Recording in the county by Ray Woods and myself has been rather opportunistic. Unfortunately there is only one car in our household and my wife has to use it for work most days and works every other Saturday, so unfortunately I can't really attack the county in a systematic way. I don't expect i'll be able to go off on bryological excursions more than a couple of times each year, so rely largely on spotting stuff during site visits through work (unfortunately I spend most of my time at the desk these days). So, if you are out bryologising near to Breconshire then please do step into the county - despite having a good list it is very under-recorded and even Craig Cerrig-gleisiad, which is arguably the most bryologised locality in south Wales, keeps producing new species. Still, even if I don't get out, I have rather a large quantity of unopened packets, collected over past few years and i'll be slowly be working through them this winter and hopefully turn up something good.
Good luck
Graham
Thanks for posting that Graham. I can sympathise with the car situation! My wife will be away with work with our car all this weekend, leaving me with the kids, so no bryos for me :-(
ReplyDeleteI've never bothered doing any bryo recording in VC42 while doing Silurian, Welsh Clearwing surveys etc, as I assumed the Black Mtns would have been well covered, but perhaps I should try and make a few records while I'm in the area next year...
I'd be happy to record in Brecon squares every now and then Graham, particularly squares in the Vale of Neath or upper Tawe. Like George I have assumed that Brecon has been well covered. If there is any way you can generate species lists for tetrad squares, so that we know what has been recorded already, that would be very useful.
ReplyDeleteThe Black Mountains are really poorly recorded, George. Graham and I have done quite a lot in the central and western Beacons over the last 15 years, but there are entire tetrads in the Blacks with next to no records at all. The VC42 bit of Tarren yr Esgob has been visited a few times, including by the BBS (Bosanquet's Rule applies) but I have only done the VC35 bit (Tetrodontium, Frullania fragilifolia, Bartramia halleriana and various other things at their only VC35 locality) plus the vast tufa block with Seligeria patula and Scapania calcicola above Cors Tarren yr Esgob. Any lists at all from VC42 will help!
ReplyDeleteThe really important thing is to know that someone will use our records if we record in the VC! The same goes for Monmouthshire, which I'll post about some time...
Wow, that's rather exciting about the Black Mtns. I've found a few personal 'firsts' there, like Seligeria recurvata, but have never recorded precise locations :-(
ReplyDelete