Rhoslefain

This area is notable for outcroppings of micro-gabbro so we had hoped to see some good base-rich-dependent plants.  Unfortunately, we were just too early as the weather still hadn't caught up, but we did see Wheatears, Swallows and House Martins - the first ones I had seen this year - so spring must be almost here!

Broadwater on a grey and misty day

We started off from  Llech Llwyd, where Elwyn Roberts, the farmer, had let us park, and walked down across sheep-grazed, improved pasture to a boggy area near the shore of the curious Broadwater, the almost land-locked estuary of the River Dysynni.  There were so many brackish-loving plants to be seen but without flowers so  that even with the indispensible 'Poland' to aid identification, we soon felt we could use our time better and decided to go on to the quarry.



Walking along the lane it seemed we had moved on in time with the hedgebanks full of the first Stitchwort, Stellaria holostea, the first Dog Violets, Viola riviniana and the hillsides ablaze with early-flowering Gorse, Ulex europaeus.

Viola riviniana - Spring is on the way!

Blackthorn winter

Arum maculatum already  in flower 

Smiling in spite of the weather!

We reached the quarry where we had a damp lunch with a low-lying grey  mist. Roadstone is still being extracted here and we found some curious plants in the settling tanks, including a Stonewort, Chara sp. [one of those curious 'honorary' vascular plants],  Typha latifolia, Bulrush, and a great swathe of Equisetum telmateia Great Horsetail.

Some people were almost ready to give up by then but the tougher souls said that we should try the other dolerite outcrop at Foel Fendigaid a couple of miles further north where we found more interest in a small flush and further on a grassy hillside which posed us a couple of challenges.

Foel Fendigaid 

We had been discussing the possibility of finding Upright Chickweed. Moenchia erecta [which has been recorded here in the past], when sharp-eyed Heather L found a different plant of the Caryophyllaceae, which we eventually decided was a Spergularia, tentatively identifying it as S media mainly on the characters of the scarious stipules.  Later, Annie found some strange woody stems over two metres long crawling about in the dead bracken, which stumped us for a while, until we decided they were the over-wintering stems of Solanum dulcamara, Bittersweet, only just beginning to leaf, and not enough to make identification easy!

A Minotaur beetle, with its prominent thoracic 'horns'

The joy of our group outings are the many skills that members bring along.  Expertise in bryology, lichens, and in many classes of invertebrates are just a few of their subjects. I feel so lucky to have these opportunities.
I have passed the burrow exits of the Minotaur Beetle Typhaeus typhaeus so many times without connecting them with this fellow. He lives on rabbit and sheep dung, but lets the female do most of the work of excavating shafts underground where the eggs are laid.

Caerdeon Residential

It is just seven weeks today until the start of the Caerdeon Residential [May 28^th - 31^st] which proved so enjoyable in July last year. Are we tempting fate by trying a different time of year now? This late spring makes it hard to imagine there may be anything to find, but May in 2012 gave us a heatwave!
We were fortunate last year to discover Caerdeon, formerly a “gentleman’s residence” where Darwin once stayed, which is now an outdoor activities centre for Liverpool Hope University.  It is beautifully situated high above the Mawddach Estuary and overlooking The Cader Idris range, and very central for a number of interesting sites.

 Barmouth Harbour
© Copyright Gordon Hatton

We are almost full but still have space for three or so more people to enjoy botanising around the Mawddach estuary including coastal, river, montane and broad-leaved woodland habitats.As before there will be a choice of habitat and difficulty of terrain arranged for each day, or of course people will be free to choose their own locations.  It will be very much a square-bashing exercise and I will be really grateful for your help.

The cost of staying at the centre for three nights, full board, is around £140 - a modest price when I tell you that the food is ample and tasty, with diets of all varieties catered for.  Sleeping accommodation is basic, but everyone has a room to his/her self although it may mean sleeping in a bunk!  We have plenty of room to work in good lighting and wi-fi is freely available.

Rhinog Fach and Y Llethr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinogydd

I have added some photos of Merioneth to tempt you to this beautiful part of the world.  If any of this interests you, please contact me via this site or the Merioneth page on the BSBI website http://bsbi.org.uk/merioneth.html

Llyn Caer Euni

Llechwedd Fwyalchen
The slope of the Blackbird

Harlech from Morfa Dyffryn
Copyright Tom McCallister

Merioneth Nats, 28th March 2013

I wonder if I am just getting impatient in my old age or if this year spring is really late in showing signs of arriving. Last year we had so early a summer that everything was over by August so perhaps that's why I am impatient to get going.

*Narcissus pseudonarcissus: our native daffodil?

Last week, four of us met in Talybont on a bright cold day and walked through holiday chalets and caravans to follow the north side of the River Dalar as it approaches the sea.  We made a good list of ruderals including Erophila verna, Common Whitlow-grass.  This little plant is such an opportunist that it fruits almost as soon as it appears, but these were so tiny and showed no signs of any fruits, so I have recorded them as E verna sensu lato without being able to determine them more precisely. Then we walked through the planted areas, which included many cultivated daffodils: However we were all convinced by the nativeness* of a population of perhaps 100 flowering plants on the river bank as we left 'civilisation' and approached the fields.

Roger Cope, botanist!

After a sunny but chilly lunch we looked at a field with many weedy species but pressed on towards the sea hoping to find more small ephemerals, but it took a careful search by Roger on his hands and knees to find even a tiny bit of Cerastium semidecandrum, Little Mouse-ear!  We recorded predictable dune plants like Ammophila arenaria, Marram Grass and Rosa spinosissima, Burnet Rose but the nicest finds near there on shingle were non-flowering plants of Glaucium flavum, Yellow Horned-poppy.



