Arundel Wildfowl and Wetland Trust

Meeting date: 13 August 2014

(Leader: Frances Abraham)

Members just kept on arriving in the car park, and such was the camaraderie that the hybrid bindweed Calystegia x lucana was almost missed.  Frances worked with the WWT’s Paul and Sam to produce a most absorbing day for more than twenty members in the Arun Valley, among exotic ducks and geese and with exciting glimpses of water voles.  There were good marginals in abundance, such as Samolus valerandi (Brookweed) and Veronica anagallis-aquatica (Blue Water-speedwell) but it was as well to be aware of the deliberate introductions of some other species, for example Achillea ptarmica (Sneezewort) and Sanguisorba officinalis (Great Burnet); the bona fides of two other notables was accepted, however – Impatiens capensis (Orange Balsam) and Thalictrum flavum (Common Meadow-rue). Although submerged aquatics were less plentiful, having been dined upon by ducks, a grapnel did yield Myriophyllum spicatum (Spiked Water-milfoil) and Potamogeton berchtoldii (Small Pondweed).  So the sun shone and the party disported itself in luxuriant riparian vegetation.  Frances had planned an afternoon wander in Arundel Park but there was simply too much to see where we were. At the end all were noisy in their appreciation of a superb day in the field which had also yielded much valuable data for the WWT.