Sand Spurrey

Off to Bainton Heath with Pete this morning, so that he could service his pitfall and water traps. It was cool and overcast, with the ever present threat of rain, which was forecast to arrive by about midday. But as we went round the site some blue sky appeared and it started feeling warmer - we left at about two and the rain finally arrived at four, though it was then pretty torrential.

Bainton Heath is a very interesting brownfield site which supports areas of lichen-rich acid grassland with many tiny annual species. On my last visit I discovered a population of Sand Spurrey, only the second known in the local area - today it was flowering and was clearly more widespread than I'd thought. It was associated with two other new species for the site, Early Hair-grass and Annual Hair-grass.

But the main excitement of the day was hearing a Nightingale in full song. This species used to be present in good numbers but had declined, with no birds present in 2020 and 2021. Planned management work should improve the structure of the scrub on site, so hopefully numbers will increase again, as this iconic species is doing rather well elsewhere in the local area.