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Species lists below

We met at Stape village hall for our 50th Anniversary meeting to retrace the steps of those founder members through Raindale and to try and find the rarer plants that they discovered all those years ago. We were delighted to welcome members from the C.M. Rob Society, Cleveland Field Naturalists and Whitby Field Naturalists. We were particularly pleased with the presence of Gordon Simpson, one of our founder members and the leader on that first event 50 years ago. A group of 28 of us set off in our full wet weather gear. Hats off to all of us for braving a weather forecast of prolonged heavy downpours. However, despite some rain it was to be a glorious afternoon with sunshine at times.

Our intention was to walk at a pace through Raindale to the railway line in Newtondale and then botanise in detail on the way back with members also recording other wildlife. However, it just proved too tempting for some and the pace was slow out and snail pace on return. But the rewards were rich. Gordon knew what was high on his list, Intermediate wintergreen Pyrola media. He didn’t waste any time finding it, he remembered the marker and went straight to it. There it was, about three metres off the path just under the trees, on the same small hump from 50 years ago. He admitted that the last time he visited it was in 1970. Well remembered Gordon! It was too early to be in flower and it will be revisited at a later date. [Ed: a later visit in June showed four clumps of Pyrola on the same mound, and on the opposite side of the track were four plants of pepper saxifrage with loads of ragged robin in flower nearby too. Lesser spearwort was seen in the ditch, and plenty of yellow rattle and common spotted orchids in abundance.]

What was also of interest were the three types of horsetail Equisetum, Wood E. sylvaticum, Marsh E. palustreM, and Great E. telmateia, with the latter dwarfing the other two significantly. Again, it will be a few more weeks before they are fully on show.

Some of the species on the original list were not found and we learned that they were further a field than our walk was taking us so we did not pursue them. A total of 169 plants were found which is quite impressive but there will be others later in the growing season.

We recorded a total of 33 birds on the walk with all the anticipated summer visitors present. In Newtondale we watched a House Martin Delichon urbica building a nest under the eaves of the old railway cottages and close by on Pickering Beck a Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea was seen feeding young. High overhead were 10 or more Swifts Apus apus that had recently arrived. A few lucky members were treated to the sight of a Dipper Cinclus cinclus in the lower reaches of Raindale Beck. Insects were not in abundance, perhaps due to the inclement weather, and unsurprisingly for the time of year only a small number of fungi were noted. All the species found on the day were to be placed on the Society’s records.

We were able to study the activity of a slow worm Anguis fragilis, unfortunately damaged by one of us accidentally standing on it. It shed its tail very quickly as we know it can do but what was remarkable was the consequent activity of the tail. It was about 10cm long and continued to move rapidly despite being totally independent. It even coiled itself round a finger with some amount of pressure being exercised. We monitored it and it continued to move for about 10 minutes although with diminishing effort. We concluded that its nervous system must operate like this as a defensive mechanism, deflecting the predator’s attention from the main body of the slow worm to the shedded tail.

On returning to Stape village hall we enjoyed tea and home-made cake. We had a short discussion on species found and were entertained by Gordon giving us a short talk on how things have changed here in Raindale from 50 years ago.

A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and thanks go to all those who contributed to this special meeting from outside the Society and from those within. Thanks also go to Darlington and Teesside Naturalists' Field Club and Cleveland Naturalists' Field Club for sending congratulatory cards.

Species list (plants)

* probable id
170 spp. including garden escapes and trees.
The wintergreen is assigned to P. media as Gordon has seen it here in flower. The burnet might have been very young leaves of Greater burnet.

Mosses
Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus - “Springy Turf-moss”
Rhytidiadelphus loreus - “Little Shaggy-moss”
Hylocomium splendens - “Glittering Wood-moss”

Birds

1. Herring Gull
2. Kestrel
3. Willow Warbler
4. Great Tit
5. Common Swift
6. Barn Swallow
7. Blackbird
8. Wren
9. Yellowhamer
10. Carrion Crow
11. Chaffinch
12. Chiffchaff
13. Song Thrush
14. Mistle Thrush
15. Robin
16. Goldcrest
17. Coal Tit
18. Bullfinch
19. Grey Wagtail
20. Pied Wagtail
21. Blackcap
22. House Martin
23. Woodpigeon
24. Hedge Accentor
25. Blackcap
26. House Sparrow
27. Starling
28. Whitethroat
29. Linnet
30. Greenfinch
31. Siskin
32. Dipper
33. Lapwing

We also saw a slow-worm, a frog, a newt, green-veined white and orange tip butterflies, wood ants and a wolf spider.