River Sampling - 25th April 2009

The second expedition tool place today, after the monthly litter pick-up. We sampled at the ford and the Millennium Bridge. We saw trout and caught minnows, with usual mayfly nymphs, shrimp and leeches. Near the bridge we saw bees swarming on the hedge by the cricket ground.

River Sampling - 11th April 2009

The first sampling session of the year was in 'Hood's Reach' - between the two Abington churches and Abington Hall - by kind permission of the land-owner. This section of the river is quite deep and somewhat inaccessible when the bullrushes and nettles are fully grown. However, at this time of year, it proved fairly easy to sample from the bank.

We saw shoals of minnows and managed to catch one fish. We also found a variety of mayfly and damsel fly nymphs, with the usual shrimp and hog-louse. There were a lot of caddis fly larvae and a large ramshorn snail.

On a fence post by the river side, we saw a banded snail.

Next session: 25th April (after the regular inspection and litter-pick) - meet at the ford at 10:30.

Naturewatch Evening - Friday 27th February

The Naturewatch Evening Meeting this year will be in the Institute on Friday 27th February, starting at 7.30 p.m.

Phil Jenner will lead an illustrated session on Our World of Butterflies and Moths. We shall also take the chance to exchange ideas on how we can improve and share our observation and recording of the abundance and diversity of these wonderful creatures which we shall encounter during the long and glorious summer I am arranging for this year.

Pat Daunt

Visit to Paxton Pits on Saturday 14 February 2009

We plan to meet Stuart Elsom at 10am on Saturday at Paxton Pits.
There is a useful website at http://www.paxton-pits.org.uk/

The best route from Abington seems to be M11 North to Junction 13, then on to A1303 Westbound and join A428.

Take the B1428 for St Neots; ignore right turn for Great Paxton but take B1041 for Little Paxton. We understand there are then signs in Little Paxton for Paxton Pits where there is Parking and a Visitor Centre.

Wildlife Training Workshops 2009

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough has some training workshops for naturalists - details in this leaflet

River Survey - 27th September

The river was once again very low. We sampled at the High Street ford and also at the Millennium Bridge. We were particularly successful with fish at the Millennium Bridge - we caught sticklebacks, minnows and loach and saw some larger fish. There were also the regulars: shrimp, leech and mayfly and stone fly nymphs.

River Survey - 13th September

An unexpectedly fine day. The river was very low in spite of recent rain. We found the usual shrimp, leeches and damsel fly larvae. We also caught a couple of minnows and a small loach.