30/3/08 - RAILWAYS, RECORDERS, RUE-LEAVED SAXIFRAGE

Coming back from London today I saw my first definite Red Kite a quarter of a mile east of Cholsey station and another probable just east of Didcot. This highlights the fact that a certain amount of recording can be done even at 125 mph, and that locations away from stations can be pinned down fairly accurately using the line-side mileposts – or more accurately quarter mile posts. Those on the Great Western line are yellow and mark quarter miles with either spots or some other symbol. So we have 93, 93 above *, 93 above **, 93 above ***, then 94 and so on. In this case the distances are from Paddington. Unfortunately they aren’t marked on OS maps, or you could quickly convert them to a grid reference.

I am particularly interested in heathland vegetation, and at this time of year Gorse and Broom can easily be identified at high speed. But so can things like wild Primroses and Marsh Marigold. At slower speeds around stations less flambouyant things can be recognised. There was a Brimstone at Chippenham station, and there’s a stand of at least 18 Stinking Hellebores just west of the old goods shed at Bath.

Once back in Bristol I walked across the centre of town to attend the excellent BRERC Recorder’s get-together at the Wills Memorial Building, then onward to Westbury Park.

A recent newspaper article had flagged up the decline of Coltsfoot and Scarlet Pimpernel. The former was in flower in the open-air car park behind the Empire and Commonwealth Museum at the old station (as was Alexanders and Common Whitlow Grass) and on the ‘triangle’ around Portwall Lane. The latter was growing around the base of a tree near the WMB, along with a Weld seedling and Lesser Swine Cress.

Wishing to check something around St. Michael-on-the-Mount, I headed home up St. Michaels Hill. There was a swathe of the very small Common Whitlow Grass (actually a member of the Cabbage family) in flower in the cobbles all the way up the raised pathway that is on the left as you ascend the hill. At the top, on the other side, some Oxford Ragwort was in flower.

The most interesting find was of the small Rue-leaved Saxifrage (Saxifraga tridactylites), a species I’d not seen before. The leaves are distinct, being narrowly three-lobed, with a long thin section below the branching point. One was spotted in flower between the pavement and the brick wall surrounding the slightly incongruous ‘modern’ development bounded by Paul St., Little Paul St. and Myrtle Rd., near the bus stop on St. Michaels Hill. There were 7 more round the corner in Paul Street, also in the narrow crack between the brick wall and pavement. The Flora of the Bristol Region describes this species as ‘uncommon’, with between 7 and 9 records (you can’t tell from the small size of the maps which side of the gorge two of them were from) within the Bristol City boundary.