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HAVANT
WILDLIFE STUDY GROUP
REPORTS
OF SATURDAY WALKS 2010
SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 26 2010 - EMSWORTH - WARBLINGTON
Heather Mills and
Caroline French reported on this morning's walk of the
Havant Wildlife Group. I should have been leading the
walk, but for this irritating chest infection. They
followed my suggested route from Nore Barn along Church
path to Warblington and back along the shore. It was very
cold, but they managed to see quite a few birds. Here is
a summary of their observations:
Despite the tide being
well out at the start of the walk at Nore Barn, there
were plenty of birds feeding fairly close to the shore.
Caroline estimated 20-30 Black-tailed Godwits and noted
two colour-ringed birds: O//R+RO and ROL+RLR, both seen
recently at Nore Barn. Caroline also spotted one Knot
feeding with the Godwits. I have seen Knot with Godwits
before and suspect they may have come down with them from
Iceland.
There were large numbers
of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails in the field
of stubble on the way to Warblington Church. They stopped
for coffee at the church where they heard a Blackbird
singing and Song Thrush singing its sub-song. Good
numbers of Greenfinches and several Redwings were also in
the church grounds, along with two Song Thrushes and at
least one Mistle Thrush, all seemingly attracted to the
bounty of red berries.
They saw a single
Bar-tailed Godwit some way off shore at Warblington.
Strange they never come into Emsworth Harbour. They also
saw a flotilla of Red Breasted Mergansers in the main
channel that goes under Langstone Bridge. Finally, as
expected the ever reliable Spotted Redshank was waiting
for them in the Nore Barn stream on their return.
Caroline counted 35 bird
species in total.
SATURDAY
OCTOBER 2 - CHIDHAM
Ten members of the Havant
Wildlife Group assembled at the Cobnor Farm Amenity Car
Park for this morning's walk around Chidham village. It
was very wet underfoot following heavy rain yesterday.
The weather was dull and overcast this morning, but
fortunately the rain held off. From the car park we
walked along the hedgerow to the seawall then north to
the houses. Taking the footpath through to Cot Lane and
the church we turned south on the footpath, passing
Chidmere Pond. A Frog was seen hopping in the long grass
near the car park.
Birds
Walking through the
fields to the harbour, we saw a large flock of 70+
Linnets with their typically bouncing flight over the
hedgerows. A Wheatear came down onto the ploughed field,
but was difficult to see.
Skylarks were
numerous over the large fields, and we saw one in full
song flight.
Small flocks of birds
were seen hunting in the hedgerows, including Blue Tits,
Long-tailed Tits, Greenfinch and Chiffchaff. In fact,
several Chiffchaffs were seen along the seawall.
A small flock of around
Black-tailed Godwits were in the upper Bosham channel
where we saw Redshank, Turnstone, Oystercatcher, Curlew,
Whimbrel and a Greenshank with Little Grebe in the
channel.
Insects
Seen along the path to
the harbour: A brightly coloured red and black Harlequin
Ladybird. Several ginger flies (probably Sawflies)
were on vegetation on the edge of the arable field to the
coast.
Nearby, a handsome
Crane-fly was resting. From Chinery's book on
insects I have tentatively identified it as a female
Tipula paludosa from its pointed abdomen
and the fact that its wings are shorter than its abdomen.
Here is its photo (especially for Chris).
We were interested to see
a couple of Araneus quadratus spiders on
their webs on the seawall vegetation. They are highly
distinctive in having round abdomens with four white
spots. We also admired the spider webs on the seawall
vegetation, glistening with droplets of moisture.
Tony
trying to get an image of the spider with Caroline's
camera
My
photo of the little beast, hiding its spots
Plants
I circulated a check list
of flowering plants found during the recce on Thursday -
see the list on the entry for Sep 30. In addition we
noted Hedge Mustard, Cow Parsley and Butcher's-broom in
flower. I also managed to find some Lax-flowered
Sea-lavender in flower on the saltmarshes.
In the car park, we noted
the rounded leaves of Burnet Rose (sorry if I
referred to it as Briar Rose) and the drooping spikelets
of False Brome were also prominent. We noted the
difference between Smooth and Prickly Sow-thistle
in the manner in which the leaves joined the stem.
Caroline French partially
dissected a piece of Glasswort to display what are
probably the fruits (seeds).
Poisonous
Mushrooms?
