Vallis Vale, Great Elm, Somerset, 8 March 2020

Leader: Helena Crouch Ten members joined the leader for the walk through Vallis Vale, a biological and geological SSSI, containing ancient woodland and the famous De La Beche Unconformity. After weeks of wet weather, the paths were very muddy but passable, and the...
Willsbridge Mill, 25 January 2020

Willsbridge Mill, 25 January 2020

Leaders: Andrew and Jane Daw A good number of people joined us at Willsbridge Mill for a field trip which had originally been planned for Kelston, the persistent rain having led to flooding around our original route. Willsbridge Mill Reserve, managed by the Avon...
Corsham Court Parkland, 18 December 2019

Corsham Court Parkland, 18 December 2019

Leader: Philip Delve Given the run of wet and windy days this month, those attending this meeting were blessed with reasonable conditions for our walk; for although we needed to wrap warm against a cool breeze the morning remained rain free. Having assembled at the...
Chew Valley Lake, 8 December 2019

Chew Valley Lake, 8 December 2019

Leader: Terry Doman Four members joined the leader for a day at Chew Valley Lake. We met at Herriot’s bridge on a cold and windy day with the threat of rain. The water levels were high due to the recent weeks of rain. There was the possibility of a rare American Green...
Harridge Woods, Somerset, 19 October 2019

Harridge Woods, Somerset, 19 October 2019

A dozen of us gathered for this meeting on what was to turn out to be a mostly dry, bright Autumn day with sunlight sifting down at times through the tree canopy to dapple the ground below. From the reserve entrance we made our way down to the petrifying stream marked...
Lansdown, Bath 9 October 2019

Lansdown, Bath 9 October 2019

Leaders: Alice and John Nissen Ten of us met on what threatened to be a hopelessly wet day at the golf course carpark (with permission) on Lansdown. We decided to shorten our route, leaving out the planned start which had been to skirt Weston Wood and dip down into...
Greyfield Wood 25 September 2019

Greyfield Wood 25 September 2019

A group of thirteen of us gathered for this meeting on a day that was to prove to be mostly dry, mild and dappled with sunshine. And, as on previous visits, we had a fungal treat in store for us despite the long dry spell that had preceded the meeting. We started with...

Shapwick Heath and Ham Wall 28 August 2019

Leader Lucy Delve Ten members and one non-member joined me at 10am in Ham Wall RSPB car park and we promptly headed towards Noah’s Hide, Shapwick Heath where the adult Osprey was located, for, possibly, the 11th or 12th consecutive year. It is commonly referred to as...
Carrs Woodland LNR Thursday, 31 January 2019

Carrs Woodland LNR Thursday, 31 January 2019

On a bitterly cold winter’s day, twenty members met to explore this small Local Nature Reserve in Twerton, which includes woodland, grassland and a small stretch of the Newton Brook and was designated in 2006 as an “urban fringe” LNR. After admiring the frosted...
Bryology ecology workshop 15 January 2019

Bryology ecology workshop 15 January 2019

The fossil cast of the dinosaur Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni provided an interesting backdrop and contrast of scale as we set up for our workshop on ‘Bryophyte Ecology’ which was attended by 20 Bath Nats members and visitors. For this workshop we started with the premise...
Winter Walk, 10 January 2016

Winter Walk, 10 January 2016

We gathered above Pulteney Weir on an unseasonably mild morning for a stroll around the southern margins of the city. By the time we set off there were twenty-three of us and soon we were all clustered around a tree beside the riverside walk whose trunk was covered in...
Greylake, Catcott and Ham Wall, 9 December 2018

Greylake, Catcott and Ham Wall, 9 December 2018

Fifteen of us, including one non-member, gathered on a very windy but sunny morning in the RSPB reserve of Greylake car park off the A371. We were surrounded at one point by a very large flock of Lapwing and Golden Plover, clearly disturbed by a bird of prey. It was...

Primrose Hill 16 September 2018

A group of four revisited Primrose Hill to repeat the biodiversity measurements begun in 2012. It was an autumn day after a dry summer which will have not helped the growth of our target organisms. There were many visitors to the site (plus dogs). We found that there...

Pewsey Down, 26 May 2018

Expectations were high in the weeks leading up to this trip to the chalk hillside of Pewsey, as the trip last spring was awesome….but as 15 of us assembled in the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust car park at the base of the Downs, we were not too confident of a good...

Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath, 10 May 2018

  Leader Lucy Delve Nine members gathered in the Ham Wall car park for a 9.30am start on a fairly breezy morning, after a very short delay for a passing rain shower. From then on there was ever-decreasing cloud and we enjoyed viewing and listening to birds, among...

Aust Warth And River Severn Walk, 7 April 2018

Leaders : Tom Pinckheard and Lucy Delve Only 4 members plus the leaders braved the grey morning day with the forecast of initial heavy rain. However, we were immediately rewarded with a pair of Kestrels hovering above us, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were singing and a...

East Harptree Woods, 21 March 2018

Twelve of us gathered on a cool but quite sunny morning, with snow still lingering in drifts and patches from the heavy fall the previous weekend. As we set out for our morning exploration of the woodland in the vicinity of Smitham’s Chimney, we were quickly rewarded...

