LAG CHAIRMAN’S JOTTINGS MAY

The wonderful display of Cowslips and Dandelions in the verges match the yellow of the Oil seed rape in so many fields. Look carefully by the roadside for the blues of the last Bluebells and the emerging Speedwell as well as the spotted leaves and flower spikes of the Early purple orchids.

On 12 May I learned that there are now 3 Peregrine nestlings on St James’s church tower. Stand by for a noisy summer in Louth!

EVENTS

On this Sunday 15^th May from 2pm to 4pm there is an opportunity for children aged 6 to 14 years with an interest in nature to explore on the Red Hill nature reserve. The newly formed Louth Watch Group have arranged an afternoon`s programme of fun wildlife activities for the children and suggest that you bring a picnic to finish the day. The event is open to all and free. Children must be accompanied by an adult. More details and directions on how to find Red Hill are given on Lincolnshire wildlife trust website http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/events/2016/05/10/louth-wildlife-watch-group-launch-event. Booking is not essential, but it would be helpful to know who is coming. If you are interested and for more details, then please contact Avril Huke at p.a.huke@talk21.com or phone 01507 605158

If you know of any families with children who might be interested, then please can you let them know about this event.

Saturday 22 May at 1030 am. A visit to Middle Marsh Wetlands led by Ray Woodcock and hopefully the resident ranger. This venue is not far from Skegness. To reach the start point drive through the Pine Trees Leisure Park, PE24 4RE to a large car park beyond some fishing lakes. The area is flat and there are two hides within 200 metres of the car park, both with wheelchair access. The area is a haven for waders, gulls and geese whilst a walk along a rutted path to a third hide will take us past hedges where warblers and other song birds establish their territory and serenade their mates. We shall be about two hours on site.

HELP is needed with the delivery of the LWT Lapwings magazine; 6 in the in the South Elkington area and 10 in the Alvingham area. If you are able to spend a little time helping out, please let me know on lag2014rrww@aol.com

Enjoy the outdoors – there are so many daylight hours for external activities at this time of the year. Jane and I are off to Gibraltar Point tomorrow to look at birds, wildflowers and the progress on the visitors’ centre.

Ray Woodcock Chairman LAG

Louth Area Group on Facebook

We now have a facebook group!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LouthWildlife

Come and join the discussions and share your  wildlife news and pictures.

You may also like to join the Lincolnshire Wildlife Photography facebook group.

LOUTH AREA WATCH GROUP

On this Sunday 15^th May from 2 pm to 4 pm there is an opportunity for children aged 6 to 14 years with an interest in nature to explore on the Red Hill nature reserve. The newly formed Louth Watch Group have arranged an afternoon`s programme of fun wildlife activities for the children and suggest that you bring a picnic to finish the day. The event is open to all and free. 

Children must be accompanied by an adult. 

More details and directions on how to find Red Hill are given on Lincolnshire wildlife trust website http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/events/2016/05/10/louth-wildlife-watch-group-launch-event. 

Booking is not essential, but it would be helpful to know who is coming. If you are interested and for more details, then please contact Avril Huke at p.a.huke@talk21.com or phone 01507 605158

If you know of any families with children who might be interested, then please can you let them know about this event.

More about Watch Groups: http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/discover-learn/wildlife-watch

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

Even though the weather changed down to the misty low teens on Saturday morning Jane and I had some wonderful Summer sights within a few miles of Louth. First of all, we checked out the roadside verge MR 366864 on the unnamed road between the B1200 Manby road and Legbourne to see whether the Early purple orchids had come into flower. We were not disappointed; they made a dramatic contrast to the yellow cowslips and the beige reed stalks.

Our next stop was at the Manby Flashes where the Lapwings were trying to distract us from their nestlings. It worked as we did not see any of the tiny balls of green fluff. However, the screaming Swifts overhead told us that Summer had arrived as did the delicate mauve flowers of the Lady’s smock on the stream bank. This plant is also called the Cuckooflower as it flowers at the same time as the Cuckoos arrive. We heard a Cuckoo later at RIMAC but did not see it. The 3 Buzzards and Peregrine overhead took advantage of the warming air and for a change they were not being hassled by gulls. There was a constant Skylark presence. A Reed bunting and a Wren called in clear view and there were various warblers singing in the reeds – we did not see them but I think there was a Sedge warbler amongst them whilst we did see and hear a Grasshopper warbler.

We moved along the B1200 for 5 miles to visit the hide in the middle of some farmland at MR 456920. This hide is worth a visit. It is reached by parking at some farm buildings on the road nearly opposite the Saltfleetby St Clements church. The land owner permits people to walk along the farm track for about 300 metres to the hide from which we saw nine Ruffs; two were males in full plumage and were having quite a set to. As we walked back to the car we had a brilliant fly past of 53 Whimbrels. They flew into the field and settled amongst the long grass at MR 458918.

