"f8 and be there"

It seems this wasn't a saying of Ansel Adams' at all, as I thought, but rather one of those quotes everybody (in this case every photographer) knows but no one can agree who first said it.

It applied to the few photographs I took on a misty day last week exploring around and up on Gilwern Hill in preparation for a proper botanical meeting next summer.

So the fact that all but the last photo were taken at a manual setting (as I last left the camera) was offset by the fact it happened to be f8.

Nikon software was able to extract an optimised image luckily and they are below. So for non-photographers I will shut up technically - after remarking that is was always the "be there" bit of the quote that mattered.

Where we were was Gilwern Hill - which none of us really knew and thought we ought to get to know before a planned BSBI meeting next year. "We" were myself and two of my recording group and the two Monmouthshire recorders - the meeting is to be a joint one and the border between our Vice-counties goes straight across the top of the hill.

So here are some pictures of the wonderful fungi we saw:

A Hygrocybe - bit which one?

Yellow Brain Fungus or Tremella mesenterica

Parrot Waxcap or Hygrocybe psittacina

The botany can wait for next June - but we did see a lot of this:

Black Spleenwort or Duegredynen goesddu, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum

Which I think bodes well for next year's outing.

Addendum
It seems no one can even agree on what type of photography the quotation refers to - I always thought landscape photography - where definition is paramount and f8 has always been and is likely to remain the optimum setting for most lenses on that criterion. So, assuming a tripod, the only other requirement is to "be there" when the light is just right and give the right exposure at f8. But others say it's about news photographers in the flashbulb era - and of course "being there" is vital for news reporting as well.

Trewalkin

Three of us set out from Talgarth last week to try out a walk for the Walking Festival next May.

The aim is a circular walk along the railway line (as was) to Trefecca, up the hill to the reserve and back via the paths direct to Talgarth. We used the lanes to get to Trefecca as permission to go on the railway line isn't yet sorted.

On the way we found a damp meadow with many little "potato-like" plants that turned out to be Black Nightshade that was recovering from being mown. (There were several other interesting species there as well.)

Black Nightshade or Codwarth du, Solanum nigrum

Then we passed a wayside Aster making quite a show:

Narrow-leaved Michaelmas-daisy or Blodyn-Mihangel culddail, Aster lanceolatus (probably...)

And so we made our way up the field paths, past a Long Cairn (Penyrwrlodd Long Cairn thought to be about 4000BC). and onto a hollow lane that led us to the reserve.

Trewalkin meadow - not at its most photogenic time but should be a good show in May for the Walking Festival

We were able to make quite a few records in the woodland though and found the Wood spurge I had previously missed there:

Wood Spurge or Llaethlys y coed, Euphorbia amygdaloides

There was also a big patch of Cow-wheat and many many Sanicle leaves around the woodland.

Sue even found the remains of the Wood spurge inflorescence...

The route back took us onto the old A479 down to Talgarth past Talgarth Camp / Hillfort - there should be some great views in May.

Ireland - Update

Here is the updated blog from Ireland with better pictures:

Botany was not really my priority for a while as we enjoyed excellent weather in Bantry Bay.

A quick stop on the way over at the old Chetwynd viaduct near Cork that last carried a train in 1950s. There's a cafe...

Bere Island - once a defence station for the UK and still inhabited

A shopping trolley joins three cars (one mine) on the ferry

Goats and...

a British gun still in place

Rocks covered in lichen and Sea-spurrey / Thrift

Hungry Hill from Bere Island briefly free of cloud at the top. I mean to climb this one day - when conditions are completely clear as the risk of cloud when you get to the top is very high.

Gateposts that have lost their way

Golden Rod - still a delight in the lanes

I saw lots of botany but little in get-the-camera-out state as it is so dry. It took me a while to recognise dessicated Purple Loose-strife - everywhere in ground that must normally be wet but isn't now.

At the heritage centre I saw and purchased a new book - "The Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other islands in Bantry Bay" which will be a great stimulus for further exploration here. Pleased to see that I had spotted many of the featured species for Bere - even if dessicated and past flowering.

Plantago coronopus - Buck's Horn Plantain rosette

Golden Rod and Devil's Bit Scabious in the lanes

There were five cars / vans going back - just possible and hemming me in my drivers seat as "the one in middle". You reverse onto this ferry - which is just something you pick up from observation !

Later we got to Whiddy Island just near Bantry where I chased up a site from the book - Asplenium onopteris - Irish Spleenwort which is rare in Ireland and "one of 16" species that occur in Ireland and not Great Britain. There is some doubt about the true identity of this population and my photographs don't provide definitive evidence. There were some plants of Black Spleenwort (which we do have) nearby.

Ireland

Botany is not really my priority for a while as we enjoy excellent weather in Bantry Bay. Also I don't have my photo-processing software here so these are out of the camera preview pictures which I will update when I have them topped and tailed at home.

A quick stop on the way over at the old Chetwynd viaduct near Cork that last carried a train in 1950s. There's a cafe...

Bere Island - once a defence station for the UK and still inhabited

A shopping trolley joins three cars (one mine) on the ferry

A British gun still in place

Rocks covered in lichen and Sea-spurrey / Thrift

Gateposts that have lost their way

Golden Rod - still a delight in the lanes

I saw lots of botany but little in get-the-camera-out state as it is so dry. It took me a while to recognise dessicated Purple Loose-strife - everywhere in ground that must normally be wet but isn't now.

At the heritage centre I saw and purchased a new book - "The Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other islands in Bantry Bay" which will be a great stimulus for further exploration here. Pleased to see that I had spotted many of the featured species for Bere - even if dessicated and past flowering.

