Founded 1889 – Affiliated to Yorkshire Naturalists' Union
2017 January 24th
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON: Tuesday 24th Janunary 2017
VENUE: St Catherine's Hospice Education Centre ATTENDANCE: 25 Members & guests.
CHAIRMAN: Nicholas Gibbons was in the Chair.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Brian Walker, Frank Sheader.
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING(s): Minutes from 10th January 2017 were distributed.
MATTERS ARISING: None.
CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED: YNU had sent information regarding the spring conference on 8th April. P. Popely stated Rye Nats and Whitby Nats were sending somebody and Rob Stark stated he may attend. If anyone else was interested please contact Rob Stark.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: The dates of the first two outdoor meetings were announced. Details of meeting places and times will shortly be on the web site. The rest of the outdoor meetings have not been finalised and volunteers are requested for leaders. On advice Sandale has been cancelled due to site sensitivity.
The proposed coach trip to Saltholme was discussed with a view to gauging members interest.
Coffee and biscuits were present for a £1 donation to the Society. It was noted that only 7 coffees were consumed and the the provision of this will be reviewed after the February meeting
RECORDS AND REPORTS: for period 10th Jan to 24th Jan
Pauline Popely – Toad on 19th Jan at Hilperley Beck,
Steve Bushell – Good numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare at Hern Head Farm, Also Brown hare and Stoat not in ermine,
Melanie Earle – An unusually large count of Dandelions in flower at Northmoor and 40 Lapwings and a Barn owl at Wykeham.
Robin Hopper – Dead hedgehog on road at Ravenscar
Ginny Leeming – 6 Reed buntings and 8 Brown hares at Hutton Buscel
Stuart Baines – Bottle nose dolphin had been seen off Long Nab and reports of a group of 4 and a group of 2 White-beaked dolphins off Marine Drive. A Humpback whale had also been reported off Tyneside.
Mandy – 19 Curlew on the Scalby rugby club pitch.
Ian Glaves – Red-breasted merganser, Great northern diver and Black-necked grebe in the harbour. Velvet scoter and Long-tailed duck also in South bay. Waxwings reproted from Seamer road.
Nick Gibbons reported 6 Waxwings from Barmoor Road on the 24th and the 16 Shorelarks were still at Crookness and are propably the same birds that have been seen there regularly since Dec of last year.
A Whooper swan was also visible in the field to the west of Scalby pond.
Graham – 3 Roe deer near Hunmanby,
SPEAKER FOR THE EVENING:
Karen Saunders spoke about the river Derwent partnership. This is a partnership of a wide range of organisations to provide a coordinated approach to the management of the River Derwent. One of her key roles is to source funding for many of the identified projects and to encourage community involvement. She showed the area of the catchment and the latest situation regarding water quality in the various streams etc that make up the catchment. Some of the projects undertaken were involved in slowing the flow to reduce flooding including porous dams such as those above Pickering which had been so successful in 2015. Although this only lowered flood levels by a few inches the impact is quite dramatic.
Karen was interested in potential project ideas from the community and gave contact details for a Derwent project newsletter and also for the Duke of Burgundy project. There is also a phone ap for logging water quality observations.
The date of the next meeting is 21st Feb 2017. The speaker is Dr Nicky Dobson and she is talking on 'Capturing our coast'.