On Sunday 23 June a group twelve members gathered outside Chadlington Bowls Club for a leisurely evening stroll up Green Lane, kindly led by Brenda Betterigde. Our main objective was to see the variety of plants growing on the calcareous terrain. We were favoured by warm sunny weather with a very slight breeze, enough for two hot air balloons to put in a leisurely appearance.
Our proposed visit to Hackpen Hill for today – Sunday 9 June – had to be cancelled, so we announced a ‘pop-up’ walk instead and took the opportunity to enjoy an amble across Stonesfield Common to look for wild flowers. And we found plenty!
On the cloudy but pleasantly warm morning of Monday 3 June, eleven of us met at Miles Gibson’s fruit farm in Westwell. Miles had invited us over for a guided walk during which we could learn about his organic techniques in growing fruit and we could help to identify plants and other wildlife.
Jean Thompson writes: When we moved to Oxfordshire three years ago, we had to rent for a few months in Long Hanborough and often walked from there to Church Hanborough via a footpath between fields.
Sixteen club members plus two visitors recently ventured into a remote area of mid-Wales for a long weekend of bird watching in the Elan Valley near Rhayader, a very quiet area (in)famous for the four Victorian reservoirs which supply water to the West Midlands.
Frances Ashling reports:
On 21 April 2024 eight of us embarked on a somewhat risky trip to Barnsley Warren in Gloucestershire, prepared for every challenge from safely parking in a small lay-by right next to a racetrack of a road (The Fosse Way), to climbing down steep steps on a half-hidden bank beyond a hedge, to climbing up and over a rickety ladder stile to land on the side of a precipitous hillside, where the only tracks were those formed horizontally by the age-old tread of sheep.
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….
On Sunday March 17, sixteen of us gathered at the Village Hall car park in Adelstrop for a walk to look for signs of spring. A wonderful spring day – long awaited, blossom on the trees, blue sky, white clouds and a mild breeze.
While those who came along to the Fungus Foray enjoyed blue skies and sunshine, we who gathered for the Blenheim Community Path on Sunday 19 November weren’t so fortunate. Grey sky, drizzle and a chilly wind greeted us, but undaunted, seven doughty Field Club members set off for what turned out to be quite a fruitful venture.
Maggie Collins writes: On a short walk to the Windrush Valley recently we spotted some Blue Fleabane, Erigeron acer, still in flower. There were plenty of seedheads about so it must also have been flowering at its normal time of July and August.
WEST OXFORDSHIRE FIELD CLUB