Plantago coronopus - Buck's Horn Plantain rosette 

Golden Rod and DBS in the lanes

There were five cars / vans going back - just possible and hemming me in my drivers seat as "the one in middle". You reverse onto this ferry - which is just something you pick up from observation !

Then yesterday we got to Whiddy Island just near Bantry where I chased up a site from the book - Asplenium onopteris - Irish Spleenwort which is rare in Ireland and "one of 16" species that occur in Ireland and not Great Britain. There is some doubt about the true identity of this population I gather and I haven't got a fern book with me but this looks like the thing. There were some plants that seemed like Black Spleenwort (which we do have) nearby.

Here and there

Several outings last week with still plenty to see and record.

First I took a visitor to Cae Pwll y Bo and Vicarage Meadows BWT Reserves. Cae Pwll y Bo had been cut but evidence of the Globeflower population wasn't hard to find among the cut herbage. And around the edge several other species were in evidence including this Hemp-nettle:

Common Hemp-nettle or Y benboeth hollt, Galeopsis tetrahit

More usually the flower background colour is white in my experience so this was a showier example but still the common species as labelled above. The less common "Bifid Hemp-nettle" has the darker markings in the centre extending to the edge of the lip.

The in Vicarage Meadows there was plenty to see, but not all of the species flowering. However this was:

Saw-wort or Dant y pysgodyn, Serratula tinctoria

Then a tour around several sites that required various checks - at the Digedi Valley Road Verge Nature Reserve we saw abundant Hairy St John's-wort along a good stretch of the road (outside the reserve are as well as in) together with a good show of Wild Basil.

Wild Basil or Brenhinllys gwyllt, Clinopodium vulgare

Hairy St John's-wort or Eurinllys blewog, Hypericum hirsutum

(Not photographed last week - they had finished flowering.)

Nearby at another RVNR the "Autumn Crocus" was putting on a very good show. The verge mowing apparently being exactly to specifications for this plant. It's not a crocus so the "correct" common name is given below. It is also known as "Naked Ladies".

Meadow Saffron or Saffrwm y ddôl, Colchicum autumnale

Then on the morning of the BWT 50th anniversary celebrations a group of BWT members met up for a guided walk at Allty Rhongyr where the timing would normally be spot on for seeing flowering Autumn Gentian but this was well-over at both sites where it is now known at the reserve.

We did make a new species record for the reserve though:

Entire-leaved Cotoneaster Cotoneaster cyfanddail Cotoneaster integrifolius

Not a happy find as this can become a real nuisance in limestone scree habitats such as this so this will have to be dug up! 

One of the participants particularly wanted to see the Rock-rose that grows at Allt Rhongyr. We soon found plentiful plants to show but it took a long a little longer to find the one solitary flower still showing !

Common Rock-rose or Cor-rosyn cyffredin, Helianthemum nummularium

Expected and Unexpected finds

The week started with the unexpected: on a walk to stretch our legs around the block in Hay last Sunday I spotted this right next to the pavement as we passed the Medical Packaging factory near the Meadows.

Autumn Lady's-tresses, Troellig yr hydref or Spiranthes spiralis

This is rarely seen in the county but I suspect may be under-recorded. Now is the time to watch out for it in short turf. But obviously the mower and sheep are its mortal enemies - there could well be places (like this in Hay) where it grows but rarely gets to present a spike for long. The insignificant rosette of basal leaves has withered by the time the flowering spike emerges.

So for my eagle-eyed helpers here is a better picture of one from Uphill near Weston-super-Mare to show what to look out for:

Then after the volunteers picnic at Allt Rhongyr (BWT reserve) we did a walk around the reserve and spotted the significant number of white-variant Devil's Bit Scabious in amongst the swards of the normal blue variety:

Devil's-bit Scabious, Tamaid y cythraul or Succisa pratensis at Allt Rhongyr

Nearly back at the cars we were very pleased to find a second site for the reserve's signature plant:

Autumn Gentian, Crwynllys yr hydref or Gentianella amarella at Allt Rhongyr

But when two of us went to Brechfa Pool to answer the question put to me by a visitor a week earlier: "what is that growing out in the deeper water", I was humbled to find that it was actually just Soft Rush with some Marsh Bedstraw amongst it. Good to establish the answer but not the "interesting sedge" my less-than youthful eyesight had me hoping for. 

Soft-rush or Juncus effusus in wetter than normal conditions

We then did a four mile circular walk through the lanes and byways around Brechfa and the common above the pool, generating a good and varied list of records including this Broad-leaved Helleborine by a roadside:

Broad-leaved Helleborine, Y galdrist lydanddail or Epipactis helleborine

And I finally got the shot I wanted of Bittersweet:

Bittersweet, Elinog or Solanum dulcamara

Finally on Friday I joined a BSBI group very much with an expectation in mind for what we should find as we were looking for the Bog Orchid near Pont ar Elan. Populations fluctuate from year to year (and are never very high).

So it was a relief after many flushes had been examined in detail high and low by a large number of BSBI botanists to finally hear the call from Gillian Foulkes that one was found. It turned out that this - with an associated non-flowering plant and one smaller spike were all we were going to see of this in the whole day.

Bog Orchid, Tegeirian bach y gors or Hammarbya paludosa

One of the tiny flowers close-up. They are upside-down compared to most orchids.

The basal leaves  with small bulbils fringing the edge.

This species does grow in Brecon (and Paul Green confirmed one site last year) but I have yet to see it in my county. It will be tricky to spot if plants are the size of the smaller (more typical ?) one we found at Elan: