Reading & District Natural History Society

On Saturday 27th June, Malcolm Storey led a field trip to Ashridge Woods near Beedon, by kind permission of the George Palmer Trust. The walk started from a lay-by near the A34, just to the north of Beedon and then went eastwards along a track through arable fields. Large numbers of Narrow-bordered 5-Spot Burnet moths [...]

The annual coach outing on Saturday 13th June was to Kenfig National Nature Reserve near Swansea. The reserve is covered by a large dune system which stretches down to a long sandy beach. There were sheets of dark red Early Marsh Orchids (Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp cocchinea) and purple Southern Marsh Orchids in the hollows between [...]

I hope you like the new-look website - it has been a bit of a labour of love for me and so far it has been getting some very nice compliments. The reasons for changing were numerous but primarily the old website was all manually edited by myself, and it was getting a bit long in [...]

On the 2nd June 2009 I was pottering about in the garden when I noticed an unusual bumblebee nectaring on the Geraniums. It was obviously different from all other bumbles because it had the completely ginger-haired thorax of something like the Common Carder bee (Bombus pasuorum) but instead of having a ginger or blackish abdomen [...]

During the Society’s visit to Dry Sandford Pit (a nature reserve near Abingdon belonging to the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust) on Sunday 31st May 2009, a small orange moth was found on a clump of Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil. It has been identified by Martin Harvey, the County Moth Recorder, as Rannoch Looper Itame [...]

Member John Notton first reported seeing Painted Lady butterflies passing through his Caversham garden late in the morning on Sunday 24th May. A timed count in the Berkshire Downs near Compton on Monday 25th May gave 50 Painted Ladies in five minutes and a massive 224 were seen on a 2-mile walk round the village. [...]

The only recent monitoring of the birds in our Cholsey garden and meadow had been restricted to taking part in the RSBP’s Big Garden Birdwatch. Those who have done this will be aware that this a carefully chosen hour when almost no birds put in an appearance!
So one New Year’s resolution for 2006 was to [...]

Our recording of small mammals, at Red Cow in Cholsey, is almost entirely done by noting what lies beneath about 30 metal sheets. These are inspected once a day if and when time permits.
The Field Vole, or Short-tailed Vole has for years been our most often recorded small mammal. Then in 2004 the Bank Vole, [...]

Reading and District Natural History Society are proud to announce that they have been awarded a National Lottery ‘Awards for All’ grant of £5475. The money will be used to buy a digital projector and lamp, a laptop with suitable software, a stand for the projector and laptop, display boards and an electrically-operated wall screen, [...]

Eight members met on a lovely sunny evening and explored the lanes and riverside paths along the Blackwater to its confluence with the Whitewater, then along the Broadwater, returning past Sandpit Farm and Jouldings Farm. The late spring flowers expected were seen, with honeysuckle and elderflowers prominent in the woodland areas. The riverside provided the [...]