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Cothill Fen (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
includes Cothill National Nature Reserve
Before 2021 2021 and 2022 2023
Cothill Fen (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
includes Cothill National Nature Reserve
Before 2021 2021 and 2022 2023
9 December 2022 Tweet by Judy Webb Just a frosty Cothill Fen NNR looking good in winter sun. Mind you, the ice on the peat-cut centre pool was an inch thick in old money! I like to think of all those little invertebrates safely tucked up deep in those sedge tussocks. Structure is so important for over-wintering. More of Judy's photos here |
For those viewing site on mobile phones: scroll past photos to get to links to earlier 2021 - 2022 Tweets
6 November 2022
Steph Wilson, Natural England Reserve Manager, Thames Valley Team - Area 10, tweeted: 'A busy weekend at Cothill NNR. Natural England Thames Solent and Abingdon Green Gym volunteers carried out boardwalk repairs and lots of scything'. See Steph's photos here 12 November 2022 Tweet by Judy Webb:
Always nice to come across a glow-worm larva when out mossing - here on a bit of dead Sphagnum palustre in Cothillfen NNR (plenty of live S. palustre nearby) Judy's Tweet 15 Sept 2022
For the first time in my life I have actually found some truffles! Bursting up through soil on the wooded edge of Cothill Fen NNR under oak was this group of yellow-brown balls. Flowery smell. Cut in 1/2 looks like a slime truffle Melanogaster sp. A check of spores later. Two poor microscopic photos, but this looks like Melanogaster broomeanus, the Bath Truffle, to me, but not measured spores yet. Certainly a new record for the SSSI and not many NBN records nationally... NOTE: inedible 29 September 2021
Judy retweeted photos taken by Helen Smith of this tiny (3-4mm), Nationally Rare, jumping spider found in Lopham Fen, Suffolk, with the comment: 'I found this one recently in Cothill Fen NNR but failed to get such great images' Helen's tweet and photos are here 18 Sept 2021 Members of Abingdon Green Gym at work in Cothill fen. Photos by Judy Webb
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BBOWT Cothill Wild Walk
Cothill Pit / Hitchcopse South sandpit Meet the Soldierflies of Cothill Fens by Judy Webb, 2015 More Tweets 6 September 2022 Tweet Heaps of good scything and raking achieved recently and some exciting wildlife. Dry conditions meant a normally very wet area could be accessed and some very tall reed felled, short fen being priority for management there. Read thread for species and scyther action. Lovely metallic mint beetles Chrysolina herbacea were on water mint and a pale tussock moth caterpillar on sedge. Grey clubrush Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani has arrived ! And some of our devil's bit scabious has white anthers (smut fungus Microbotrym succisae - to check). 11 August 2022 Steph Wilson, Natural England Reserve Manager, Thames Valley Team - Area 10, tweeted: 'Our volunteers doing a great job at Cothill fen NNR - lots of scything and some great wildlife spots. See Steph's photos here 12 August 2022 Back in from baking, drying Cothill Fen, SSSI,SAC,NNR Oxon. Even with some log-dams in drains holding water back well, needs un-draining in other areas that are still bleeding life-giving water from the site. Plus 33 deg. heat = massive evapotranspiration loss - pools to wet mud Tweet and photos here Found this nearly full grown Stratiomys soldierfly larva legging it (with no legs) fast across the drying mud. Presume trying to find a cooler place to escape heat. Found dead Odontomyia larva as well. Video here 20 July 2022 'Hunting big soldierflies in Cothill Fen last weekend. Got there early but so hard to find even one of each (all female): Flecked General Stratiomys singularior, Banded General S. potamida and rare Clubbed General S. chamaeleon. Fen drying down badly, hate to think how it looks now'* For Judy's tweet, with query from Adam Bows re state of fen, and photos including the flies, click here. 22 June 2021 Judy tweeted: 'Very pleased to help experts from the Natural History Museum collect flies in Cothill fen NNR, Oxon, for the Darwin Tree of Life project. Especially good to see one of my Fly Guardian species – orange-horned green colonel, Odontomyia angulata, specimen going for DNA analysis! To see photos from Judy's tweet, click here 6 June 2022 Judy tweeted: 'What excitement. I have found a hybrid sedge! This looks to me like Remote Sedge x Greater Tussock sedge, i.e. Carex x boenninghausiana. Both parents near, in Cothill Fen NNR (Ruskin Reserve), where botanist G C Druce*collected a specimen of this hybrid in 1890! An all-3-together 1st!' For photos see tweet * Scroll down to obituary at end of that website page about G C Druce (from Stephanie Jenkins's Headington website) for information on Druce's botanical work. For his involvement with Cothill Fen, go to page 9 of Judy Webb's History of Cothill Fen NNR, prepared for the Freshwater Habitats Trust. 