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2010 Scottish BSBI Field Meeting Programme
Full details
of the 2010 field excursions, which includes
contact email addresses and telephone numbers,
can be downloaded as a pdf (41KB).
SATURDAY 27 MARCH This workshop will be repeated at Reelig, near Inverness on Sunday 28 March. The event is being repeated so that members can choose to attend their nearest venue to minimise travel. Conifers are rather poorly understood by botanists and therefore under-recorded, despite their importance to Scotland’s landscape and economy. This workshop aims to promote a better understanding and better recording. This one day workshop follows on from the theme of the Spring Conference in Berwick-upon-Tweed last May. Places will be strictly limited to 12. Bookings from Vice-county Recorders received by 1st March will get priority. For further information and to book, please write to Mrs Jane Jones, BSBI Admin Assistant, Cuilvona Cottage, Aberfoyle, Stirling, FK8 3TQ SUNDAY
28 MARCH This a repeat of the workshop held near Perth on Saturday 27 March. The event is being repeated so that members can choose to attend their nearest venue to minimise travel. Conifers are rather poorly understood by botanists and therefore under-recorded, despite their importance to Scotland’s landscape and economy. This workshop aims to promote a better understanding and better recording. This one day workshop follows on from the theme of the Spring Conference in Berwick-upon-Tweed last May. Places will be strictly limited to 12. Bookings from Vice-county Recorders received by 1st March will get priority. For further information and to book, please write to Mrs Jane Jones, BSBI Admin Assistant, Cuilvona Cottage, Aberfoyle, Stirling, FK8 3TQ. SUNDAY 16 MAY Holyrood Park’s dramatic hills and crags give Edinburgh its distinctive skyline. They also provide grassland habitats for a remarkably diverse and interesting flora. We hope to see species such as Adder’s-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum), Spring Sandwort (Minuartia verna), Spring Cinquefoil (Potentilla tabernaemontani) amongst many others. Historic Scotland manages the park and we may persuade one of their rangers to give a short talk about its conservation management. The emphasis of this field meeting will be on learning to identify and record and we would particularly welcome beginners and anyone who has not been on a BSBI field meeting before. We have held field meetings here for the past two years running and they have been so popular that we have had to turn people away on both occasions. So due to popular demand and for a third and possibly final time we are returning to Arthur’s Seat – book now! Rail & bus stations within reasonably short walking distance. Places will be limited. For further information and to book, please write to Mrs Jane Jones, BSBI Admin Assistant, Cuilvona Cottage, Aberfoyle, Stirling, FK8 3TQ SUNDAY 23 MAY Lady Mary’s Walk is a popular local walk in the highland Perthshire town of Crieff. The path goes through semi-natural riparian woodland along the banks of the River Earn, and its tributary the Turret and a small area of species rich grassland. We will look at a range of spring flowers in these habitats. One of the more notable species here is Ranunculus auricomis (Goldilocks Buttercup). The emphasis of this field meeting will be on learning to identify and record and we would particularly welcome beginners and anyone who has not been on a BSBI field meeting before. For further information and to book, please write
to Mrs Jane Jones, BSBI Admin Assistant, Cuilvona
Cottage, Aberfoyle, Stirling, FK8 3TQ. FRIDAY
11 – MONDAY 14 JUNE The area around Kyle in the very south of West Ross is a much under-recorded corner of the vice-county. We should like help from members to undertake some general recording to redress this oversight. We hope to record a variety of habitats including coastal, semi-natural woodland and montane. In particular we shall arrange to visit the saltmarsh site of Carex salina (Saltmarsh Sedge) – one of the most recent native additions to our flora. We should also like to visit Rassal ashwood and adjacent grasslands on Durness limestone: species we hope to see include Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens) and Cephalanthera longifolia (Narrow-leaved Helleborine), and we shall try to refind Melampyrum sylvaticum (Small Cow-wheat) at Francis Rose’s 1965 site. It is hoped a group of more adventurous members might also visit the lower reaches of the Allt nan Carnan gorge at Lochcarron, to try to refind Pyrola media (Intermediate Wintergreen) at one of its few West Ross localities. For further information and to book, please write to Duncan Donald, 16 Midtown of Inverasdale, Poolewe, Achnasheen, Wester Ross IV22 2LW . SATURDAY 12 JUNE The main area to be visited is an upland ridge SE of Laurencekirk. A considerable part remains uncultivated, and holds a variety of plant communities notably calcareous grasslands, mires and wet heath. Past botanists took little interest in these modest hills, being more attracted to the nearby St Cyrus coast or taller mountains further west. But 117 ha were declared an SSSI in the 1990s, species such as Carex disticha, Helianthemum chamaecistus, Platanthera bifolia and Trollius europaeus having been found. Some time may also be spent in nearby woodlands or arable land, the latter in case the seasons are sufficiently early to follow up the local recent discovery of Fumaria reuteri. This meeting will be joint with the NE Scotland branch of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, for whom I normally lead a day excursion in June. Further information from David Welch, East Fernbank, Woodside Road, Banchory, Kincardineshire. SATURDAY 19 JUNE A chance to explore remote parts of the loch shore,
burns and ravines around Loch Katrine. To protect
the quality of the water sheep were removed from
the surrounding area about 5 years ago and the greatly
reduced grazing pressure has improved the vegetation
and allowed plant life to flourish. We hope to get
special access to areas around the loch which have
not been botanised before. There are very few records
from this area and it is hoped this meeting will
fill in many gaps. Anything may turn up! We hope
to find more Hymenophyllum wilsonii, found in 2009,