I took the group round
the back of Chidham Church to see what I thought were
'Field Mushrooms' - I found them during the recce on
Thursday Sep 30. I realted how I took some home to my
wife, Jean, who fried them up with bacon for our tea
yesterday. They actually were delicious, but we were both
seriously ill for the rest of the evening and I was
violently sick several times. The whole lot came up! Jean
was also poorly, but not so sick as me. Fortunately, we
both slept well and I felt better to lead the walk this
morning.
The
group with some of the mushrooms behind the church
I am puzzled by the
mushrooms, which certainly look like standard Field
Mushrooms, though Jean admitted she was a bit doubtful
about them as she was preparing them for the frying pan.
She will certainly never eat anything I bring home again!
There were about 20 of them growing on the grass behind
the church of various sizes, from small domed to large
flat caps. The gills were pink through to brown and the
solid stems had a ring. I cannot think what else they
could have been. Help appreciated.
Here
is one of the mushrooms showing the stem and the
gills
Other
fungi
Jew's Ear was
found growing on Elder on the path to the coast.
We looked at the Boletus
on the roadside verge opposite the Medlar tree without
coming to any conclusion. My tentative suggestion is
Boletus impolitus - see photo below for Sep
30.
The Glistening Ink
Caps in Chidham churchyard were starting to
disintegrate.
I found a nice crop of
Field Mushrooms on the grass hidden behind the
church. I picked a few but left most for the Saturday
walk. Surprisingly, there were none at all on the field
south of Chidmere Pond where I usually find them at this
time of the year; presumably harvested by others. Also,
in the churchyard were a group of what I think were
Glistening Ink Caps.
HEDGEROW
PLANTS 18
Ash Blackthorn Bramble
Briar Rose Butcher's-broom Dog Rose Dogwood Elder Field
Maple Hawthorn Hazel Holly Horse Chestnut Ivy
Oak Wild Plum Wild Privet
Wych Elm
FLOWERING
PLANTS 43
Agrimony, Black
Horehound, Black Knapweed, Borage, Bramble ,Bristly
Ox-tongue, Charlock, Common Mallow, Common Mouse-ear,
Common Nettle, Common Ragwort, Common Sea-lavender
, Creeping Buttercup,
Creeping Thistle, Daisy, Dandelion, Greater Plantain,
Groundsel, Hoary Ragwort, Hogweed, Hedge Bindweed, Ivy,
Knotgrass, Meadow Buttercup, Nipplewort,
Pellitory-of-the-wall , Perennial Sow-thistle, Prickly
Sow-thistle, Purple Toadflax , Red Clover ,
Red Dead-nettle, Ribwort
Plantain, Scarlet Pimpernel , Scentless Mayweed , Sea
Aster, Shepherd's Purse, Smooth Sow-thistle, Spear
Thistle, Water Mint, White Campion, White Dead-nettle,
Wild Carrot, Yarrow
GRASSES
with SPIKELETS
Cocksfoot, Common Couch,
False Brome, Perennial Ryegrass, Sea Couch, Yorkshire
Fog, Grey Sedge, Sea Club-rush
SATURDAY
SEPTEMBER 25 -
CHICHESTER
CHANNEL
Ten members of the Havant
Wildlife Group braved a very cold northerly wind for this
morning's walk from Chichester Marina to Copperas Point
on the east side of the Chichester Channel.
Birds
From the main visitor's
car park we had a fine view of a Buzzard overhead
being buzzed by a pair of Carrion Crows. Just after, what
appeared to be a pair of Pintail flew over.
From the car park we made
our way down the tarmac driveway of the marina. The Peter
Catlett Memorial Hide, which overlooks Apuldram Manor
Farm Marsh, provided a welcome break from the wind. On
the lake were 4 Teal, 2 Shoveler and 2
Black-tailed Godwits. A Cetti's Warbler sand
loudly from the reedbeds.
Scanning from the seawall
we found a good variety of waterfowl in the main channel,
including 44 Black-tailed Godwits with one
colour-ringed bird:
O+GO. This has
been a regular in the Fishbourne Bosham channels since
2006. Interestingly, this bird was last seen by Dudley
Hird in Kent earlier this month.
Other waders on the
mudflats were Greenshank (1), Dunlin (c30), Grey Plover
(c20), Whimbrel (2), Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank,
Turnstone. We also noted one Common Gull (my first of the
autumn) and two Great Black-backed Gulls.
Copperas
Point saltmarshes
We stopped for a coffee
break at the point, sheltering from the wind. The group
then went onto the saltmarshes with a list of the 13
plants I had previously found on the saltmarshes. My
apologies for the error of substituting Golden Saxifrage
for Golden Samphire on the list. A genuine typo.
