
Brenda Betteridge, 25 September 2022
WEST OXFORDSHIRE FIELD CLUB 