Hazel Graves writes:

The Sowter Memorial Evening commenced with a tribute to one of the Section’s early members Frederick Sowter, F.L.S. (1899-1972), a very important botanist in the fields of bryology, lichenology and flowering plants, especially in VC55. He was also extremely active and influential in the developing field of conservation. A full tribute to Sowter is available on the website, including the introduction to “Our Diminishing Flora” published in 1960. The subject of this evening’s talk seems particularly suitable for this event.

Ivan Pedley started by demonstrating a twig with several colonies of Fuscidia lightfootii, a crustose bright green lichen that was rare in VC55 until about 6 years ago, but now increasing with the advent of cleaner air. Another large twig was displayed by Hazel Graves, showing a fructicose (shrubby) lichen in the Usnea genus plus a covering of green foliose lichens (unfortunately too wet to identify) and two types of slime moulds, one grey/black and one yellow, both unidentified.  The samples were taken by other members to identify. The grey/black slime mould has since been identified by Ivan Pedley as Cribraria argillacea. 

Lichens and slime moulds described in the text above

Peter Smith noted that he had seen about 30 crows in Abbey Park, an unusual sighting as crows tend to be solitary in contrast to flocking rooks.  Peter also noted unusual behaviour in a pair of courting mallards whose display involved whistling.

Geoffrey then gave a most interesting and illuminating presentation.  While recording in VC55 for the BSBI 2020 Atlas he had noticed that there were two types of plants that were diminishing: arable weeds and wetland plants. It is acknowledged that modern farming practices have reduced the prevalence of arable weeds, but why are wetland plants so much in retreat?  Geoffrey discussed this, illustrating which wetland plants were most in retreat and which are actually more abundant - generally the more robust ones that grow larger with the stimulus of more nitrogen in the environment, shading out the more sensitive ones. He discussed the various types of wetland habitat and the man-made problems being caused to them, including agricultural practices, urban development, lack of management, invasive plants and climate change.  He also noted that there are new ponds being established which sometimes rebound with species hiding in the seedbank or are brought in naturally. Although the current scenario of wetland plant loss is very worrying, the good news is that with better understanding and better management action could be taken to remedy some of the loss. The Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Group has projects improving the River Soar.  It is imperative to get farmers on board with any project designed to resurrect the quality of our ponds, rivers, streams, marshes etc. Ponds would probably be the easiest with quickest returns.  

There were many questions following the presentation: balancing of habitat management for different species, advice for small volunteer organisations, who managed wetlands in the past, Flood Meadows in VC55, the role of the Canals and Rivers Trust and monitoring of the many Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) established in new build areas.

(Photo: Hazel Graves)

Hazel Graves writes:

There was an initial discussion of recent sightings including a female Sparrowhawk seen by Russell in his garden, and Cowslips in flower and  the lichen Parmatrema perlata seen by Ivan, who brought in a specimen of the lichen. Ivan also recommended the book Otherlands: A World in the Making by Thomas Halliday. Ivan made a plea for more members to bring items in at the start of meetings.

Our speaker for the evening, Dr Kate Moore, was introduced.  Kate has previously taught at the University of Leicester covering Ecology and Wildlife Conservation amongst other subjects. She has been training as a bird-ringer for 6 years and has obtained qualifications reflecting a high degree of proficiency.

Amongst the topics covered were the reasons for ringing, the history of ringing, various trapping techniques for different species, how to ring, how to ID and sex species in the hand, what data is recorded and why, all accompanied by superb photography.

Kate enthusiastically discussed the thrill of the re-catch. Re-catches are leading to a better understanding of population changes and shifts, and of migration routes some of which are changing, all with a possible links to climate change.  Data is being recovered which can better inform conservation management, so vital in our changing times.

A wide range of questions followed the lecture, amongst which was the discussion of disease bearing ticks.

Hazel Graves writes:

Our second meeting at the Friends Meeting House in Leicester saw a good-sized audience with some new members.  Several members reported sightings, including the first Fieldfares of the winter, an unusual spurge, the Willow Emerald Dragonfly and an Otter in Knighton.

Nicola then introduced Isabel Ravel for the main event of the evening, a talk entitled “The Charnwood Forest Partnership Scheme”.

Isabel then explained the background of various attempts since 1925 to establish protection for Charnwood Forest, “Britain’s Unexpected Upland”.  It didn’t make it onto the short-list to be considered a National Park, and the intrusion of the M1 certainly stopped the possibility of that happening. Moves were made to create a Regional Park in 2012, and this became a reality in 2017.

A lottery project was funded and Isabel discussed the work that LRWT have been involved in i.e. the area in which she works, the Grassland Project, based on Plantlife’s “Save our Magnificent Meadows” methodology.  Base-line surveys were made using quadrats and the number of positive and negative indicators recorded.  The idea was to manage these 39 areas, some belonging to the Trust, some under private ownership, using methods which were thought to improve the grasslands for traditional species. Traditional management methods were adopted, including changes to grazing and mowing times, scything as a means of haymaking in areas inaccessible to modern large machinery, and spreading of hay from “good” meadows onto prepared fields so that the seed would fall in these fields. The project was expected to last for 5 years but finished in 2024.  Quadrats were used to find differences made by the  treatments. Due to the shortened time-scale, most area had only 2 data points which makes statistical analysis difficult although it did look as if some of the treatments had improved the grasslands. It is hoped that it will be possible to follow up this work beyond the Lottery funded experiments. 

Another aspect of the Lottery money was to encourage recording and training recorders.  Weekly field recording meetings are being led by Isabel to which members are invited.

There was a discussion, which included questions on the statistical analysis, whether invertebrates were studied as part of the project and how to disseminate the findings.

Hazel Graves writes:

This was the first meeting of the 2024/2025 season and the first in the delightful Large Meeting Room at the Quaker Meeting House on Queens Road.

The meeting started with welcomes and notices, quickly followed by a chance for members to share their recent natural history encounters. The bulk of the group discussion surrounded the numbers of the various egrets in Leicestershire. There are now large numbers of Great Egrets at Rutland Water and Swithland Water.  It was noted that more Little Egrets are seen in the winter than the summer at many sites – and the observation was made that there are in fact only four sites where Little Egrets breed in Leicestershire.  

Peter Proudlove then gave a fascinating and beautifully illustrated presentation which covered many aspects of the subject “Bats”.  This included some basic biology and anatomy, the British species, lifestyles especially the types of feeding and echolocation, reproduction and winter and summer roosts, and equipment and techniques for monitoring.

The work of the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) was explained. This covers monitoring known bat roosts by counting twice in June. Regular transects are walked along waterways especially canals to monitor Daubenton’s Bats.  Bat walks for the public take place, and static bat monitors are stationed at various sites of interest to monitor bat movements – an exercise that results in the need for much manpower to analyse the data. Advice is available for people who discover they have bat roosts and also suggestions given on where to place bat boxes.  “Bats in care” is an important part of the work of the BCT. Grounded and sometimes poorly bats, often juveniles, often underweight or injured, found by the public can usually be collected by the BCT volunteers who attempt to nurse them back to health by feeding them mealworms, and then reintroduce them back to the roosts where they were thought to have originally come from.  Some members have more than 20 bats to care for at any one time.  Some bats are taken to specialised centres for flying practice.  

The talk was rounded off by Peter discussing his recent trip to Borneo and showing a short but stunning video of probably 3 million bats exiting a large cave system heading out on their evening feeding.

The talk was followed by a wide-ranging discussion.