Heather
and Christine examining the Common Cord-grass on the
saltmarsh
Most people found most of
the plants on the list, with the exception of Sea
Arrowgrass, which was very scarce, but Nigel managed to
locate it. One extra plant I found that I did not have on
the list was Sea Club-rush. But the real excitement was
still to come with the discovery of two 'nationally
scarce' plants.
List of plants on the
saltmarshes: Sea Aster, Golden Samphire, Sea Beet, Sea
Plantain, Sea Arrowgrass, Annual Seablite, Glasswort,
Stone Parsley, Common Sea-lavender, Lax-flowered
Sea-lavender, Common Cord-grass, Sea Couch, Sea
Club-rush, Sea Rush.
Nigel
taking a GPS reading on the saltmarshes
Saltmarsh
Goosefoot ?
During our mooch around
of the saltmarshes, Nigel came to me with a bright red
plant and wondered what it could be. The triangular
shaped leaves suggested a goosefoot, but it was not until
we consulted F.Rose (new edition) that we realised it
could be Saltmarsh Goosefoot (Chenopodium
chenopodioides). However, Martin Rand corrected this to
Common Orache (Atriplex patula). See diary entry
for September 27 for Martin's comments in full.
This
image was taken on the saltmarsh
We went back and found a
good number of plants mixed in with Sea Purslane and
others in a small area of the saltmarsh. All the required
features appeared to be present; a small prostrate plant
scrambling around in the saltmarsh with red largely
untoothed leaves and red stem and long dense clusters of
red flowers. Nigel used his GPS to get Grid Ref: SU 8301
0184.
This
image was taken at home
Interestingly, a Google
search revealed a report of a large colony of Saltmarsh
Goosefoot Chenopodium chenopodiodes (sic) by
Adastra 2009 'An annual review of wildlife recording in
Sussex' published by The Sussex Biodiversity Record
Centre. The plants were found at the new RSPB Bracklesham
Bay between Bracklesham and Selsey in West Sussex, not
all that far from Copperas Point. They say this was the
furthest west of any extant population on the British
mainland. The only other Sussex location for this species
is at the other end of the county, in and around Rye
Harbour Nature Reserve.
Spreading
Hedge Parsley
That was not the end of
our exciting finds. Walking back along the path behind
Copperas Point, I casually looked around for any sign of
the Spreading Hedge Parsley (Torilis arvensis) which Ed
Rowsell (Chichester Harbour Conservation officer) told me
had been found in this area several years ago. I noticed
a small dead plant lying on the edge of the path behind
the seat. I picked it and, hey presto, the fruits were as
described in F.Rose - "oval shaped with straight spines,
minutely hooked at the tips".
We looked for others but
did not find any. Nigel used his GPS to get Grid Ref: SU
8292 0180. This plant is also marked in Rose as
'nationally scarce' and a BAP species and endangered.
Wow! The plant is recorded in the New Sussex Flora for
tetrad SU80F, but the record will be sent anyway.
Here
is a photo 20x magnified of the fruits of the Spreading
Hedge-parsley
Other local reports:
Ralph Hollins has reported Spreading Hedge Parsley in
Stansted Forest in 2006 and in July this year in a Havant
garden! It is
VERDICTS
ON THE TWO 'RARE' PLANTS AT COPPERAS POINT
I now have received
definitive verdicts on the two 'rare' plants found on the
saltmarshes at Copperas Point during the Havant Wildlife
Group walk on Saturday 25 September: Spreading Hedge
Parsley (Torilis arvensis) and Saltmarsh Goosefoot
(Chenopodium chenopodioides). We got one right and one
wrong. Not bad really.
Spreading
Hedge Parsley (Torilis arvensis) - Correct!
Ed Rowsell (the
Chichester Harbour Conservation officers replied as
follows:
"I can
confirm that the plant is most definitely Spreading Hedge
Parsley (Torillis arvensis). The corner of the field
above the bench is an area especially managed for the
plant by the farmer, which essentially involves ploughing
the field at the correct time of year and leaving the
area to lie fallow. The Conservancy surveys each year to
monitor its success and this summer was a record year
with 80 plants located flowering in July. It is normally
possible to find plants along the edge of the field in
the first furrow. But please do not venture further into
the field as it both risks trampling this very rare plant
and upsetting the relationship with the farmer, who has
already been very generous in giving up this part of the
field for the sole benefit of this species."
Saltmarsh
Goosefoot (Chenopodium chenopodioides) -
Wrong!
