WINTER TALKS
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 £4.00 from non-members.
FORTHCOMING
EVENTS
Our winter talks recommence in the autumn. Details wil be posted here as
soon as available.
REPORTS OF RECENT EVENTS
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Saturday 23rd April ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Followed by a talk: RETURN OF THE GREATER HORSESHOE BAT By member, Martyn Phillis Excitedly, Martyn was present, from the very beginning, at the discovery of a maternity roost of this rare bat, located in South-East England. Found between Midhurst and Petworth the exact location cannot be revealed until the site is properly secured. In February 2019, Scotty Dodd was undertaking an ecological survey and saw a bat roosting in a hanging downwards posture. Martyn and Tony Hutson (an international bat expert) were able to confirm it was an immature female Greater Horseshoe Bat. Later that year more females and even a one-day old baby were identified by sonograms and the next year one of Martyn’s photographs revealed a baby clinging to its mother. All this evidence confirmed it was a maternity roost. Vincent Wildlife Trust (to whom this Society contributed £1000) and Sussex Bat group will be monitoring and carrying out conservation work in the future. Martyn’s audience was so appreciative of his knowledge and admired his on-going enthusiasm. |
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Saturday
12th March A SOLUTIONIST'S WORK Nicola Peel, Solutionist Nicola, an award-winning environmentalist prefers to call herself a Solutionist. Her Zoom presentation “Amazon Adventures and Natures Solutions” described her time with indigenous people in Ecuador where, to offset the problem of oil pollution, she helped by devising a scheme for rainwater catchment from the roofs of their homes. She has been associated with other solutionist schemes such as the making of eco-bricks by packing plastic bottles with plastic rubbish, and growing Inga adulis (a nitrogen-fixing tree) in alleys which protect food crops. Click these links for her website and a video she made. Nicola is prepared to talk to local schools on environmental ideas and Biomimicry. Click here for details. She is a co-founder of The South East Climate Alliance |
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Saturday 19th February MARINE LIFE ON THE SUSSEX COAST Sarah Ward, Sussex Wildlife Trust Sara’s work encompasses marine conservation policy, marine advocacy and engagement, and the co-ordination of Sussex Shoresearch (a volunteer scheme identifying species and habitats) and Seasearch (with volunteer divers also recording). Coasts have importance for: mental health and well-being; a source of protein for humans; a source of building materials; and a source of energy from off-shore wind farms or tidal energy. The shoreline in Sussex has various habitats: shingle, vegetated shingle; sandy beaches and rocky shore. On the last can be found: Common Shore Crab, barnacles, snails, slugs, anemones, sponges, echinoderms, sea squirts and fish. To provide a healthy environment with sustainable fishing a new byelaw “Sussex Nearshore Trawling Byelaw” was implemented in 2021. Underwater Kelp, once prolific from Selsey Bill to Brighton, has diminished greatly since 1980. Kelp forests are a crucial habitat for fish and many other sea creatures, lock up carbon, pump out oxygen and so reduce climate change. A number of organisations have collaborated with The Sussex Kelp Restoration Project. For more information go to: sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/what-we-do/living-seas/kelp Sarah’s presentation brought to our attention the diverse and rich qualities of our local shorelines and also the need for them to be protected. |
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Saturday 8th January |
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Saturday 13th
November
PLANT
ADAPTIONS: FLOWERS AND POLLINATION
Professor
Mark W. Chase FRS, retired Senior Researcher, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
This was held as a Zoom presentation with 26 members
logging on.
Cone-bearing plants first appeared 350 million years ago, whereas flower-bearing
plants evolved later at 150 million years ago. There are no intermediates, so
it is not known how flowers came to be.
Wind-pollinated plants are always green as insects are not needed for
pollination. Primitive flowers (magnolias and waterlilies) have many parts in a
spiral arrangement and insects can approach from any direction.
Advanced flowers have few parts, often a definite number. Some have special
structures (e.g. snapdragon) to encourage particular insects to visit and
pollinate. Orchids can trick insects into visiting them, such as the Asian
Slipper Orchid. The British Fly Orchid attracts wasps; a species in Madagascar
is pollinated by a moth; and the pollinator of an orchid in Reunion was found by
night-vision camera to be a cricket.
Saturday 24th April
2021
AGM and TALK
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF DORMOUSE CONSERVATION
Ian White, Dormouse and Training Officer, People's Trust for Endangered Species
23 members logged on to Ian’s presentation on
Zoom.
Ian manages the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme and has developed
training courses for volunteers as a licence is needed to check this protected
species (they are on the Biodiversity Action Plan list). Dormice are a key
indicator of the quality of the environment, but being nocturnal and arboreal it
is difficult to count the population and their range has shrunk to only southern
counties in UK. However, comparing statistics for 1990 and 2018 there has been a
huge increase in the number of sites being monitored, boxes and records.
They need a connected tree canopy with an understorey of early stages of woody
vegetation with bramble; continuous, dense hedges; and, ideally, a mosaic of
coppicing.
Dormouse bridges have been used over roads and on underpasses. In any
reintroduction programme their health has to be determined, enthusiastic
volunteers needed and a suitable release site found.
Saturday 13th March
2021
METAMORPHOSIS
Rupert Soskin, Professional Photographer and Author
Rupert, nature photographer, presenter and naturalist, gave a virtual Zoom
presentation from his home in southern France to 30 participants. His book
entitled “Metamorphosis” took three years to write.
