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on less alkaline leached patches - the latter
being in full fruit and displaying its long
setae. After searching for the typical mosses
of the woodland floor and tree bases, for
example Cirriphyllum piliferum and Isothecium
myurum, - both of which were found, the party
returned to the cars for a rather late lunch
but with an enhanced appetite!
In the afternoon the recording began in earnest
with a search of Lodge Coppice. Ted Wallaces
experienced eye spotted Ptilidium pulcherrimum,
new to Vc 19, on an oak, and shortly afterwards
a large patch of Frullania tamarisci on a
dead and fallen Goat Willow - new to Essex. New
to the Forest a patch of Campylopus paradoxus
(flexuosus) was found on a reclining oak. The
bomb-crater pond margins were ritually searched
for any sign of Campylium elodes, first found
there in the '60s by the late Eric Saunders,
but it seems to have become extinct.
Although Hatfield Forest has rather a poor
bryophyte flora, most of the coppices having
become overgrown, and the main rides having
been drained, it always seems to provide
plenty of interest and something new or unusual.
KEN ADAMS
BIRD GROUP MEETING AT FRIDAY WOOD 13TH MAY 1984
Eighteen Members assembled at the car-park at
11 am. It was sunny, but very windy and the
wind was from the East. However, it did keep
fine for the whole day of the Meeting.
It was not long before we stopped to decide
whether we were listening to a Garden Warbler or
a Blackcap. The sustained song and a sighting