Discovering Rushy Common and Tar Lakes.

Thanks to beautiful weather and brilliant volunteers many more children (and their parents) have been drawn into the joys of pond dipping and bug hunting.

Tar Lake was absolutely brimming with toad tadpoles, caddis fly larvae, black fly nymphs, young fish including roach and a pike that looked ferocious even though it was only two inches long, snails and water boatmen. And that was just some of the creatures in the water!

Along the shore and in the bushes were early damselflies, caddis flies, fabulous irridescent dock beetles, mayfly and brimstone and orange tip butterflies.

 

In the bird hide we could see about thirty common tern putting on their best aerial displays across the lake and setting up their nest sites on the islands. The pair of oystercatchers were working flat out to protect their four chicks from the carrion crow and by the end of the weekend they still have their full complement of four which are growing bigger and stronger and more able to defend themselves every day. A cuckoo was calling for much of the day and a lucky few saw one fly over the lake in the afternoon.

Great thanks to Harry, Jude and Angus for their enthusiasm on the lake side and to Keith and Alison for help in the bird hide. It was a great delight to be able to introduce so many people to the site as many of them had not visited before but will hopefully be back again soon.

Botany with the Ashmolean Natural History Society at Langley's Lane SSSI

We had a perfect day for our first session with the Ashmolean Natural History Society tutors Frances and Susan. After introductions to terminology and the basic naming of parts in the bird hide we took advantage of  the bright spring sunshine to sit in the beautiful meadow of Langley's Lane SSSI. We were surrounded by cowslips, green winged orchids, buttercups and many others not yet in flower.

Having got started on cowslips and three different species of buttercup we thought we had found an easy one with the green winged orchid. It was obviously an orchid and with the help of our hand lenses we could see the outer petals with the green veins hence the name of green winged orchid. But nothing is that easy and like many other species the variation in colour can be quite extensive, and the green winged orchid can vary from an intense purple to almost white.

 

It helps to be a botanist if you can get close to your subject and we all had to practise the classic botanists working position.

 

 

Thanks to Malcolm for some excellent photographs. He will be well placed for creating his own personal file of records which is an important part of becoming a fully fledged botanist. Luckily for several of us artistically challenged enthusiasts it is no longer necessary to draw the plants as digital photographs can do such a good job. But I think there is no replacement for the detailed observation that drawing requires even if the hand doesn't follow the eye very well.

Next month we will be looking at dandelions and other plants that will be in flower then as well as grasses and sedges. I think the tutors started us off very gently on Saturday.