Martin Rand sent me the
following comments:
"Chenopodium
chenopodioides usually has leaves more nearly entire than
C. rubrum, but as the latter can produce small specimens
with pretty well completely untoothed leaves, it's not a
character you can rely on. You really need to examine the
way the tepals invest the seed in a maturing
inflorescence, especially in the flowers to the side of a
cluster. Not only are they joined almost to the top (so
that the seeds are hidden), but they have a rather
'inflated' look, and come to something of a keel, towards
the apex. The SEM photographs in Stace don't give a very
good life-impression of this but you will get the general
idea from them. The drawing in vol. 2 of Flora Iberica
shows it very nicely.
C.
chenopodioides is a plant I used to be very familiar with
when living in Essex 36 years ago but I haven't seen it
since! I'm dredging the murky pits of memory here. It was
recorded on Hayling up to about 1900 so another site in
Chichester Harbour is not out of the question. It's more
ecologically restricted than C. rubrum and will usually
be either by runnels or pans on the saltmarsh, or in
similar situations 'trapped' behind the sea-wall in
coastal grazing marsh. So your habitat is OK.
Having
looked at your photos I don't find them very convincing
on 'macro' characters. C. chenopodioides is a very
fleshy-leaved plant and yours patently aren't. I think
you can see this difference between your photos and the
pukka ones that follow. Unfortunately you don't show
lower leaves, which I would expect to be rather
blunt-tipped. The dense bobbly appearance of the
inflorescence in C. chenopodioides is also lacking in
your plant. But what's really bothering me about yours is
that I keep looking at the flowers and thinking I can see
signs of two bracteoles around them. Unfortunately the
resolution of the photos isn't sufficient to make a
judgement; by the time I've blown them up, the detail is
lost in noise. So if either the person holding the
specimen could check on this, or there is a
high-resolution copy of the photo I could see, that would
be great. On 'jizz', and on the shape of the basal lobes
of the leaves, the plant looks terribly like Atriplex
patula (Common Orache) to me at the moment."
Martin was dead right
about the bracteoles. Here is an image of the fruit from
my microscope at 20x which shows them clearly.
QED.
SATURDAY
AUGUST 7 -
NORTH
THORNEY
Twelve people attended
this morning's walk by the Havant Wildlife Group from the
end of Thornham Lane, through the old Marina Farm to the
seawall and down the west side of Thorney to the Great
Deeps. It was good to see Jim back after his hip
operations. The weather was overcast, but warm with no
rain. Very nice conditions for a walk.
We all struggled to get
over the broken stile into the old Marina Farm, except
for Jim who was slim enough to slip through a gap in the
fence. I was told yesterday by the owners of the Marina
Farm that the stile is soon to be replaced by a gate.
I usually arrange this
walk for a low tide, when we can look for waders in the
harbour. Unfortunately, I got the tide time wrong and
with high tide at 9.30am, the harbour was full of water
for the whole duration of the walk. John Gowen brought
his scope along just in case, but it was not much used.
Despite this I think everyone enjoyed the walk during
which we concentrated on the plants, which were there in
abundance.
John Gowen passed on news
from Michael Prior that Barn Owls had nested in a
nest box on the East Park of Stansted Forest and had
produced three youngsters. They were ringed by Graham
Roberts.
Birds
From the car park at the
end of Thornham Lane, we saw a Kestrel hovering over the
farm and Caroline spotted a couple of Stock Doves flying
towards Thorney Island.
We all got a good view of
the Swallows flying around the stables, with a
number of youngsters waiting to be fed on the overhead
cables. There was a nest in the large barn with 4 young
chicks still presenting their gapes for food. This must
be at least their second brood and I think they have had
a good year.
We were entertained by a
group of Long-tailed Tits feeding in the bushes
along the path to the west of the farm, some of which
came very close, allowing good views of their plumage.
Here is
Derek's photo of a Long-tailed Tit
Other birds seen in the
marina farm area included House Sparrow, Goldfinch,
Greenfinch, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon and Chiffchaff. We
also heard a Willow Warbler song from the pond
area of the Deckhouses Estate. There was nothing of
interest in the harbour, though we did see a group of
Curlew in the fields and Meadow Pipits were flitting
around the bushes.
Insects
It was not a great
morning for insects, though bees were abundant on the
various flower heads.
Common Blues were
by far the most common butterflies, a couple of rather
tatty ones provided the best photographic opportunity. We
also saw Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Speckled Wood, Small
Copper and, best of all, a Painted Lady (my first
of the year) - no photo alas. Heather also found a Silver
Y moth.
