Wildlife Spectacles - Steve Lovell

Friday 28th February 2020

Steve Lovell has spent the last couple of decades photographing British wildlife and leading guided tours to see the spectacles on offer not far from our own backyards. From the Lincolnshire Wash to the Scottish Isles, we were treated to pictures of the enormous range of wildlife available to watch for those with the patience. And with each photo came a little piece of information that made one sit up and realise how much there still is to learn.

From seals in the Welland to reindeer in the Cairngorms, from a hundred thousand starlings to a black winged stilt, from Irish hares on Mull to Chinese water-deer in Norfolk, the richness of British fauna cannot be overstated.

With frogs spawning in February is Steve's garden pond to white mountain hares with no snow to hide on, climate change poses multiple challenges for our wildlife. Of immediate and urgent concern is the deliberate persecution of wildlife. Steve talked about still legal hare culls in Scotland, illegal hare coursing in Lincolnshire and equally illegal but covertly condoned killing of raptors on grouse moors.

Steve's take home message was to stay close to home; that to enjoy wildlife spectacles there is no need to fly to foreign lands; there is enough on and around the British Isles to last a lifetime.

Black winged Stilt from Guardian article

Find out more about what Steve Lovell can offer from his website.

The Sea and Me - talk be Tammy Smalley

Friday 31st January 2020

Tammy Smalley, Head of Conservation at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, gave us a talk entitled The Sea and Me. She told her autobiographical story of growing up near Skegness, steeped in the local environment of coastal Lincolnshire with the sea a dominant influence, how she came to learn so much about the complexity and variety of wildlife beneath the waves and took her knowledge to Whitehall to argue the case for better protection of the marine environment.

We were treated to a dazzling sequence of pictures of some of the less well-known creatures in our neighbourhood, the Sabellaria reefs, honeycomb worms, brittle stars, sea slugs and many more.

Tammy emphasised the importance of government policy, getting the new agricultural agreements right, for habitats on land and at sea for wildlife and for global heating mitigation. She emphasised the important examples of lowland peat lands and saltmarsh, more valuable than forest, for carbon sequestration, and the need to protect unique but largely unknown habitats such as the Silver Pit, a deep area of the North Sea to the south of the Dogger Bank once a deep lake, thousands of years ago when sea level was lower and much of the North Sea was dry land.

For anyone who missed this talk, you missed a treat. Tammy's self deprecating humour and wit are the perfect counterfoil for the seriousness of her science-backed message to those in positions of power and influence.

LWT LOUTH AREA GROUP CHAIRMAN’S JOTTINGS FEBRUARY 2020

Our 28 February meeting will be ‘WILDLIFE SPECTACLES’, some fantastic scenes by STEVE LOVELL, wildlife photographer and nature guide. We begin at 7.30pm at the Nichol Hill Methodist Church, Louth. Entry, including refreshments £2.50. Children free.

Our Annual General Meeting will be on 24 April when there will be cake! There is a need for at least a couple of you to volunteer to join the committee. The tasks are not onerous, we hold 3 meetings a year to discuss and plan the programme for the following year. The only commitment is to help to run the indoor meetings; most of you attend these so it would only be a matter of arriving before the 7.30 pm start time.
In the past people stayed on the committee for a long time; no-one expects you to do a 27 year stint! I set myself 5 years and will be leaving after 6 years. If you are prepared to consider a year to see ’how it goes’, you will be most welcome. Please contact me for any further details on rwwsec3lo@aol.com

WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN?
I am sure that we are all delighted with longer days and no snow – yet! Two hedgehogs have come back after a 3 week break whilst the night camera is picking up moths in flight. I have heard a greenfinch and a great tit singing for nearly a week and of course the snowdrops, aconites and daffodils are in bloom.
On 7 February Jane and went to have a look at the LWT Huttoft Bank Pit hide. The sun was shining, and it was a great pleasure to sit drinking our coffee out of the wind. A few mallards and moorhens were dodging in and out of the reeds when a flurry of activity caught our attention. A wisp of 8 snipe circled and settled on a reed patch about 3 metres from the hide whilst a further dozen snipe continued to circle and then settled elsewhere. Wow!

Best wishes
Ray Woodcock
Chairman Louth Area Group, LWT

Report on Louth Watch Meeting Sunday 16th February

The Louth Watch leaders were pleased that three children braved the wind and rain from storm Dennis to attend their meeting in Spout Yard,  Louth on Sunday afternoon February 16th.

The children mounted all the pressed flowers that had been collected the previous June from the meadow at LRAC, Kenwick. They added their own drawings, folklore and other information about the  plants. The results will be added to the Watch collection.

They still had time to each make a  mobile, depicting the life cycle of a dandelion. They made and planted seeds in paper potters as well as writing their names in cress seeds. They also had time to try the 'Name the Flower' game.

Overall it was a very busy, enjoyable meeting.

WATCH group

At our next meeting on Sunday 16th February

we will be mounting our own flower collection, picked in the meadow at Kenwick LRAC last June.

We will be adding interesting facts and illustrations, so would like everybody to contribute. 

The specimens will become part of the special Watch collection.

There will also be lots of  art and craft activities to enjoy.

Don't forget to let us know about any birds, animals and flowers that you may have spotted recently.

We will be meeting in Spout Yard Gallery in Louth starting at 2pm until about 4pm.

Children must be accompanied by an adult. The event is free.