Ham Wall RSPB reserve, 11 February 2018

Four of us decided to make ‘a day of it’ and leave for Ham Wall at 9.30am on Sunday morning.  We arrived around 10.15 in freezing conditions, and braced ourselves against frequent squally showers of sleet and hail as we made our way down towards the 1st...

Box, Wiltshire, 6 December 2017

Leader Terry Doman Fifteen members joined the leader in the car park at the Selwin Hall, Box. After a safety brief we proceeded to the adjacent ‘Rock Circus’, where the leader explained that it had been constructed as an educational structure for anyone...

Midford Valley, 18 November 2017

Greeted by what is known as a mizzle, ten of us gathered in the first field at the top of the Midford Brook. The work to develop the 11 acre field owned by Avon and Tributaries Angling Association as a wildflower meadow has had to be put on hold while the Environment...

Corsham Park, 4 October 2017

Early arrivals reported Bullfinches by Lacock Road car park, where 15 Nats members met to walk the Corsham Court parkland. We entered the park directly across the road, emerging through boundary trees into open parkland, pasture, freestanding oak trees and the lake...
Greyfield Wood 27 September 2017

Greyfield Wood 27 September 2017

Scarlet Berry Truffle and Other Exciting Fungal Finds   Ten of us gathered for this meeting in hazy, mild dry and calm conditions. We were in for even more of a fungal treat than in 2016, with around 70 species being recorded in the morning, including several...

Dolebury Warren, 17 September 2017

Leader Alan Feest We gathered as a small group in the small car park at the foot of Dolebury Warren on a misty morning and I explained the nature of the site and the intention to look for CHEGs (Clavaria, Hygrocybe, Entoloma, Galerina) species, which are...

Otter sighting in Bath 10 September 2017

I watched an Otter in the River Avon from about 10.55-11.10am on Sunday 10 September. My first sighting in the city centre! The animal kept close to the far bank and within the bank-side vegetation. It was actively hunting for food. It dived a few times and I was able...
East Woodlands, 19 August 2017

East Woodlands, 19 August 2017

  Fabulous Fungi at East Woodlands, Bath A group of sixteen of us gathered under the magnificent veteran oak trees outside East Woodlands Church on a morning that began coolly but became increasingly warm and sunny towards lunchtime. We had a real fungal treat...

Bathampton Down, 9 August 2017

Just four of us gathered for this meeting on a damp but by no means impossibly wet morning. After slowly climbing up the short, steep hillside from North Road, we entered the deep dark woodland along the skyline path beside Bathampton Warren and enjoyed the abundance...

Hazelbury/Wadswick Common, 25 July 2017

A couple of images of some male Six Belted Clearwing moths attracted to a pheromone lure, this Tuesday, July 25th with Geoff Hiscocks and Richard Pooley. A minimum of 5 were attracted, probably at least seven. (Attracted them at both sites in 2015), I’m grateful to...

Hollow Marsh Meadow and Chewton Wood, 13 July 2017

On a warm summer’s day, eight members met in Farrington Gurney for a visit to Hollow Marsh Meadow. As we walked down Pitway Lane, we saw Goldfinches and Swallows and heard a Yellowhammer. Six species of butterfly were spotted in the lane: Red Admiral, Large White,...

11 July 2017 Chris Woods post

A pair of Scarlet Tiger, that I thought were colourful in the garden from the 27th June (this year). They seem to do well here in Thickwood, I’ve had them in the garden every year for a good ten years now.   Social pear sawfly  Neurotoma saltuum at Hazelbury...
National Meadows Day at Midford, 1 July 2017

National Meadows Day at Midford, 1 July 2017

On the morning of a day that started cloudy and became increasingly sunny and warm, Rob Randall, Terry Doman and Alan and Marion gathered together in ‘the garages field’, a brook-side meadow owned by the Avon and Tributaries Angling Association (ATAA). The ATAA are...

Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath, 21 May 2017

Sixteen members, including three new recruits, joined me in exploring these wonderful wetland nature reserves near Glastonbury. We saw a good variety of wildlife, including insects, but I was very much concentrating on bird identification by sight and song. The...
Steway Lane to Bannerdown 14 April 2017

Steway Lane to Bannerdown 14 April 2017

Nice walk up Steway Lane to Bannerdown today, fairly quiet on the migrant front with a few swallows on the high ground along with this chiffchaff, nice Roe deer, nice to see the Coralroot (Cardamine bulbifera) at the top of Steway Lane in full flower. Steve...

Willow Warbler sighting 1 April 2017

On 1 April, while walking along the riverside looking across to trees in front of the Bath postal sorting office, not far from St John’s church, I heard a Willow Warbler in full song, and then saw three Willow Warblers feeding in the trees. This is the earliest Spring...
Gully Wood, 19 March 2017

Gully Wood, 19 March 2017

The day started with blustery winds and sideways drizzle but fortunately drier conditions prevailed by the time six Bath Nats members plus the owner of the wood, Judith Gradwell assembled in the wood. Judith was able to tell us about the past and present management of...