A
pair of Common Blues feeding on Bramble flowers
Plants
The area around the old
Marina Farm was a riot of wild plants, as horses had not
been grazed there this year.
We took some time to
inspect the mass of goosefoot plants, which are a tricky
family to identify. However, based on the shape of the
leaves and height of the plants we concluded that most of
them were Fat Hen, though we also found some of
the distinctive triangular leaves of Spear-leaved Orache
and possibly some Common Orache as well. Shaggy
Soldier was also well represented in this area.
This
photo shows a comparison of the leaves of Fat Hen and
Spear-leaved Orache
Here is
an Orache plant with bright red dust on its leaves. A
form of fungus?
I pointed out the masses
of Swine-cress (Coronopus squamatus), that
I identified on my recce yesterday, on the ground to the
west of the stables on Marina Farm. The flowers in
Swine-cress are tightly bunched at the base of the
leaves, whereas in Lesser Swine-cress the flowers are in
spikes opposite the leaves. I am only familiar with the
introduced Lesser Swine-cress, but I shall now need to
check out some of these to see if I have missed the
native variety.
A
close-up of Swine-cress showing the tightly bunched
flowers at the base of the leaves
The Wickor Bank on the
west side of Thorney was brimming over with flowering
plants. We stopped to admire the Slender
Hare's-ear, the location of which at the foot of the
bank north of the Little Deeps, I had marked with a pile
of stones from my recce yesterday.
Slender
Hare's-ear is not an easy plant to photograph, but here
is my best effort
I also pointed out the
tall spikes of Sea Arrowgrass. As they did not
match up with the illustration in Blamey, Fitter and
Fitter, Nigel got down on his knees to examine them more
closely. But we were fairly sure of the identification,
particularly in contrast with the Sea Plantain. It was
interesting to note that the leaves of Sea Plantain were
hairless unlike those of the more abundant, but low
growing, Buckshorn Plantain.
It was interesting to
note the presence of many saltmarsh plants on the
edge of the dry track down the west of Thorney,
indicating the influence of the sea on the other side of
the tall bank. These included Common Cord-grass,
Saltmarsh Rush, Glasswort, Annual Seablite, Sea Purslane
and Common Sea-lavender. We also found a nice patch of
Lax-flowered Sea-lavender on the edge of the canal
north of the Great Deeps.
After much discussion,
and studying of our flower guides, Nigel finally cracked
the abundant yellow daisies, some tall and branched, but
mostly short, as Autumn Hawkbit.
Here
are some of the typically low growing Autumn
Hawkbits
The other tall and very
rough yellow daisy which grew mostly on the bank near the
Great Deeps was easier to identify as Hawkweed
Oxtongue. We found just one flower of Sea Aster open.
Wild
Carrot flower heads varied in colour from pure white to a
very pretty deep pink.
Some of
the Wild Carrot plants already had deep red seedheads.
SATURDAY
MAY 15,
2010-
BROOK
MEADOW
Ten members of the Havant
Wildlife Group assembled at Bridge Road car park for this
morning's walk in Brook Meadow: Heather, Fay, Rowena,
Jean, Caroline, Uta, Hilary, Tony, Ian and Brian, who led
the walk. We welcomed Rachel who is involved with the Old
Bridge Meadow Group at Bosham. The weather was fine and
reasonably warm. We started by looking around the Bridge
Road Wayside and then made our way to Brook Meadow.
On the way to Brook
Meadow, I pointed out the unusual Common Cornsalad
growing on the pavement on Bridge Road. We also looked at
the first leaves of the rare Narrow-leaved Water-plantain
coming up in the Westbrook Stream from the bridge on
Victoria Road.
For news about the new
Emsworth Waysides project go to . . . http://www.emsworthwaysides.hampshire.org.uk/index.html
All
of us in front of the 20 Rowans planted in May 2005 in
memory of Gwynne Johnson
The group
marching through Brook Meadow
Water
Voles
Some members of the group
had good views of one adult Water Vole and two babies in
the area around the Bulrushes north of the observation
fence. This is the first report of youngsters this
spring.
Birds
We heard or saw 3
Whitethroats in different parts of the meadow. This
is good news as I had only previously recorded one on the
meadow this spring.
The 'resident' Cetti's
Warbler was blasting out its song from the Lumley
Stream area. This bird has now been in the area since
April 1 and probably has a mate.
Interestingly, we saw a
Moorhen climbing on the branch of a tree
overhanging the river. I have seen Moorhens climbing
trees before.