Photographic Group

The indoor meetings continue to be enthusiastically attended after our move to St Agnes but the last two field trips have had fewer people. If you have an interest in photography please come along to the field meetings where we can share information and photographic techniques. The more eyes we have the more we are going to find.

Despite the low numbers we have had a couple of successful trips out with good photographs of marsh fritillaries, four spotted chasers and green-winged orchids to name but a few. The next scheduled trip is to Cardinham Woods on 16th November/ to photograph fungi. Do try to come along. Don't forget that the deadline for handing in competition entries will be at the October indoor meeting (for classes see the last Wild Cornwall).

I am very sad to report that the photo group has been shocked by the deaths of two of its key members. Stewart Clark was one of the most knowledgeable of naturalists the group has known. He was always willing to share his knowledge and help in any way he could he will be dearly missed. Ed Trathen was a committed member of the group and an excellent photographer with a keen sense of humour; there are many people that will be honoured to be remembered as his friend.

David Chapman

Bat Group

A fine start to the summer meant that bats had their young early and got the season off to a good start. Pipistrelles were moving colony sites by early July indicating that young may have been flying by then.

The Bat Group took a survey trip to the Isles of Scilly at the end of July. This was a four-day trip to do simultaneous counts of roosts on different islands/ to build up an idea of the bat population on the islands. At the time of writing the bats are thought to be common pipistrelles but the survey may reveal that there are other species present. Dawn and dusk watches took place to enable us to track bats back to previously unknown roosts.

Daniel Eva