As we trudged back to the village and our cars we all, I think, wondered when we would be able to start recording in earnest, and when the jet stream causing all these cold winds from the east would move away north and let a typical soft, mild spring begin.

* But now determined by Mick Crawley as "a venerable cultivar, Narcissus 'Princeps' "

Coed y Parc, February 28, 2013

Sanicle in flower
[Wikimedia Commons]

We were blessed at last with a fine day, for our first meeting of the year, and had a goodly turnout of members, also welcoming people from the Non-flowering Plants group.  Once we got into the wood - the access lane side had quite a pull for these bryologists - we bypassed the small meadow where Adder's Tongue was recorded in the past, but it's now become very overgrown. Going west, we recorded such nice things as the leaves of Wood Sedge, Carex sylvatica and Sanicle,  Sanicula europaea, which are both typical plants of humus-rich woodland.

Tunbridge Filmy Fern
Hymenophyllum tunbrigense

We reached the Nant y Ceunant, "the stream of the ravine", where the nimble Paul Green found Wilson's Filmy Fern, Hymenophyllum wilsonii, on its steep sides. I was anxious to justify my old record here of the Tunbridge Filmy Fern, H, tunbrigense, and Paul duly obliged, finding it growing on an old tree stump. We then wandered back towards the rocky gorge of the Afon Arran, over the bridge by the old mill, and back up the road.  More nice things there, the best of which was Polystichum setiferum, Soft Shield Fern.

P. setiferum showing detail of pinnules

Thanks to everyone, especially Brian Burnett and his bryologists for coming and Paul for his sharp eyes and recording skills which undoubtedly helped to bring the list for the day to well over 100 vascular plants.

Prunus cerasifera

A twig I brought home,
showing characteristic shiny green bark 

February is proving very cold and I have been out looking for parking places for this year's programme. 

Lots of walking instead of botanising, although I came home today with a new tetrad record from near Llandderfel – Prunus cerasifera.  I think there must have been a fashion for planting it as I almost always find it in hedges near gateways to large houses.  It has been overlooked as Blackthorn in the past, although it flowers much earlier.  Clapham, Tutin and Warburg [1952] say it flowers from March to April but Stace's 3rd edition [2010] has it flowering from January to February and into March.  Mine was just coming into flower today. It must be global warming!

This year's field meetings programme can be viewed on the Merioneth page of the BSBI website

Mynydd Mynyllod

Snow on the Berwyns from Mynydd Mynyllod

 Yesterday was a beautifully sunny day although the tops of the Berwyns still had their frosting of snow. We walked up to the bridle path which runs along the top of the Mynydd Mynyllod ridge.  Although three days had passed since St Valentine's Day,  it was the first time this year I had heard a Song Thrush, even now not in full voice.  Great Tits, Robins and Blackbirds added to the orchestra and far away a Buzzard was mewing. The most exciting sight was a group of Lapwings which although they do breed there had more of the look of over-wintering birds.

I made a new tetrad record, too - the first one of the year!  Empetrum nigrum, Crowberry, which is not uncommon on the Berwyn side of the Dee Valley, but strangely had not been recorded here before.

Existing Wind Turbines on Mynydd Mynyllod

At the far point of the walk the three existing wind turbines came into view, looking graceful and rather elegant on their improved grassland site - although in the pleasant light breeze only one was working! However, Scottish Power's proposal is for a further 25 huge structures with a tip height of 145m [approx 475 feet] - and the site itself less than 1247 feet a.s.l!

Many people [including myself]  who support alternative energy sources such as wind power feel that this is inappropriate and disproportionate, and that the disturbances during construction will also do great damage.  Schedule 42 species in the area [a list of 557 species of principal importance in Wales] include Lapwing, Curlew and Brown Hare, and valuable habitats such as heather moorland, acid grassland and open standing water might also be affected  . Let us hope that common sense will prevail.

Our first Merioneth Nats meeting of the year, in Coed y Parc near Dolgellau, postponed from January snows, will now be on 28th February.  Brian Burnett's Non-flowering Plants Group will join us and we hope to find some interesting Atlantic woodland bryophytes and  to refind Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, Tunbridge Filmy-fern. The meeting place is at SH737166 but there's not room for many cars so please try to share. The full programme for the year should be available very soon to mailing list members and on the BSBI and Cofnod websites.

Programme for 2013

In the end we were seven Merioneth Nats meeting here for our December social and planning meeting for 2013.  Polly and baby Jay were grounded as Polly isn't allowed to drive [and Jay can't yet].

Martin and Clare at Nantgwyrddail last summer

Still, Martin and Clare Rand came all the way from Hampshire and Paul Green from Cardiff and there was me, Jenny, Jacky and Andrew and we managed to eat almost all the food.

With ideas and contributions from other members added before the event we came up with the following list of targeted species and places:

Coeloglossum viride

Wikimedia Commons

Drosera intermedia Llyn Barfog 2011

Targeted places [All grid refs approx and of course, subject to access permissions.]

Cwm Cywarch especially SH8519

Unimproved grassland generally 

+ Brwyn Llyniau [SH5829] 

Rhobell [SH7825]

Cae Heuad [SH7722]

Dduallt and bog to the east [SH8128]

Cors Coch [SH7033 etc]

Maes y Pandy [SH6908]

Morfa Harlech North [SH5

Ynys Gifftan [SH53S]

Cynwyd [SJ04G] or Betws Gwerfil Goch [SJ04I]

Some target spp for 2013 [no particular order]
 Coeloglossum viride
Drosera intermedia
Eleocharis acicularis
Eleocharis parvula
Empetrum nigrum subsp hermaphroditum
Antennaria dioica
Galium boreale
Orthilia secunda
Hammerbya paludosa
Trollius europaeus