FIELD NOTES
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE
HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY
ISSUE 7
MARCH 2005
Concern for Swifts
Are March Hares really that mad?
Harlequin Ladybird Survey / A message from the Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust / Herts Wildlife Publications
EDITORIAL
Where now with our natural history collections?
At the end of February, Brian Sawford, our past-President (before the change in our Constitution meant we had a "Chairman"), retired from North Hertfordshire Museums Service, having been there since 1968. His leaving marked an important turning point in the County's natural history activity, even though many people won't realise it.
In 1973 (when I joined Brian as Keeper of Natural History in what became North Herts Museums), the County had two full-time museum biologists in the north, and another at St Albans. In addition, the Curator at Stevenage was also a biologist. St Albans Museum had been the "County Museum" (in name at least), and its natural history collections had at one time been the most important in the County, including most of the 19th century plant reference collections, manuscripts from eminent naturalists, and entomological reference collections. But by 1973, the main collections were at Hitchin and Letchworth, but with important (although neglected) natural history collections at Haileybury College and elsewhere.
St Albans had lost quite a lot of its collections before 1970, but it also lost its Keeper of Natural History (and all the other staff responsible for its natural history work) in 1989.
Green-winged Orchid from Hertford Heath, 1936
(North Herts Museums)
By 1990, when I was moved to join the then newly - founded Hertfordshire Biological Records Centre, North Herts Museums had nearly a quarter of a million plant, animal and geological specimens for reference, the vast majority of which is local. By the end of the 1990's, this had increased even further, having absorbed the rump of the Haileybury material after that museum had been damaged and disposed of.
It was ironic, then, just before Brian finally retired, that St Albans passed down its entire remaining plant collection to North Hertfordshire, so that now, the museum service at Hitchin holds virtually all the reference collection of publicly available plant material, and most of the zoological collections, which exist in the County, along with the vast majority of extant manuscript archives from past naturalists, including some of the Society's own archives.
 Britain's first Rock Thrush, Therfield, 1843
(in North Herts Museums)
Most modern-day field naturalists, with their digital cameras and computer databases, may not use this material much, but if we are to have any real understanding of the history of our natural environment, it is irreplaceable.
It would be easy to lose the collections, if they are not cared for actively. The Society has already made representations to North Hertfordshire Museums Service about having a replacement for Brian to look after them, and develop their use. So far, the response has been luke-warm, although the Museums Service is "under review".
It would be useful, therefore, if members made their views known. Write to the Chairman of North Herts District Council and express your concerns direct.
"Ed"
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Report of the Management Committee for 2004
The Society has strengthened its position as the focus for recording the natural history of the County through its publishing and via the members involved with preserving the essential data for conservation of all species.
The first event of the year was the annual Herts Bird Club and British Trust for Ornithology Conference on 7th February, held at Rothamsted Research and organised by Tim Hill. The theme was 'Farming and Birds' with four excellent speakers who discussed how farming practices have adversely affected bird populations and how possible changes in agronomy could improve the prospects for farmland birds. As always the meeting hall was full with a lively atmosphere and plenty of opportunities for exchange of views. There were a number of displays and sales tables.
The spring meeting and AGM on 27th March continued the farming theme with two speakers from Defra exploring how farming and wildlife co-exist and what can be done to re-balance the differing priorities. We were treated to the first news of the results of GM crop trials by Defra in Linda Smith's outstanding presentation on the biodiversity found in the research which also highlighted some interesting differences between the crop species.
Our Award for the best dissertation by a student at the University of Hertfordshire with a focus on Hertfordshire natural history went to Esther Trevis in 2004, and one of the themes of the Publicity & Publications Sub-Committee has been to make the Society better known to young people. New leaflets were designed and advertising in the Wildlife Trust's 'Wildlife Matters' journal took place. A brief was prepared for the exhibition and future publicity material and it is hoped that this will be taken through to a completed design and production stage in 2005. The two principal Society publications are the 'Hertfordshire Naturalist', so well edited by Stuart Warrington, published in July, and the Herts Bird Report, compiled by Ted Fletcher's dedicated team, which expects to issue the massive compilation of 2002 records in April 2005.
The joint Herts NHS / Hertfordshire & Middlesex Wildlife Trust Recording Initiative has made a start and we are grateful to all the County Recorders as well as all those who contribute records for their continuing efforts in monitoring and documenting wildlife in the County. This is the cornerstone of the work of the Society.
We are also very grateful to Alan Gardiner for compiling and editing the bi-monthly Bird Bulletin and Trevor James for producing the Society's Newsletter 'Field Notes'. We are also pleased to distribute 'Brachytron' Newsletter on behalf of the Hertfordshire Dragonfly Group.
To raise the profile of the Society we took part in several events and again took our display stand and sales table to the Lee Valley Birdwatching Fair in February. We recruited some new members and Peter Delaloye's bird identification competitions are always popular amongst visitors. In conjunction with the Lee Valley Regional Park Tim Hill organised and led four events on otters, water voles, orchids and kingfishers throughout the year, which attracted over 100 participants. Society members were able to take part in other wildlife events organised by other natural history groups in the county due to the Society's very helpful Herts Wildlife Calendar of meetings in 'Field Notes'. Through these events and our web sites we enrolled 41 new members and our membership stood at 335 at the end of the year.
Michael Clark, Chairman
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