After a quick bite in the sunshine at the Prussian Queen we had a stroll around RIMAC where we tripped over a frog and heard the aforementioned Cuckoo but despite careful looking we decided that we were too early for the Marsh and Bee orchids. Ray Woodcock Saturday 7 May 2016

Cowslip Variation

We have a few hundred cowslips, Primula veris, in our garden near the Lincolnshire coast, all propagated from seeds collected in the wild from Lincolnshire in 2013. While most of them are the normal yellow that one would expect, a significant proportion have a lot of orange colouring on the petals.

The two pictures above show the typical cowslip with completely yellow petals save five orange spots on the inside.

Some flowers have a thin orange border to the petals.

In others the orange colouring spreads across the petal, often darker on the outside than the inside of the flower.

Some flowers are a deep orange, almost red, with contrasting yellow centres.

For comparison, this is an oxslip, Primula elatior, showing no orange at all.

To find the proportion of plants showing the orange colouring I counted them. This is not straightforward.

Each plant is either yellow or orange, all the flowers on each spike and each spike on a single plant being the same.  Yellow and orange plants grow in close proximity, ruling out an environmental control of colour.  It is therefore assumed that the colour variation is genetically controlled.  As can be seen in the photos, there is a clear distinction between yellow and orange but within the orange group there is a variation in the degree of orange colouration. I have therefore divided them between yellow and orange, grouping all flowers displaying any orange (other than the ubiquitous five spots) into one group.

Most of the plants are now over three years old, having been germinated from seed in the autumn of 2013, raised in seed trays then planted out into a nursery bed in summer 2014 and then replanted in autumn 2014 and spring 2015. Many of the plants have grown into clumps by vegetative spreading and have many flower spikes each.  It is assumed that each clump is a genetic clone, having arisen from one seed, and so each such clump was counted once, rather than each flower spike being counted.  This may introduce some degree of error since a few of the clumps may comprise two or three genetically distinct plant if, during the seedling pricking out and subsequent replanting two or three seedlings growing very close together were treated as one plant.  This was illustrated in four clumps showing both yellow and orange spikes but close inspection showed that these originated from separate plants in close proximity. That this occurred but only occurred four times suggests that there is likely to be some bias of under-counting of yellow plants but that this bias is small.

195 clumps of cowslips were recorded.

Yellow:   145  76%

Orange:  50   26%

Taking into account the possible pro-yellow bias in the counting described above, it is concluded that between a fifth and a quarter of the plants have the genetic trait that produces the orange colouring.

The study of colour variation in cowslips is nothing new. This is from Charles Darwin, 'The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume 2' published in 1868:

And then there's heterostyly. 

Biff Vernon, 22/04/2016

Responses:

Laura Kidd posted these pictures of red cowslips on the facebook group The Wild Plant Group of UK & Ireland. 

She recorded them near Thame in Oxfordshire. Growing in a semi-natural area, Laura estimated that between 5 and 10% were this colour, the rest being the normal yellow.

Annual General Meeting

The 2016 Annual General Meeting of the Louth Area Group of Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust will be on Friday 8 April at 7.30 pm in the Conoco Room, above the Library, Louth.

After the (pretty short) business of the AGM there will follow members' digital photographs and mini-talks and refreshments, cheese and wine and such-like. And a Raffle, of course!

Please make every effort to attend and bring or send ideas for future fund raising events and topics for the illustrated talk meetings. Let Secretary Biff Vernon know if you want details about how to become a member of our committee. Should you like to have a copy of the minutes of the 2015 AGM contact lag2014rww@aol.com or call 01507 606880.

On display will be this large (3.5 times life size) painting of British butterflies. See if you can match up the thirty-one species :)

Adonis Blue

Brimstone

Brown Argus

Camberwell Beauty

Chequered Skipper

Clouded Yellow

Comma

Common Blue

Fritillary, Silver Washed

Gatekeeper

Grayling

Green Veined White

Grizzled Skipper

Holly Blue

Large White

Marbled White

Northern Brown Argus

Orange Tip

Painted Lady

Peacock

Purple Emperor

Purple Hairstreak

Red Admiral

Ringlet

Small Blue

Small Copper

Small Tortoiseshell

Small White

Speckled Wood

Swallowtail

White Admiral

March Meeting of the Louth Area Gropup

NOT CUDDLESOME – JUST AWESOME!                          OUR LOUTH OTTERS

They move by night along the waterway between Tetney and Louth, they are large in size but few in number. If you are sitting silently in the silent hours by the river bank you may just see one. By day their presence is easily identified by small piles of spraint. Pick one over and you will see that our elusive mammal, the otter, lives on fish, crustaceans and insect larvae whilst crayfish are a favourite food.

Louth wildlife enthusiast, Stewart West, held 70 people spell bound on a March evening when he regaled them with a mixture of facts, anecdotes and video clips. He displayed distribution maps of the otter presence in the UK for the last 50 years which showed how the species had increased in number. His experience of otter observations derives from a lifelong interest. He has recorded them in England and in Scotland and sees them regularly in this area.

Should you be lucky enough to see an individual otter or even a mother and cubs don't approach them. Their powerful jaws and sharp teeth will have your finger off in an instant!

If you missed Stewart’s presentation this time come to the LAG Information Morning on 29 October when he will be there with his videos to answer your questions. RW