A rather grey and cool day as we set off through Millennium Wood, planted about 25 years ago. Here Rod Cole, our guide, explained about secondary woodland and the under storey not having the same richness as ancient woodland. However, there was still quite a carpet of flowers in places including Lesser Celandine, Bluebells, (mostly Spanish), Cow Parsley, Red Campion and the wonderfully named Pignut. Interestingly there were several Aspen saplings growing in the wood, usually these spread by suckers but we could not see a significant mother tree, so a closer look is probably required to see if one… ... read more ...

The photos show: This months meeting was all about bees- bumblebees and solitary bees. We looked at  their evolution from predatory wasps to the diverse pollinators we know today. With 24 bumblebee species and over 250 solitary bees there are a lot of bees to find. Spring is a good time to get your eye in finding bees as now they are starting to emerge from hibernation as in queen bumbles or from dormancy as in solitary bees. We looked at bumblebee and solitary bee ecology including lifecycle, nesting and breeding and differences between males and females. Solitary bees can… ... read more ...

10 hardy souls walked from Holford car park to Alfoxton House on a rather cold and windy day. Paul Rutter had kindly agreed to impart some of his vast knowledge of trees and woodland and led the walk up to the house and the ancient oak tree. On the way he explained how trees grow in woodland settings and how differently they can grow in a more open setting and we were able to see this on the walk. As they age the trunk spreads and crown reduces a tactic to keep them upright. Upper branches fall off, lower branches… ... read more ...

Report from DTNW Meeting 20th January 2026 Venue: Thomas Poole Library talk by Nigel Phillips on Marine Wildlife of the Somerset Coast, followed by walk along By-pass Wood in Nether Stowey to identify winter trees. The weather was not inviting this morning being windy and wet but a talk and freshly ground coffee was very appealing. Seventeen of the group attended and Nigel Phillips spoke about the weird and wonderful marine life found along our local coasts both current and those from the fossil record. Nigel has spent many hours exploring and photographing for his book (The Nature of Somerset's… ... read more ...

We all successfully managed to find our way to the farm which was the starting point for the fungi walk. We were met by Pete Baker and his brother-in-law who manages the farm. The land around this part of the farm is very steep so has had very little “improvement” such as ploughing or fertilisers over many decades. This has helped maintain the wide range of flora and fungi. Pete explained the waxcaps were later than usual this year but this week was coming up to a peak so good timing for our group. At first we walked through a… ... read more ...

It was a beautiful sunny and warm morning at Blue Anchor, perfect for fossil hunting and searching for beach wildlife. We had intended to go straight to the fossil areas but were side tracked by a sandy pool alive with fish. Annabel had the foresight to bring a net and managed to carefully catch one of the fish which was identified as a Sand Goby and a shore crab. Walking over to the Jurassic cliffs we came across a Sand Eel, almost like glass and a Sand Snail (possibly Leaden Sand Snail- Conuber sordidum) which had travelled through the sand… ... read more ...

We had a mixed bag of weather on the 17th with sunshine and rain but this did not dampenour enthusiasm for pond dipping and flower ID. Sadly, it was mostly too cloudy for manydragonflies on the wing but we did enjoy them in their larval forms and had some fun tryingto identify them at that life stage. Also caddis fly larvae encased in their protective coatswere great to see and a Great diving beetle Larva which was at a very early stageofdevelopment but the jaws were already very visible. WWT Steart car park was bursting with flowers such as Scabious,… ... read more ...