Asthall Circular Walk, Sunday 15th September 2024
John Baker writes:
Led by Maggie Collins, this was a well attended walk which took us through one of our most beautiful and familiar rolling landscapes. The threatened rain faded quickly and we were interested to note that in spite of the invasion of customers for the newly opened Jeremy Clarkson pub, on the A40 above Asthall, the peace of the surrounding countryside had not been spoilt.
Admittedly it wasn’t the best fuchsia I’ve grown, but it was looking a bit peaky, so I had a closer look. Can you spot the culprit?
Last year one of John’s neighbours sent him a photo of a sparrowhawk in his garden sitting on top of a squirrel trap, where a blackbird was taking refuge, and you can read about it in his blog from last June. This year the same neighbour spotted another sparrowhawk on a more ambitious hunting trip.
Visit to Parsonage Moor Sunday 25th August 2024
Julia Reid writes:
We were so lucky to have chosen Sunday for this visit. Saturday had been a day of relentless heavy rain and would have been miserable. Instead, we were treated to a day of cloud but no rain and although paths were damp, with puddles in places, they were perfectly navigable. So twelve of us set off, led by expert naturalist and photographer Peter Creed for what turned out to be a fascinating and really enjoyable morning. Grass of Parnassus was what we were hoping to see, but there was a lot more, and some suprises too.
Whitecross Green Wood 8 August 2024
This ancient woodland once formed the Royal Forest of Bernwood. BBOWT have been felling the Scots Pines planted there in the 1960s and are replacing them with broad-leaved species. The mainly-straight rides are particularly wide, thus letting in plenty of sunlight to encourage growth of plants to encourage butterflies, moths and other insects. For the day of our visit, the forecast was for drizzle, and unfortunately this proved to be correct. Consequently the twelve members who attended got rather wet!
Eight members of the Field Club met on a very warm 18th July at Daneway Banks, near Cirencester. This stunning 17-hectare Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserve sits on limestone grassland untouched by modern farming. The combination of butterflies, beautiful wildflowers, and unique landscape features make it a fascinating destination, well worth the drive.
Sue Morton writes: Keen followers of the blogs on our website may remember that last year I had large numbers of common furrow bees spending the night on ribwort plantains in my uncut lawn. The conclusion was that they were probably males roosting communally. I was very pleased to see that they have returned this year, not only to the same plant species but to an almost identical place in the lawn.
Nick Johnson writes: We were visiting friends last Saturday [8 June] in a village near Hitchin called Pirton. About a mile from their house is a small reserve called Knocking Hoe which is in fact the last easterly knoll of the Chilterns with wonderful views eastwards. This is an account of our walk to and around Knocking Hoe.
The speckled bush crickets in my garden are getting bigger, but also more difficult to find for some reason. When they are tiny, they can easily be seen in Welsh Poppy flowers, where they show up nicely against the bright yellow petals. Now they are growing up, I have to hunt around for them more.
WEST OXFORDSHIRE FIELD CLUB