INDOOR MEETINGS 

Meetings are held at Haslemere Educational Museum, High Street, Haslemere and with the exception of the AGM, are open to both Museum and Natural History Society members without charge. 
Click here for directions to Haslemere Museum.

Guests are always welcome, and the Society would be grateful for a donation of £3.00 from non-members.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS  

FEBRUARY 2012         Saturday 11^th             2.15 p.m.
PLANT HUNTING FOR KEW IN ZIMBABWE
Speaker:  Susan Holmes
Susan is a botanist specialising in the Aloes and Euphorbias of Tropical Africa. In 1988 and 1994 she explored Zimbabwe, finding many of her plants in full flower. Her travels took her north of Harare to the Zambezi Valley and the chrome-rich hills of the Great Dyke, then east to the lovely Chimanimani Mountains, and south to the drier bushland of the Sabi Valley. Click for poster

Also in FEBRUARY - from 11th to 25th
SOCIETY EXHIBITION at the MUSEUM
Highlights and anecdotes from the Society’s 124 year history including treasures from both Museum and Society collections.  Photographs and cuttings will feature people and activities of both the past and present – and there may be a peep into the future. Click for poster

MARCH 2012
Saturday 10^th              2.15 p.m.
NATURAL QUARRY
Speaker:  David Boag
David first visited this hard-rock quarry in Somerset in the depths of winter and admits that initially it seemed a most unlikely place to find much wildlife.  However, as the year unfolded he was delighted with the wealth of colourful and interesting subjects that surrounded him.  The most spectacular birds included nesting peregrines, ravens, little ringed plovers and wheatears.  In the second half of his talk David will take us the length of the country, looking at animal life he found in over 80 hard-rock, sand and gravel quarries.

APRIL 2012                Saturday 21st              2.15 p.m.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND TALK
After the AGM, Jim Jones (of Surrey Wildlife Trust and formerly of The People’s Trust for Endangered Species) will describe his work with dormice and harvest mice and the conservation of their local habitats.

 PAST EVENTS

JANUARY 2012         Saturday 14^th              
THE HISTORY OF SHULBREDE PRIORY
Speaker:  Laura Ponsonby
The talk was given to a “full house” and with Laura’s first-hand knowledge (her family has lived there since 1902) and her amusing anecdotes it was much appreciated.
The Priory, founded in about 1190, had many buildings with a large church.  At the Dissolution, when it was thought that it had outlived its usefulness, much of it was  dismantled and the stone taken to build parts of Lynchmere village and even roads. Laura’s slides showed there are recognisable structures: an intriguing narrow stone staircase, old archways and The Prior’s Chamber.  The building, having become a Manor House where Customary Courts were held, later became a farmhouse and in 1905 was bought by Lord Arthur and Lady Dorothea Ponsonby.  The latter was the daughter of the composer Sir Hubert Parry who often visited.
Laura concluded by describing some of the garden plants and their former and present uses - some medicinal, for example yew.  Clippings from the yew hedges are taken regularly to be processed to combat childhood leukaemia.

NOVEMBER 2011      Saturday 12^th               .
TASMANIAN TREASURES
Speaker:  David Lang
It was a pleasure to welcome David for another talk to members and guests.    His subject embraced the fauna and flora which he saw on his visit to the north of the island.  David’s trip began in the Henry Somerset Orchid Reserve.   Tasmania is home to over 250 species of orchid and throughout his talk we were able to enjoy photographs of a large number of them.  In colour they ranged from deep brown-red, to pink, to green, to white, to yellow, to blue.  Those David described came from genera unfamiliar to an English audience and in many cases their form is very different: bearded orchids, wax lips, spider or finger orchids, hooded, sun and onion orchids. At Mount Roland, huge tree ferns grew in the gulleys, one known to be 200 years old.  At Mount Claude David and his companion trekked through dense bush, up to the sub-alpine heath.  After visiting the Freycinet Peninsula, David crossed to the reserves of Three Hummock Island, where he took part in census work on sea eagles’ nests and orchids, and Hunter Island.  Photographs of a wide variety of birds, wombats, a wallaby, spiny anteater, possum, kangaroo, lizards and snakes and yet more orchids showed the diversity of the Tasmanian fauna and flora.

APRIL 2011              Saturday 16^th             
AGM
Twenty-six members attended the AGM on 16 April.  The Committee and Officers remain
 unchanged. Membership subscription remains the same. Members were encouraged to suggest new venues for field
 meetings, to send in their sightings to the website and to supply
 interesting news for our Newsletters.  The Committee believes that the
 very generous bequest from Mrs Clare Britton should be used for capital
 projects and members were asked to think about possibilities and put
 forward suggestions. 
After the Meeting members enjoyed looking at a splendid exhibition compiled by Judith Kusel. This showed
with photographs, newspaper articles and exhibits provided by the Museum, the history of the Society, information
on the bird-recording group known as The Frensham Watchers, past events and field meetings.