and there is even the possibility of discovering
Hymenophyllum tunbridgense. SATURDAY 26 JUNE The Botanical Society of Scotland BSS has invited BSBI members to join them on this year’s BSS Alpine Field Meeting to Ben Vane in Dunbartonshire. Despite Ben Vane only just qualifing as a Munro, being 3,002 feet (915m) above sea level, it is surprisingly rough and has many rocky outcrops scattered across its summit and flanks where interesting alpines might occur. Species previously recorded on Ben Vane and its near neighbour Beinn Dubh, include Loiseleuria procumbens (Trailing Azalea), Orthilia secunda (Serrated Wintergreen), Poa glauca (Glaucous Meadow-grass), Polystichum lonchitis (Holly-fern) and Saussurea alpina (Alpine Saw-wort). However this area has not been well botanised in recent years and there are few recent records. The aim of this field meeting is therefore to undertake a thorough search of all of Ben Vane’s montane habitats to update our records. (It is no co-incidence that the BSS Alpine Field Meeting leader is also the BSBI Vice-county Recorder for Dunbartonshire!) For further information and to book, please write to Dr John Holland, 3 Monemore, Killin, Perthshire FK21 8XD THURSDAY 8 - SATURDAY 10 JULY The Moffat Hills with rocky slopes and screes, boreal heath and flushes have been known for a long time to support small populations of montane species not found elsewhere in the Southern Uplands. Woodsia ilvensis is the most celebrated of these and will be seen. The Moffat Hills is currently the focus for two interesting restoration projects both under the wing of Borders Forest Trust. The aim of the weekend will be to record tetrads or monads particularly on the two areas and locate populations of Moffat Hills specialities. There will be a revisit to the Carrifran area ten years after the wildwood project commenced. This area has had graziers removed for a number of years and now shows montane and flush vegetation in recovery. Two target species are Polystichum lonchitis and Crepis mollis. The Corehead area including the famous Devils Beef Tub has recently been acquired by the trust and the aim here is to provide some baseline recording in tetrads or possibly monads as they commence a woodland, moorland and hay meadow restoration project. Carex vaginata is a possibility. For further information and to book, please write to Chris Miles Braeside Boreland Lockerbie Dumfriesshire DG11 2LL SATURDAY 17 - SUNDAY 18 JULY The aim of this workshop is to promote a better understanding and better recording of Alchemillas in Scotland. The workshop will start in the classroom on Saturday morning and go out into the field in the afternoon, and be entirely field based on the Sunday. We will be in Glen Clova on Saturday, where there is a good selection of Alchemilla species and where the Vice-county recorder has recently found Alchemilla glaucescens. We will look for Alchemilla wichurae and other species on The Cairnwell 933m, Glenshee on the Sunday, weather permitting. Places will be strictly limited to 15. Bookings from Vice-county Recorders received by 1st March will get priority. For further information and to book, please write to Mrs Jane Jones, BSBI Admin Assistant, Cuilvona Cottage, Aberfoyle, Stirling, FK8 3TQ THURSDAY
29 JULY – SUNDAY
1 AUGUST The Orkney islands support an unusual variety of habitats from montane hilltops on the island of Hoy and wind-blasted western coast to low-lying mires, clear lochs and sheltered shores elsewhere. There will be a good choice of these and others to botanise, most very easily accessible from the road, others requiring a good walk to fully appreciate them. Hoy has Britain’s most northerly native woodland and some mountain plants at unusually low altitude. These include Arctostaphylos uva-ursi and Arctostaphylos alpinus. There are steep corries with base-rich flushes and broad valleys with diffusely flushed mires. Away from Hoy, the Orkney Mainland has lochs unusually rich in stoneworts and other aquatics, and there will be the opportunity to examine these with local expert Effy Everiss. No visit to Orkney would be complete without seeing maritime heath and its unusual flora: we shall visit the spectacular Stromness Heaths and Coasts SSSI and SAC where Primula scotica is locally common. In contrast, we can also explore some weedy field margins, still quite easily found in the mixed crops-and-grassland farming landscape, where up to five species of fumitory are a feature, and we should certainly see Fumaria purpurea. On one day we take a short ferry journey to the low-lying island of Egilsay, which packs a wealth of habitats into its small area (4 km long, maximum 1.5 km wide), much of it RSPB reserve, and thoroughly explore and record. Numbers are limited to 15 and early booking is advised. The town of Kirkwall will be our base. For booking and information if needed on travel and accommodation, please write to John Crossley, North Flaws, St Margarets Hope, Orkney KW17 2RW MONDAY 2 - FRIDAY 6 AUGUST The meeting will be based in Lochmaddy, North Uist, with the aim of visiting underworked areas to help with tetrad recording for the flora of the Outer Hebrides, and to record Threatened Plant populations (Chrysanthemum segetum is the most likely species of interest from the 2010 list). There should be an interesting mixture of habitats from machair to moorland, sea cliffs and lochs, and we hope to be able to visit some of the islands off the north east of N Uist (in which case there may be a small charge to cover boat hire). For further details and to book, contact Paul Smith 128 Llancayo Street, Bargoed, Mid Glamorgan, CF81 8TP. SATURDAY 7th AUGUST 2010 Whitlaw Mosses is an extremely rich and diverse series of basin mires. It has a remarkably diverse sedge flora including, amongst many others, Carex paniculata, C. diandra (Greater and Lesser Tussock-sedge), C. lasiocarpa (Slender Sedge) and Carex limosa (Bog-sedge). The emphasis of this field meeting will be on learning to identify sedges and we would particularly welcome sedge-beginners. For further information and to book, please write to Mrs Jane Jones, BSBI Admin Assistant, Cuilvona Cottage, Aberfoyle, Stirling, FK8 3TQ. For more general information about Whitlaw Mosses NNR see www.nnr-scotland.org.uk
(J.Squirrell) Last updated 12th January 2010 |
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