In his study he has photographed sequences of instars of various insects by
providing controlled, precise environmental conditions (light, heat, humidity).
His photographs included instar growth of Giant Atlas and European Swallowtail
butterflies and a shield bug’s larva with dramatic colour changes. He showed the
life-cycle of a solitary wasp that collects mud to make mud pots in which she
lays a single egg. She then catches up to 20 tiny spiders for each pot which
she paralyses to provide food for the larva.
Rupert’s tenacity and patience to follow day by day and hour by hour the
metamorphic sequences seen in his beautiful photographs astonished and impressed
his audience.
Saturday 13th February 2021
REPERCUSSIONS OF COVID-19 AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE
Dr. Tony
Whitbread, President Sussex Wildlife Trust
The talk was held on Zoom with 32 people logging on. Tony (formerly CEO of
Sussex Wildlife Trust, now President) accompanied his talk with beautiful
wildlife photographs from the Trust.
During the three national lock-downs nature seemed to be recovering and people
noticed more wildlife. All around the word skies were clearer of pollution, air
quality improved and there was questioning of our relationship with nature.
There needs to be a move from exploiting nature to regenerating ways to work
with nature. We need to treat nature as assets. Tony believes there cannot
be an economy without nature and we can act by lobbying local councillors and
national influential people.
Two areas where there have been improvements in the environment: an increase in
provision of landfill sites in the UK; a soon-to-be implemented by-law to
protect the kelp forest off the Sussex coast to enable the marine environment to
recover.
Tony recommended
the
following references and links relating to his talk:
First is a link to his “Your Better Nature” webinars,
where they are recorded – this is the first in the series of 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srWwSyivivg&t=1s
The books he referred to were:
“Doughnut economics” by Kate Raworth
“Dead zone” by Philip Lymbery
“The economics of biodiversity” by Prof P Dasgupta, and here’s the link - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review (he
suggests you just look at the “headline messages”!)
Saturday 9th January
2021
INTRODUCED INVASIVE SPECIES _ Increased Biodiversity or Conservation Nightmare?
Dr Colin Ryall,
retired Principal
Lecturer in Environmental Management - Kingston University, London
This was held on Zoom with 42 people logging on.
An alien species is one that has been introduced by man to a new location for
form a self-sustaining population. In UK there are more than 3000 non-native
plants and animals, with about 40% being flora introductions.
About 10% of introduced species present a problem and are known as Invasive
Alien Species (IAS). These are a result of man’s activities globally and the
second most serious cause of upsetting biodiversity. Often without a predator,
they can proliferate to out-compete endemic species, modify habitats, hybridise,
and bring in diseases. Colin showed many examples of these.
Globally IASs have wreaked havoc in Hawaii, Galapagos, New Zealand and other
countries. A dramatic example is on the island of Guam where most bird species
have been made extinct by the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake.
On-going and future surveillance with international cooperation is needed and
there are various organisations dealing with this. Colin suggested that should
members come across and wish to notify any unwanted species they can use various
apps
which are listed here.
Saturday 14th November 2020
THE PLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE
Dr Nikki Gammans FRES, Project Manager, Short-haired
bumblebee introduction
This PowerPoint
presentation was presented on Zoom. 26 members logged on. Dr Gammans was one of
the writers of “Bumblebees – an Introduction.”
There are 278 species of bees in UK of which 250 are solitary bees, one species
is the non-native honey bee and 27 species of bumblebees (although 3 are thought
to be extinct).
Bumblebees (which include cuckoo bees) have 50-400 workers with only the queen
surviving the winter. They forage for shorter distances than honeybees and with
a long tongue they can pollinate a wide range of flowers.
Nikki has worked on The Short-haired Bumblebee Project since its start in 2009.
The last recorded sighting had been at Dungeness in Kent in 1988. In 2016 204
queens were brought to Kent from Sweden. On-going monitoring is still taking
place.
Ways to help bumblebees: go to bumblebeeconservation.org to see their list
“Flower Finder” which suggests plants that flower at different times throughout
the year; provide a south-facing bee-hotel for solitary bees; join Bumblebee
Conservation’s monitoring programme “Bee Walk” to ID and record on a transect
between March and October.
Saturday 31st October 2020
HASLEMERE FLORA PROJECT
Dr Andrew Swan, HNHS President
To ensure that the Zoom procedure would run smoothly for
the Winter Talks to be held in November 2020 and January, February and March in
2021, our President, Andy Swan, said he would give a power-point presentation.
The subject was “The Haslemere Flora Project,” his own project, and was held on
Saturday, 31 October. 26 members logged on.
Andy’s aim was to record the changes that have taken place and why; to ID
important locations; and to establish a database to assist with any future
conservation project.
The scopes considered were: biological to include vascular plants; and
geographical, that is within 10km of Haslemere and therefore encompassing parts
of three counties.
His sources of information were: Laura Ponsonby’s 1978 published lists and
unpublished archives; and the county floras of Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey.
The current list has 1257 species. Changes since 1978 reveal: an increase of 6
native and 13 non-native species; a decrease of 19 native and 13 non-native
species; and 21 probable local extinctions*.
Andy thanked HNHS members who have been assisting him, especially Judith Kusel
who was pivotal in getting the project started. Andy hopes that the findings
will appear as a HNHS publication “The Flora of Haslemere and the Surrounding
Area” in 2021.
* Click for list of likely extinctions. Any new information on these species would be very welcome – please e-mail us if you can help.
