Photographs of scorched Aspen at Broxbourne Gravel Pits at the end of July tell their own story of the increasingly severe effects of this summer's record temperatures and drought.

Do you know an outstanding Hertfordshire naturalist or someone who has made outstanding contribution to natural history in our county? If so, consider nominating them for one of the HNHS's prestigious Awards this year.

Spindle bushes along Hertfordshire's Beane Valley are being stripped bare of leaves by a spectacular eruption of caterpillars.

HNHS member Harry Bott was astonished by the sight of a bush smothered in the silken webs protecting thousands of feeding caterpillars on his farm at Bennington, near Stevenage. As he puts it: "The most extraordinary sight that I have never seen before in 60 years of farming here."