BSBI at The British

The assembled masses



I was pleased to be able to attend a Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) field visit to The British yesterday led by joint vice county recorders Elsa Wood and Steph Tyler. My role was to help track down some of the more interesting plants previously recorded at the site in the days when Trevor Evans was county recorder. On the must see list was moonwort, bog pimpernel, round leaved sundew, marsh st johns wort, musk, ivy leaved bellflower, petty whin and bog asphodel etc. A marathon five hour session failed to locate many of the target species due to the overwhelming amount of bracken that's taken a hold over much of the site. In place's the often head height vegetation proved a challenge to get through! Nonetheless we did manage to find an interested mire habitat supporting several of the aforementioned plants.

Bog pimpernel



Apart from plants much more was on offer including many marbled white and singles of grayling and small pearl bordered fritillary butterflies, the day flying mint moth Pyrausta purpuralis was also found. Mottled grasshopper was common on areas of sparsely vegetated colliery spoil and a single golden ringed dragonfly put in an appearance. Although now pushing toward the end of July there was still a surprising amount of bird song to pick out. At least two yellowhammer were still singing with whitethroat, whinchat, redpoll, peregrine and garden warbler as a supporting cast.

Grayling in characteristic closed winged pose