MEMBERS’ EVENING 26 NOVEMBER 2004

The 2004 Members’ Evening was held at The Holiday Inn, Copdock on Friday, 26^th November.  Forty three members and friends travelled to the meeting from all across Suffolk and from Cambridgeshire, Essex and Norfolk as well. Despite the low temperatures outdoors, there was a very warm welcome in the Wolsey Room and it was good to see so many new faces in addition to old friends.

The SNS has recently purchased a new set of display boards for promoting its activities at a range of events. This purchase was made possible by sponsorship from The Robert Stebbings Consultancy and the boards were put to good use for the first time. New publicity materials are being developed to use on the boards and they will also be available to promote studies and projects being undertaken by members. Many of the boards were being used for this purpose at the meeting. Michael Kirby put up a fascinating display about Westleton Common and the work of the local community to safeguard the future of the land and its wildlife. Central to this was a 360^o photomontage of the site that must have stretched over one metre long. Other display boards were used for an informal quiz based on photographs of new additions to the Suffolk fauna and flora and for a display relating to the heath bumblebee (Bombus jonellus), a scarce but possibly under recorded species in Suffolk.

Away from the display boards there were plenty of other exhibits to inform, entertain and even tax the brain. Colin Hawes provided an interesting range of literature relevant to his studies on the stag beetle (Lucanus cervus) and his display included live larvae of the beetle. Tony Vine came all the way from Kings Lynn to show a map of the populations of rare plants on Lakenheath Airbase and a map of the distribution of badgers in Norfolk. Our chairman, Joan Hardingham, asked us to put on our thinking caps with a large display of winter twigs and a few leaves that had to be named. Fortunately the correct answers were available as a handout at the end of the evening! In another display members were invited to study three nationally rare Suffolk liverworts using a microscope provided by the exhibitor, Richard Fisk. Neil Sherman exhibited a case of moths collected from Ipswich golf course and there were specimens and sketches of a tropical spider that had turned up in a container at Felixstowe docks. For those on the lookout for Christmas presents, Rosemary Milner did her usual excellent job of manning the SNS bookstall and Richard Stewart was on hand to sign copies of his second poetry anthology, “The Green Man”.

Richard Stewart also opened the series of ten-minute presentations with poetry readings from his new collection. This was followed by an update from Colin Hawes on his stag beetle research including material he had used at an international conference in Latvia earlier in the year. Michael Kirby then briefly expanded on the notes accompanying his Westleton Common display. Neil Sherman and Tony Prichard both gave talks on Suffolk moths, Neil describing some of the more interesting catches of the season whilst Tony outlined the life histories of some of Suffolk’s leaf mining case bearing moths. This latter talk was probably the most successful of the evening in terms of eliciting the greatest number of questions from the audience. Continuing the lepidopteran theme, Rob Parker brought us up to date on the status in the county of the Society’s emblem, the White Admiral butterfly. This was a good news talk with the return of the butterfly to one of its old haunts in Bentley Woods. Just in case you get the impression that the evening was heavily insect biased, there was plenty for the botanists to think about in Martin Sanford’s review of The Interactive Flora of the British Isles - a digital encyclopedia by Professor Clive Stace. This electronic publication on CD claims to include his New Flora of the British Isles and the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora. Martin used the laptop computer and digital projector to great effect to give members a real flavour of the benefits and shortcomings of having these publications in CD format.

One of the most pleasurable aspects of our open evenings is the opportunity they provide to chat with friends old and new on topics of mutual interest. That the social side of these events is highly valued by members is reflected in the feedback given to SNS officers. It was obvious also in the reluctance of many members, despite the prospect of a long journey home, to leave the venue until well after 10pm. If you missed out on the event this time around then put a note in your diary for Friday 4^th March when the next Member’s Evening will be held at the Cathedral Lecture Rooms in Bury St Edmunds. You should also make a note of Wednesday 20^th April when the Society’s AGM will be held at the Holiday Inn, Copdock and Nick Mead of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust will give a talk on his work with pond conservation projects.

Paul Lee

© 2005   Suffolk Naturalists' Society

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