CNHS Granchester Meadows

 The Cambridge Natural History Society surveyed the plants etc in Grantchester Meadows in 2006 and 2016 so this year is time to repeat the survey. We met on Sunday afternoon at the Cambridge end. The first two meadows are known as the Lamppost Meadows as each has a lamp-post at its centre from 1920-1940 when the meadows used to be flooded with water pumped from the Cam and used for skating. There is an attendant’s hut at the corner of the first field, where the fee of six pence for an evening’s skating was collected. It is managed in a traditional manner - once the meadow has dried out there may be a summer hay cut and it is grazed until the end of the year.  No fertilizer or herbicide has been used. The public path alongside these meadows emerges into open meadows stretching to Grantchester, owned by King’s College. The CNHS group were identifying and recording all the plants species including grasses and sedges while I concentrated on the invertebrates, lichens, galls etc. Here a few plus possible IDs sheet. I was intrigued by the spore cups of he nettle Rust, Puccinia urticata, 

Botanic Gardens Shallow Depth of Field

The Jade vine is in full flower at the moment and has such large hanging groups of flowers that the corridor is closed to prevent damage to the plant. I was using an Olympus legacy lens from my film days - most are taken at F1.8, all manually focused. My favourite is the Pitcher plant - here the lens was still missed up giving a real rain forest feel to the image.

Wildlife Garden Progress (6)

I redesigned my wildlife garden in January 2020 and did regular reports through the year. I intend to continue this as I attempt to expand the overall range of species. The first image shows Salad Burnet, Corncockle, Knapweed, Plaintain, Trefoil, Buttercup. One area has been dug, raked and sown with various new species. The main wildflower beds are showing healthy plants of Knapweed, Red Campion, Foxgloves. The other areas - grassland meadow, shade area, pond, bee-attracting border and bee houses are all waiting for the warmer weather to flourish.