BRECOG Field Weekend 2013 - Rhyd-y-cruau field centre, North Wales 26-28 April

Local Secretary - Martin Godfrey [martinandrosie@aol.com]

The annual BRECOG field weekend. led by Jeff Bates, will be held at the Rhyd-y-cruau Field Centre in Snowdonia. There is a good selection of habitat types suitable for all surveying abilities. Costs for the weekend are £110 for a shared room, £130 for a single; this will include meals from dinner on Friday 26th to lunch on 28 April. If you would like to take part please book with the local secretary.

Basse Normandie (Lower Normandy), France, 16-23 March 2013

Local organiser:  Jeff Bates (tel. 01344 884500; email j.bates@imperial.ac.uk)

The meeting will be centred on Clécy in the ‘Suisse Normande’ (Little Switzerland) area, a small town in the valley of the River Orne in Calvados. However, at least one excursion will be made into each of the other two departments of Lower Normandy, Manche and Orne. 

Much of the area lies on late Precambrian and Devonian schists of the Armorican massif, but there is also granite country and, further north and east, the Jurassic limestone, all of which it is hoped we will visit.  It is an area of attractive countryside with tall hedgebanks (the famous bocage), large forest, deep ravines and some peatlands, plus a varied coastline with large dunes, rocky seacliffs and land-slips. Rainfall is relatively high especially in the west and on the hills, the Collines de Normandie, which exceed 300 m at several points, but it is tempered by summer heat in the mildly continental climate.

Despite extensive studies in the nineteenth century by the pioneer French bryologists, and in the 1970s by the late Prof. Alain Lecointe, the flora is still imperfectly known and there is the chance of making significant new finds. For comparisons with the British flora one needs to think in terms of the closely adjacent Channel Islands and southern counties of England such as Sussex, Dorset and Devon. Thermophilous taxa such as Grimmia lisae, Pterogonium gracile, Pleurochaete squarrosa and Porella pinnata are perhaps more frequently encountered than anywhere in Britain, and rarities to refind include Southbya nigrella and Bartramia stricta. Strongly hygrophilous species like Bazzania trilobata, Blepharostoma trichophyllum, Dicranum scottianum and Plagiochila bifaria tend to be more localised than they are in Brittany (see write-up of 1993 Spring Meeting), occurring in the highest rainfall areas of Manche but also in deep wooded ravines further east.

Accommodation:  the intention is to follow recent practice at BBS meetings and book two or three medium-sized holiday cottages in and around Clécy. Rooms will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis and sharing of rooms will be avoided where possible. It is hoped that the cost for one week will be around €100, with meals on top of that.  Late applicants may have to book their own accommodation. Booking a gîte (self-catering cottage) is very simple to do via the internet through a multitude of websites.  In March it should be possible to find a small self-catering gîte for 2-4 people for one week for around €300 (2011 prices).  Camping is also available. Hotel accommodation is quite limited in this area and the costs rather high, dependent on the level of luxury sought. Please email the organiser to book a place in one of the houses.

Summer Meeting 2013: Raasay and Kinlochewe

The aim of this week is to survey some outlying tetrads on the Letterewe estate in the NW Highlands (to assist with the production of a local flora) and to visit quiet corners of local NNRs in order to boost records. Dormitory accommodation with self-catering facilities and laboratory space has kindly been offered by SNH at Anancaun Field Centre, Kinlochewe in return for contributing records. There are hotel, bunkhouse, caravan and B&B options available in Kinlochewe for those wishing to arrange their own accommodation.  The nature of this meeting will be of the informal recording style and hopefully fun too. There will be plenty of midges and fantastic scenery. Please email expressions of interest to o.moore10@imperial.ac.uk  stating if you wish to stay at the field station.  

