Category: Club

Jonathan Noel writes:

On Saturday 5th June on a very hot morning 17 members visited Deer Park Wood in Witney. We had a very interesting introduction to the history and recent activity of the wood from our leader Roger Hepworth and his wife Esther of the Witney Woodland Volunteers (WWV). The land on which the wood stands used to be part of RAF Witney and in 1940 was taken over by De Havilland. During the WW2 Spitfires and Hurricanes were repaired and maintained here. The land is now owned by West Oxfordshire District Council and they have given WWV a ten year agreement to manage the wood. We learnt about ‘old one eye’ a female muntjac living in the wood and her boyfriend ‘split ear’. The movements of the nocturnal animals are recorded on night time cameras and then shown on their website/facebook page. When WWV took over this 11-acre site it was in a sorry state. Since then they have planted hundreds of trees and transplanted wild flowers. The WWV have regular work parties to maintain the wood.

2 May 2021 was International Dawn Chorus Day. Six of us met at 4:00 am for the Club’s annual Dawn Chorus walk between Minster Lovell and Crawley led by Adrian S. It was cold and the birds were slow waking up; the first thing we heard was a Pipistrelle near the ruins – it seemed even the bats had (sensibly) decided to stay at home. The earliest risers this year were Jackdaws and many Song Thrushes. Later we heard and saw a lot of Whitethroats – there seemed to be one in almost every bush. Mist was rising from the river and most of us were glad to see the sun and warm up when we got to Crawley. By 8:00 am when we arrived back in Minster Lovell we had recorded a creditable total of 42 species. And looking forward to breakfast!

John B writes:

December 17 2020, a gloriously sunny morning, saw a group of six of us, including Lesley Dunlop our excellent Geology specialist who had provided us with her customary helpful background notes, take a somewhat muddy walk around Dix Pit to examine the Devil’s Quoits, an impressive ceremonial circle of Bronze Age standing stones.  

Parsonage Moor near Cothill is the largest example of alkaline fen in central England. On two socially-distanced visits in early August 2020 twelve members visited the site. The main attraction was the flowering Grass of Parnassus but there was also a variety of insects including Long Winged Coneheads (a species of Bush Cricket) and Lesser Marsh grasshoppers, as well as several dragonflies. Several Common Lizards were basking on the boardwalks.

Sixteen members visited Broadwell Airfield, a very good botanical site, on 17 and 19 June for the first three of our ‘socially distanced’ walks. There is a full report in the newsletter. As well as innumerable Pyramidal Orchids there were a number of other notable things, especially several ‘tents’ of Small Eggar moth caterpillars, lots of Whitethroats singing and picking-off the caterpillars, a large clump of Dyer’s Greenweed and several examples of Grass Vetch. Overall a total of 114 plant species were recorded.