Warrington Plant Group at Houghton Green Pool 2017

Having been here in the winter to investigate its bryophyte flora, we agreed that it would be fun to come back in the summer to see the flowering plants.  It was a wet day, but we were not deterred (much) and duly met up at the pub to see what we could find.  Here is the Pool on our October visit – it was very dried up and about half the size on our May visit despite the recent (and ongoing) rainfall.

Natterjack toad count, Flintshire 2017

This is my sixth year counting natterjack toads on the North Wales coast and I’m pleased to say that after a poor first night this year, the second night’s count was excellent with over 60 toads across all participating teams 😀  I’ve also heard that the count at the Cheshire site was very good, so it certainly looks as though the reintroduced populations are all doing well.  Happy news in a world of sad extinctions.

Flintshire BSBI at Caerwys

We had another successful day out in Flintshire recording plants.  This square is under-recorded, and doesn’t look very exciting on paper, but we found over 160 species between the four of us 😀

Warrington Plant Group at Spud Wood, Lymm

I didn’t think we would beat the previous day’s total from our meeting at Rhyl (see last week’s post) but we did!  152 species for the day.  It was a record breaking meeting in other ways with an amazing 12 people turning up to meet me and go out botanising, including friends from not just Warrington Plant Group but the Flintshire BSBI group as well, not forgetting the BSBI Cheshire vice-county recorder.  Thank you to those who attended for all your contributions 🙂

Fumaria muralis ssp boraei photographed by Phil James, det Martyn Stead

Flintshire BSBI at Rhyl

You might not think that urban Rhyl would be a particularly productive place to go botanising, but you’d be wrong.  We scored 147 vascular plant species between five of us on our first Flintshire BSBI outing of the season, and fully one-third of those were in the car park at the train station!

Warrington Plant Group at Lumb Brook Wood 2017

Having explored the vascular plant flora of Lumb Brook Wood last year, we thought it would be a good place to record mosses and liverworts.  The site is mature woodland, is thought to be ancient at least in part and has the benefit of a stream running through it, so we thought it had lots of bryological potential.

Ecological appraisal, Great Sankey, Warrington (2016)

It all sounded so easy on paper.  Nip round to Great Sankey, a couple of miles from home, do a quick Phase 1 habitat survey and then write up the report.  Bog standard, totally normal day at work.

Nope.