MARCH 2011              Saturday 12^th             
SPRING FLOWERS
Speaker:  Jill Fry
Jill made a welcome return on 12^th March to talk about wild flowers of the Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire border area.  After a cold winter and rather dull February it was refreshing to see photographs of flowers which would soon be gracing our local woodlands.  Jill explained that many flowers were late as the soil had failed to warm up due to lack of sun.  Catkins, emblem of spring, would have started development in August while food was being manufactured.  In December the winter heliotrope might flower, beloved of bees and early insects.  Snowdrops, happiest near a stream and where the tree cover is open, are pollinated by tiny hoverflies.  Jill had photographed a carpet of them in an patch of woodland where the sun had penetrated the canopy.  Her photographs were a reminder of our beautiful spring woodland flowers:  those that avail themselves of the light through a canopy not yet in leaf (lesser celandine, wood anemone, primrose, dog violet, bluebell, wood sorrel); those that need damp or even wet feet (marsh marigold, golden saxifrage, lady’s smock); trees - aspen catkins, and the flowers of blackthorn, Midland hawthorn, birch and beech; and later flowers of open grassland such as cowslips.  It was a foretaste of things to come! 

FEBRUARY 2011        Saturday 12^th            
PATTERNS AND COLOURS IN MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES
Speaker:   Professor Maurice Moss
Professor Moss explained to an audience of fifty how some wing scales contain pigments but other colours are caused by the dispersal of light across the minute parallel chitin threads, seen only by aid of an electron microscope.
There are advantages of colour patterns.  For example in butterflies, where upper wings may have bands of colour or “eye spots”  predators are deterred and where the under wings are mottled or have cryptic colouring good camouflage is provided. The reverse can apply to moths: in the garden tiger moth the upper wings are mottled but can be moved suddenly to reveal bright areas beneath to scare away a would-be predator.

JANUARY 2011         Saturday 8^th              
EXPLORING NATURAL CHINA
Speaker:  Heather Angel
The Museum’s Lecture Room was full to capacity for this wonderful talk. The habitats of this vast country are so diverse and the resulting fauna and flora so abundant and they were all portrayed in Heather’s stunning photographs.
She showed different views of the Bamboo Forest National Park, or Bamboo Sea, in South Sichuan:  also Qinghai lake (China’s largest inland lake) and some of the many birds attracted to the water:  in the south of the country the Puzhehei National Park and its wetlands with lakes, rivers, mountains and caves, notable for vast areas of lotus flowers:  further east the Li River, surrounded by dramatic pinnacles of mountains.  Not far from the river are several caves, the stalactites and stalagmites lit with different coloured lights.  Heather showed pictures of a blind (barbel) fish which has evolved to live in the shallow water.  Circular limestone basins resemble lotus leaves.  Elsewhere high altitude valleys are marked by waterfalls and terraces.  At Huanglong eroded limestone produces carbon-rich water which flows down the valley, depositing dams which form travertine terraces. These fill with carbonate-bearing blue, green, yellow or white water.
Breathtaking photos of China’s animals and plants included goat antelopes, monkeys, birds, butterflies, elephants; and flowering plants like rhododendron, gentian, lily and poppy.  We saw amazing photographs of the endangered giant panda and equally exciting photos of the Amur tiger, taken in a tiger park.  It was an afternoon which will linger in the memory.

NOVEMBER 2010       Saturday 13^th                 
A DORMOUSE IN MY POCKET
Speaker:  Andrew Cleave
Members and guests filled the Lecture Room on 13 November for the welcome return of Andrew Cleave.          
Andrew’s educational role at Bramley Frith Wood had come to an end when the National Grid won a court case to clear part of the ancient woodland occupied by a field studies centre.  He had managed the woodland for dormice over a period of fifteen years, with coppiced trees, bramble, bracken, honeysuckle and slightly untidy sunny clearings. The common or hazel dormouse was widespread in southern Britain, being a nocturnal animal which, when it was not sleeping for half the year, was nesting and feeding in the tree canopy.  It used the bark of the trees for nestbuilding, honeysuckle flowers were pulled apart for their nectar, and hazel and beech nuts were consumed to help build up fat reserves.  Dormice were also partial to berries and caterpillars.  In winter, intense cold was not a problem.  Nests were built on the ground where the temperature and humidity levels were constant.  Two neatly-woven little nests were on display.
Delightful photos accompanied Andrew’s description of the other mammals and birds which share woodland habitats with dormice.  His talk ended with a photo of a dormouse weighing over 32 grams, too plump to get into the nest box and ready for hibernation!  

