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[Species lists below] 5 members attended this rather specialised meeting on a fine, sunny day, starting near the City of Troy maze on the Dalby road. Gill explained the rationale behind recording, and showed an old-fashioned recording card which had the plant names not only in Latin but also abbreviated. We all agreed that a very special, dedicated recorder was needed to use this! She then showed the modern equivalent – an A4 recording sheet, in either Latin or English formats, and offered people the chance to fill one in on the day (she also admitted that she didn’t in fact use such a sheet, preferring to enter records into a hand-held computer – and failing that writing the names on a blank sheet to be uploaded to the computer later).

We then started our walk which took in a variety of habitats: arable cropland, hedge-banks, Mugdale wood, and a rather overgrown footpath near Potter Hill Farm. One of the highlights was finding bugloss Anchusa arvensis – one of those arable weeds that is much less common than it used to be. Partly because of the different habitats we recorded over 170 different species – not bad for one afternoon in an area only a mile or so across.

Bugloss (Anchusa arvensis)

In the wood we noted plenty of lesser stitchwort, the starry flowers living up to the Latin name of Stellaria. It was disappointing to see quite a bit of Himalayan balsam near the beck, but good that someone had clearly been cutting it in an attempt to control it, though I fear if it is allowed to seed the problem will get worse in future years.

In the wood we saw a fallen trunk with what I think were oyster mushrooms growing on it (see below). The only other fungi I saw were some giant hoof fungi on a dead but still upright birch trunk, that also had many woodpecker holes in it.

Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) on a dead log

I also noticed a patch of gooseberry that had been completely stripped of leaves (leaving behind a rather nasty black deposit and the berries remaining on the bare twigs): this was probably caused by sawfly larvae. Nematus olfaciens, Nematus leucotrochuss, Nematus ribesii and Pristiphora appendiculata are all known to feed on gooseberry, but without specimens it is impossible to be sure, and we can’t exclude a polyphage, i.e. a species that feeds on several different plants. We also saw these little galls on alder (left), caused by the mite Eriophyes laevis (thanks to Carl Farmer and Stuart Dunlop for these ids).

We went slowly and in true botanical fashion kept stopping to look carefully at the plants we found. It was very helpful to find many closely related plants growing together so we could compare them, for example pineappleweed, scented and scentless mayweeds – see the spread of (mostly) scented mayweed (and poppies) left – and all three small-flowered cranesbills (dovesfoot, cut-leaved and small-flowered).

However, we also had time to spot some birds and butterflies. There were ringlets everywhere and also plenty of meadow browns, plus a few individuals of other species. It was a special thrill to see the comma, which looked freshly emerged with very bright colours, and also the red admiral of which we only got a fleeting glimpse.

Birds
Robin, willow warbler, skylark, yellow hammer, wood pigeon, peewit, chaffinch, blackbird, pheasant, black cap, garden warbler, jay, carrion crow, curlew, song thrush.
[Thanks to Janet Denney for this list]

Butterflies
Ringlet, large white, tortoiseshell, small white, meadow brown, painted lady, red admiral, orange tip, speckled wood, comma.

... and last, but not least, we heard a grasshopper.
[Again thanks to Janet for the list]

Plants

[172spp.] List compiled with “PlantFinder” (but modified).

** These three species were growing together on a mound of soil at the side of the road, suggesting they had all been dumped together. The willowherb is of course common in the area as a true wild plant, but normally prefers damper habitats such as ditch banks.

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© Ryedale Natural History Society 2009; Photos © Gill Smith & Nan Sykes 2009