Upcoming Indoor Meetings

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• Bird Ringing - Kate Moore

  • When
    4 Dec 2024
  •  
    19:30 - 21:30
  • Location
    Quaker Meeting House, 16 Queens Road, Leicester LE2 1WP

  Bird ringing in the UK and worldwide provides invaluable data on the breeding success and survival of bird populations, why populations are changing, as well as bird migration patterns.  Kate will talk about the process of bird ringing, review some of the data collected locally and discuss how ringing data may be used to support conservation initiatives. Together with data from other bird surveys, data from bird ringing may be used to identify problems and target mitigation measures to address population declines.
  

  Quaker Meeting House - link to map

  
  

  Doors open 7 pm for start at 7.30 pm, finish by 9.30 pm.

  

  

  Photos - Kate Moore
  

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• What has happened to our wetland plants? - Geoffrey Hall, The Sowter Memorial Lecture

  • When
    8 Jan 2025
  •  
    19:30 - 21:30
  • Location
    Quaker Meeting House, 16 Queens Road, Leicester LE2 1WP

  

  Geoffrey is the BSBI's vascular plant recorder for Leicestershire and Rutland (VC55). Starting in January 2015 he spent much of the next five years walking hundreds of miles over the whole of Leicestershire & Rutland with Steve Woodward and Russell Parry to get enough records into the BSBI's database to satisfy the requirements for the Atlas 2020 project. They visited many aquatic sites and Geoffrey was struck by the general state of them compared with sites that he knows in other areas of Britain. The amount of neglect, infilling, and the adverse effects of pollution were often astonishing, but some water bodies were well looked after. Although corrective action to reverse these problems is certainly possible, the task is not a simple one.  (The photo shows a choked stream at Scalford. Photo: Geoffrey Hall.)
  

  The Sowter Memorial Lecture is dedicated to Frederick Sowter, F.L.S. (1899-1972), one of our early members and an important botanist.

  Quaker Meeting House - link to map

  Doors open 7 pm for start at 7.30 pm, finish by 9.30 pm.

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• Ants - Ecology and Behaviour - Brian Eversham, CEO Beds, Cambs, & Northants Wildlife Trust

  • When
    5 Feb 2025
  •  
    19:30 - 21:30
  • Location
    Quaker Meeting House, 16 Queens Road, Leicester LE2 1WP

  Ants - ecology and behaviour A popular introduction to the British ants, their habitats and behaviour. The most accessible and easily identified of the social insects, with only about 50 species, a handful of which can be found in most gardens, this is a group anyone can get to know, and can add to our understanding.

  This is a joint meeting with Leicestershire and Rutland Entomological Society.

  Quaker Meeting House - link to map

  Doors open 7 pm for start at 7.30 pm, finish by 9.30 pm.
  

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• Raptors in the Autumn - Orchids in the Spring - some of the Wildlife of the South-West Algarve - Simon Bennett

  • When
    5 Mar 2025
  •  
    19:30 - 21:30
  • Location
    Quaker Meeting House, 16 Queens Road, Leicester LE2 1WP

  While not as busy for migrating raptors as Gibraltar, the Sagres peninsula in the south-west Algarve, Portugal is a popular migration watch point for birds of prey. Simon will introduce the area and the birds that pass through and refer to research on the numbers of birds and timing of migration as well as the issue of wind-farms on the migration route.  As a contrast, he will also talk about the wild orchids that can be found in the area in the spring and some of the other interesting wildlife of this unspoilt part of the Algarve.

  Simon Bennett is a member of the Natural History Section and several other local and national wildlife organisations. He has been a birdwatcher since he was a member of the Young Ornithologists' Club in the 1960s and holidays every year in the south-west Algarve in Portugal.

  Quaker Meeting House - link to map

  Doors open 7 pm for start at 7.30 pm, finish by 9.30 pm.
  

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• The making of Plant Atlas 2020, from field to folio - Dr Oli Pescott

  • When
    10 Mar 2025
  •  
    19:30 - 21:00
  • Location
    Hansom Hall in the Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester LE1 6QL
  • Spaces left
    100

  Register

  Natural History Section Joint Lecture Dr Oli Pescott PhD Research Scientist

     

  Lecture outline
  

  Plant Atlas 2020 is the most comprehensive survey of plants (flowering plants, ferns and charophytes) ever undertaken in Britain and Ireland. It is based on over 30 million records, collected mainly by volunteer recorders of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) between 2000 and 2019, as well as previous nationwide surveys undertaken in the 1950s and 1990s. Dr Pescott will describe the long path to Britain and Ireland’s third plant distribution atlas, overviewing its innovations and findings in the context of understanding environmental change and conservation.

  Biographical note

  Oli is a plant ecologist who specialises in the design, management and analysis of volunteer-collected botanical datasets ("citizen science"). His botanical experience covers both the field- and desk-based ends of plant ecology: he contributed to the recent Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland's (BSBI) Plant Atlas 2020 as a surveyor, lead analyst and editor. He is also the referee for alien grasses for the BSBI, the Recording Secretary for the British Bryological Society, and the local bryophyte recorder for Oxfordshire. His other interests include invasive non-native species, the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity, and the communication and presentation of uncertainty in biodiversity trend analyses.

  Attending the lecture

  The lecture is open both to members of the Society and to guests.

  The lecture will take place in Hansom Hall - how to find Hansom Hall.

  The lecture will also be streamed on Zoom. A recording of the lecture may be available to members only.

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• Natural History Section Annual General Meeting and Members' Evening

  • When
    2 Apr 2025
  •  
    19:30 - 21:30
  • Location
    Quaker Meeting House, 16 Queens Road, Leicester LE2 1WP

  The Section's AGM will be followed by refreshments and a chance to meet and talk with other members, after which a few short talks will be given by members.
  

  Quaker Meeting House - link to map

  Doors open 7 pm for start at 7.30 pm, finish by 9.30 pm.
  

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