Week 2 Raasay, Hebrides, 29 June – 6 July

Local secretary: Nick Hodgetts (e nick1901@hotmail.co.uk)

Raasay is a medium-sized island off the east coast of Skye, between Skye and Applecross. It is rich in bryophytes but surprisingly little is known about it in detail. If enough people turn up, we will be recording the island systematically on a tetrad basis. There will also be a boat trip to the neighbouring island of Rona. Headquarters and main accommodation will be at Raasay House, although there is also a campsite and bed and breakfast options. I will be making a block booking at Raasay House so please let me know if you are interested in attending. Liz Kungu has booked self catering accommodation for the week at the Old Manse. It can take up to 10 people.

2013 IAB Congress : Natural History Museum, London from 15-26 July 2013

Although not a BBS meeting, BBS members would be welcome to attend. Further details can be found here. There will be a post-conference field trip to North Wales from 20-26 July.

Autumn 2013 Paper Reading Meeting and AGM, Natural History Museum, London

Natural History Museum, London, 7-8th September 2013
The meeting will comprise of a paper reading session followed by the AGM on the Saturday and a Sunday field excursion within easy reach of central London. Further detail to follow.

Bryum Identification Workshop

Preston Montford Field Studies Centre 22–24 Nov 2013

Now fully booked with a waiting list

Organiser – Martin Godfrey (e martinandrosie@aol.com); Trainer – David Holyoak
Bryum identification workshop suitable for those with some experience of bryophyte microscope techniques (not suitable for complete beginners). Places will be limited to 16.

The cost will be £147 for a shared room, £167 for a single or £40 for ‘day students’. This includes B&B, dinner on Friday and Saturday night and lunch on Saturday and Sunday.  Please e-mail Martin Godfrey (martinandrosie@aol.com) to book a place on this course.

Spring 2014 Meeting

Rolvenden, 17-22 April 2014
Local Secretary - Tom Ottley (tel. 01825 890544; email tom.ottley@virgin.net)

This meeting will straddle the border between East Sussex and East Kent, an area which appears to be rather under-recorded, notwithstanding the long history of distinguished botanists who have graced vice counties 14 and 15.

Although East Sussex, in particular, has a good bryophyte flora on sandstone, this has been well-documented and we won’t officially be going to any of the classic sites there.  But there will, however, be an opportunity to go to Fairlight Glen since we will be so close to it and where there are still fine colonies of Dumortiera hirsuta and Tortula freibergii to be seen.  A thorn-proof group will be recruited to refind Calyptrochaeta apiculata in nearby Covehurst Wood.

Most of the effort will be directed at finding more common species than these.  We will go to Rye Harbour to look at stabilised shingle and lake margins as well as making a visit to Camber Castle.  We’ll study woodland, churchyards, chalk downland, coastal habitats and even pavements.

One moss that has plenty of old records in this area is Atrichum angustifolium; it would be really good if we could refind it and we’ll be going to some of its old haunts to try.
The event centre will be in Rolvenden, but the details are still being finalised.  A list of accommodation will be made available on the website and there should be a good choice, although these dates do encompass the Easter Weekend so early booking is going to be advisable.

Summer 2014 Meeting – Week 1

Mavrovo National Park, Macedonia, 5-12 July 2014
Local Secretaries – Beáta Papp (Hungarian Natural History Museum), Marko Sabovljevic University of Belgrade (University of Belgrade) and Joanne Denyer (joanne@denyerecology.com)
This is a trip to the mountainous Mavrovo National Park in Macedonia (http://npmavrovo.org.mk), a country that is very under-recorded for bryophytes. Please contact Joanne if you wish to express if you wish to express an interest in this trip.  

Additional Spring Meeting 2015

Freiburg, SW Germany, April 2015
Local Secretary – Michael Lueth (mail@milueth.de)
Michael Lueth has offered to arrange a field trip to the Freiburg region for the BBS.  This area has a rich bryoflora with mediterranean and subalpine grassland and forest.  Please contact Michael if you wish to express an interest in this trip.  Click here for details.