John C writes: Even though it’s spring, it hasn’t felt like it for the last couple of days and we spent another damp Sunday afternoon at Pit 60, which, as usual, was not without its rewards.
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Spring at Pit 60
Category: Members
Reports of members’ activities and sightings
Maggie Collins writes: Spring seems to be here at last and at the moment the heavy rain is holding off. Jill T called on me to say that Large Red Damselflies were hatching in her pond….
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That looks tasty!
John C. writes: Whilst everyone else was heading off at high speed in the hope of tea and cake at Chastleton House on last Sunday’s walk from Adelstrop, I was lagging behind, turning over wet logs in the hope of finding (what else?) slime moulds. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one interested in them.
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Early Butterflies
One of the first signs of spring is to see a butterfly – a brimstone or perhaps a small tortoishell. But where do they come from, and why do they emerge so soon?
John C. writes: When a fight started in the playground at school the shout of ‘Bundle!’ would go up and everyone would pile in. Well, kids probably couldn’t get away with that these days but the coots at Pit 60 clearly don’t know anything about that.
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February Fungi
Lindsay Fisher writes: Most noticeable fungi appear in the autumn, but last month’s wet weather produced quite a crop of eye-catching specimens in Witney’s Deer Park Wood.
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Patience rewarded
If you don’t share my enthusiasm for the microscopic weird and wonderful, there’s no need to read on!
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Goldeneye and Goosanders
John C. writes: “Pit 60”, an old gravel pit in the lower Windrush Valley at Standlake is one of my favourite birding places, not only because it’s only a few miles from home, but because of the numbers of ducks you can see there.
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A trip to the Somerset Levels
The week before last, Elaine Steane visited the Somerset Levels. She writes: I joined five others on a Naturetrek-led two day visit to the Somerset Levels, based from a very comfortable old coaching inn, The Swan in Wells, just opposite the Cathedral.
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Lashford Lane Fungi
Mary Elford writes: On Sunday my family and I went to Lashford Lane Fen in Dry Sandford. We love this small but important reserve that hardly anyone seems to visit. We hadn’t been in the autumn before so didn’t know whether it might be good for fungi. We concentrated our search in the woodland area.
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