Happy New Year – it's our big anniversary!
The New Year is here – and with it we start celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society, which includes the Herts Bird Club.
Keep an eye on the website for information about anniversary year activities, and make a diary note of these three upcoming events:
2025 Herts Bird Conference set for Saturday 8 March
Make a New Year date with the annual Herts Bird Conference from 2pm to 5.30pm on Saturday 8 March 2025 at the offices of Affinity Water, Tamblin Way, Hatfield AL10 9EZ.
The speakers will include Ken Smith reporting on the conclusion of a long-running study of Green Sandpipers at Lemsford Springs and James Heywood of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) who will be looking back on 30 years of the national Breeding Bird Survey (BBS).
2025 Gerald Salisbury Memorial lecturer announced
Entomologist Adrian Dutton will give the 2025 Gerald Salisbury Memorial lecture which takes place on Wednesday 22 January in Welwyn Civic Centre* (8pm).
He will talk about the saproxylic beetles of Panshanger Park, reporting on exciting findings from his recent survey work with Tarmac and Natural England supporting efforts to improve the site's wildlife potential.
The 1,000 acre park, near Hertford, has emerged as one of the most important habitats nationally for saproxylic beetles, which require decaying wood habitats.
The ups and downs of Hertfordshire's butterfly species
There was good news and bad when recorder Andrew Wood reported on the changing status of Hertfordshire's butterflies at the Society's Autumn Meeting on Saturday 16 November.
Enthusiasm for wildlife education links HNHS Award winners
Two expert naturalists with a passion for sharing their knowledge about wildlife with future generations are winners of the 2024 HNHS Awards
Stephen Lings, posthumous winner of the Trevor James Award for an outstanding Hertfordshire naturalist was county recorder for bees, wasps millipedes and centipedes before his sad death in March, aged 63. But his natural history achievements went far beyond that, as the Society's Autumn Meeting heard on Saturday 16 November.