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@judyweb32049878 Dunstan Park Dipterists Forum - see FLIES ASTON ROWANT is under the 'MORE' menu tab. Lye Valley BBOWT WILD OXFORD PROJECT Event held at the University of Oxford's Museum of Natural History on 26 Sept 2018 to show progress over the last five years: click here Reports prepared by Judy on the Wild Oxford Project sites can be found under the heading 'Read the Wild Oxford project reports' near the bottom of this BBOWT website page. Bacterium threat to UK plants and trees: national appeal for help to spot 'cuckoo spit', caused by nymphs of froghoppers - see information here Almost 600 plant species lost from the wild in the last 250 years BBC News 11 May 2019 Following time spent as a teacher of Biology, Judy was involved for 9 years in forensic environmental trace evidence surveys. The founder member of the New Marston Wildlife Group (now Friends of Milham Ford Nature Park), she is now an enthusiastic Oxford freelance ecologist and species recorder with a special interest in rare wetland plants (Sium latifolium is one of her ‘Flora Guardian’ species within the Oxfordshire Flora Group of the ANHSO), as well as flies and bees, although her interests also extend to other insects and fungi.
More about Judy |
Judy has been interviewed as part of a video filmed by Oxford City Council on volunteering - available here (If there's no sound, check below video that it's turned on.)
Sunday, 1 September Judy led a guided walk through the Lye Valley and its environs. A very large number of people turned up, packing the boardwalk. One of them, an Affiliate Tutor at the School of Education, Oxford Brookes University, subsequently tweeted: 'A marvellous afternoon’s guided tour of the Lye Valley! I visit this place at least twice a week, and have more understanding of it after two hours with a knowledgeable guide than my own visits have given me'. If anyone who joined this walk has a clear photo showing the large number of people that attended - and including Judy - it would be great, if you could send it to Friends of Milham Ford Nature Park (scroll down that page for the email address) for posting on this website - credit will be given to you, of course. Both of the people who usually take photos for publicity were not available on this occasion. 
Photo taken by Judy Webb at Aston Rowant, 28 June 2019 28 June 2019 Judy was up early for a trip to Aston Rowant to survey orchids - see her Tweet at 5.08 am. She returned on 1 July 2019 to take some measurements to finalise her identificaion of the species because of the 'confusing array of flower structures'. Her photos from 28 June and 1 July are here.
Photos above - 2 June 2019
Judy led a walk around Cothill fen for members of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxford (ANHSO) in celebration of the anniversary of the purchase of the Ruskin Reserve for the Society. The walk was also open to the public. Photos taken by Christopher Hoskin of ANHSO are available here. More photos of orchids in the fen taken by Judy are here. For further information, go to the Oxon Fens page. 
A Tweet by Judy on 25 May 2019
described how the previous week she had visited Cothill Fen NNR and seen an insect struggling in the water in a ditch. She fished it out and saw it was a bird-dropping-mimic weevil, Platysomus albinus. 'What great camouflage!' For Judy's photos, full-sized, click here 
5 May 2019
Geoconservation event at Rock Edge Photo by Judy Webb Owen Green, Oxfordshire Geology Trust, explaining the importance of the Rock Edge Jurassic Coral Reef exposure and the typical fossils that can be seen there. For more photos taken by Judy, click here Further information is available by clicking on the white circle with 'i' in it at top right of window when in slideshow mode. 
Pasque flower, Pulsatilla vulgaris Photo by Judy Webb 15 April 2019 Judy was out with Natural England volunteers at Knocking Hoe National Nature Reserve (NNR) in Bedfordshire doing a survey of Pasque flowers. Photos by Judy, who reported: 'The maximum number of flowers I counted on one plant was 13 - extraordinary. But many were dwarfed by drought and some had shrivelled before properly opening. Many had been eaten off by rabbits. It was cold and windy so few/no bees for pollination. I recorded the counting as it progressed but this only covered two sample areas, not the whole. In these areas there were hundreds, maybe more than a 1000 - a secure population at least. Other rare species found on this amazing site are field fleawort, spotted cat's ear and several orchids, but none of these were in flower yet'. 
Judy's photo of a yellow flat-footed fly, Agathomyia wankowiczii, was used for Buglife's 'Bug of the Month' feature for February 2019. This fly is the only invertebrate in Britain known to cause a gall on fungus and has only been discovered here recently. |
- About Judy Webb
- Oxon Fens
- Oxford's Floodplain Meadows
- Flies
- Pollinators
- Rare species monitored
- Aston Rowant
- Cothill Pitt
- Talks. Involvement with other wildlife sites.
- Submissions to Oxford City Council re Consultations and Planning Applications
- Northern Gateway Area Action Plan (Oxford)
- Dunstan Park