OCTOBER 2010         Saturday 30^th           
WILDLIFE AND OPEN SPACES IN ALASKA                
Speaker:  John Richardson
During the first talk of the winter, photographs of grizzly bears, some with their cubs, were among those shown by John to an appreciative audience of over 60 people.
John is a local, amateur naturalist with a special interest in birds and mammals.  He described events during his three visits to Alaska, travelling by hired vehicles, ‘float-planes,’ boats and even quad bikes. His aim, wherever possible, is to photograph animals at human eye-level and with birds to make sure the eye can be clearly seen.
Included in the beautiful photographs were tufted puffins, the rare king eider duck, hundreds of kittiwakes resting on a cliff face and resembling strings of pearls; musk ox, seals and sea otters looking endearing as they floated on their backs.

APRIL 2010               Saturday 17^th          .
AGM AND TALK             
After the AGM Ian Neilson (Honorary Beekeeper at Haslemere Museum) talked to members about the beekeeper’s year.  Human beings’ interaction with bees started through honey-hunting and eventually led to collectors providing the bees with a stable home.  Ian displayed a traditional woven basket or skep.   He showed where the cone would be attached in which the queen would lay her eggs and where nectar and pollen would be stored and he showed his audience a modern hive - a sturdy wooden box with a heavy roof to insulate against the cold.  It was fascinating to learn about the organisation of the colony – the old queen, whose purpose is to lay eggs;  the workers (females) who do the housekeeping, make the royal jelly, collect nectar and pollen;  and the drones (males) whose function is to mate with the young queens.  Ian described what happens if the old queen leads a swarm from the colony;  how he as beekeeper creates this artificially so that he can work with the bees to maintain the collection and how he eventually collects the honey.  A lot of information was succinctly and entertainingly packed into a short talk.

MARCH 2010             Saturday 13th       
FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE VICTORIAN ARTIST, MARIANNE NORTH, IN INDIA 1877-79
Speaker: Miss Laura Ponsonby
Through numerous examples, Laura introduced us to the work and travels of this globe-trotting Victorian artist. Examples of Marianne’s work were used to track her progress around the world and, more particularly, through India. Laura’s photographs of comparable scenes, together with her astute observations on the artist’s style, allowed the audience to appreciate the merits of Marianne’s work, whilst learning how she travelled, who she met and what she discovered. The talk finished with a brief introduction to the renovation and conservation work at the Marianne North Gallery at Kew.

FEBRUARY 2010        Saturday 13th        
A HISTORY OF PEREGRINES IN SUSSEX, 1904-2009
Speaker: Phil Everitt, Sussex Peregrine Study (SPS)
Very few peregrines were reported between 1957 and 1980 and the evidence pointed to the widespread use of pesticides.  But then in the 80s the birds began to be seen again and two enthusiasts set up the Sussex Peregrine Study, ringing birds and recording their DNA.  We were shown some of the birds’ more unusual nesting sites, some of them successful, others ending in tragedy.   In 2003 an unusual immature bird was discovered – a hybrid small female with a ring showing she had been bred in captivity.  There was concern that this would lead to further hybridisation.  In 2008, three nests failed at late egg/early chick stage and peregrines in Sussex continue to be shot and poisoned.  This has led to a collaborative project with the police, called “Operation Eyrie”, to bring offenders to justice.  Phil’s excellent photographs and enthusiasm brought home the importance of preserving the future of these striking birds.

PAST EVENTS 2009

NOVEMBER 2009       
Saturday 14th            
OCEANIC PLANKTON IN THE ABYSS
Speaker: Martin Angel
The two cruises in the Atlantic in which Martin had taken part for the international Census on Marine Life had been on a research ship travelling from Bremerhaven to service German stations in the Antarctic.  His talk showed how the zooplankton had adapted to their niche in the thousands of metres below.  For most, their form and colour was a defence against predation.  Form might involve spines, hydroids, luminous tips to pincers, tail and armpits, a flashing “fishing rod”.  Colour might be absent and the animal be transparent, it might have white pigment “mirrors” on its sides to reflect light;  near the surface it might be blue, or below 1,000 metres where there is no light,  red.  Martin’s photographs showed these animals, strange to most of us, in pristine condition – they had been photographed on the boat.  It was a revelation to us to see life from so deep down in the ocean.

APRIL 2009
Saturday 18^th                                       
AGM AND TALK
After the AGM, Bruce Middleton (Northern Area Manager with the South Downs Joint Committee) gave atalk about "Protecting the Western Weald".
It was a pleasure to be reminded of the mosaic of features which make up the Weald and the importance of the natural history unique to each.  Bruce’s photos showed the habitats and, inset, one or two of the species associated with them.  It was a very deft demonstration of natural history subjects in the context of their natural surroundings.  He described the management needed to sustain some of them, the changes in farming practices and woodland industries, the impact on wildlife and the role of the South Downs Joint Committee.