5 June 2022 Judy tweeted photos of 65cm tall hybrid marsh orchids in Cothill Fen, which she guessed were early marsh x 'our special calcaneous fen variety of southern marsh orchid'. Her request for other suggestions brought three responses - see tweet She also found a newly-emerged Ornate Brigadeer Solderfly, Odontomyia ornata, a coastal insect that's now being found more commonly in wetlands inland. Possibly, because of climate change, they no longer depend on milder seaside winters - see tweet. Purple-flowered marsh orchid at Cothill Fen NNR Judy noted: 'They look to me like the slender southern marsh orchids there, Dactylorhiza praetermissa var schoenophila, or hybrids between those and common spotted orchids, which are also on site and just coming into flower now'. All Judy's photos taken at Cothill on 4 and 11 June 2021 are here 8 February 2022 Stephanie (Steph) Wilson, who is Natural England Reserve Manager, Thames Valley Team - Area 10, tweeted photos of BBOWT (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust) and Natural England volunteers working together, at Cothill Fen, scything and raking reed: 'Excellent session at Cothill #SSSI - great to be involved in joint working between @BBOWT and @NEThamesSolent for the benefit of this important habitat - lots of scything and raking!' To see Steph's tweet and photos, click here 5 November 2021 Judy was with other Natural England volunteers carrying out scything and raking at Cothill Fen NNR. She tweeted 'Beautiful when the sun came out at the end of a hard but very enjoyable day'. Her photos are here. 2 September 2021 Cothill fen - the pale purple-blue flowers are devil's bit scabious, Succisa pratensis To see this, and other photos taken that day by Judy, full size, click here 8 August 2021 Tweet by Judy: 'Found this fully grown Stratiomys soldierfly larva in Cothill Fen NNR yesterday. Fascinating locomotion - I call it 'hotching'. Completely harmless detritivore; will it hatch to a stunning wasp mimic fly this year, or will it wait until next year? Sound [in Judy's video] is scythe-sharpening' |
26 March 2021
Photo by Ryan Mitchell, entomologist and Collections Assistant at OUMNH, who is also the organiser of the Dipterists Forum's Rhinophoridae Recording Scheme. He will be surveying flies at Cothill Fen NNR this year and was taken on an introductory walk of the site by Judy. With them during the visit were Holly Bilcock and Steph Wilson, Natural England Reserve Managers, seen in the photo with Judy, who is pointing to the sap run referred to by Ryan in his Tweet, which also includes a lovely photo of the fen: “A great morning despite the heavy rain at Cothill Fen. Had a excellent guided tour with Judy Webb learning about the history and management of the site. A few highlights were a sap run and Lasius fuliginosus colony. I'm looking forward to surveying the site for Diptera this year”
Photo by Ryan Mitchell, entomologist and Collections Assistant at OUMNH, who is also the organiser of the Dipterists Forum's Rhinophoridae Recording Scheme. He will be surveying flies at Cothill Fen NNR this year and was taken on an introductory walk of the site by Judy. With them during the visit were Holly Bilcock and Steph Wilson, Natural England Reserve Managers, seen in the photo with Judy, who is pointing to the sap run referred to by Ryan in his Tweet, which also includes a lovely photo of the fen: “A great morning despite the heavy rain at Cothill Fen. Had a excellent guided tour with Judy Webb learning about the history and management of the site. A few highlights were a sap run and Lasius fuliginosus colony. I'm looking forward to surveying the site for Diptera this year”
For some of the events prior to 2021, click here