Biologically recording the canal

It’s been five months now since my biological recording training with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, and today was the first time I’ve managed to get out with the group to record. Pete invited us to a tree walk along the canal by the ocean, where we’d learn some tree ID techniques and record some of what we saw into iRecord. It didn’t look promising at all this morning weather-wise, but by the time we met at 10am, the sky had cleared blue and it was a glorious warm autumn day. We started out with a quick refresher of native broad leaf deciduous trees, and Pete issued a field guide with a simple identification pathway. St Cyr’s church We then ambled pretty slowly towards Bond’s Mill, stopping by different species to spot characteristics and take photographs. There was a hedgerow half way along which I helped to plant with Stroud Valleys Project a few years ago which is now standing pretty tall and robust. It’s mostly hawthorn, but there is also a good variety of spindle, hazel and…