ID books, guides, videos and equipment 

Our two favourite ID guides are Collins Wildflower Guide 2nd edition, Streeter et al. and The Wildflower Key, Francis Rose see 5:30 into the video below.  And the Field Studies Council sell Grassland plants 1 and Grasses guide 

Another excellent grass ID guide has also recently been released A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes by Dominic Price

Hand lenses – ideally x20 (or x15; x10) good range of quality and price available from NHBS

Rapid monitoring field sheet for all meadow makers and enthusiasts  use the field sheet for rapid plant monitoring for baseline monitoring of your meadow and then once a year after changing management or introducing seed or green hay. 
For a microsoft excel version of the field sheet please Copy and paste this link into your browser http://www.herefordshiremeadows.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Field-sheet-updated-version-2-2020.xlsx 

Priority Habitat Inventory to make sure you’re eligible for GS6 option in CS then please see these “how to” slides . There are notes on how to do the survey and a priority habitats lowland meadows recording sheet .

Wildflower photo ID – Herefordshire Meadow Makers ID Sheet 2020

Wildflower seedling ID – Seedling chart 2022

Photos of cultivated wildflower seedlings (cultivated garden plant seedlings too) available at the seed site  

Problem pairs solved Hereford plant recorder and Herefordshire Meadows plant trainer  Stuart Hedley has generously shared his working herbarium sheets. These include many problem pairs of plants that seem hard to distinguish at first glance. But with a lens and an eye for the detail it’s possible to master identification using these sheets.

They are for Herefordshire Meadows’ members to use in the field and not intended for wider circulation.

• lesser trefoil and black medick
• buttercups
• vetches
• plantains
• vetches 2
• dandelion family 
• rough (greater) and lesser hawkbits
• mouse ears
• docks
• bulbous buttercup – all of them !
• stitchworts 
•  cat’s ear
• trefoils
• buttercups 3
• autumn hawkbit
• dandelion and sow thistle   
• beaked hawksbeard and autumn hawkbit
• common and greater bird’s foot trefoil   
• bulbous buttercup compared to meadow buttercup              

Key to common yellow “dandelion-flowered” composites of Herefordshire  

Rapid monitoring field sheet  use the 2020 field sheet for rapid plant monitoring for baseline monitoring of your meadow and then once a year after changing management or introducing seed or green hay.  

Some drawings to get you started with grass ID 

Herefordshire-Meadows-bumblebee-monitoring-guidance-2023 describes the simplified BeeWalk methodology we are using with ID guides, where to buy equipment for catching and identifying bees, simple ID chart to download etc.  

Slides from Herefordshire Meadows bumblebee monitoring workshop with Hayley Herridge, Conservation Officer, Buglife covers all you need to know about setting up a survey on your meadow. 

Bumblebee COnservation Trust entry level ID webinar with Richard Comont is an excellent place for beginners to start  

F2 bumblebee recording form

How to net and pot a bumblebee so you can identify it                 

Herefordshire Meadows ID virtual workshop with Hayley Herridge.  Ist part is about bumblebee life cycle and the most common bees we might find Then we all went outdoors to see what we could find in our garden or meadow. We had a quiz that highlights some really useful ID tips to look at and finished with how to walk your transect in a 2 x 2 x 4 m recording box and how to net and pot a bee.   

Bumblebee Conservation Trust have kindly shared some presentations on bumblebee lifecycle and ID and on the FULL BEEWALK surveying method. 

Stephen Falk’s Flikr page has lots of wonderful photos for you to compare with in the field or office.