Download PDF - Nature in Cambridgeshire

The Zoological, Botanical, Entomological and Geological sections eachheld some six meetings during the season. In addition, a new section dealingwith ~icrohiolo& was launched in the Michaelmas term and got off toa good start. The Conversarione nnd Annual General 41eeting were held inthe Universitv Zooloeical Deoartment on 14 March.Members 'f the ~rgst are now entitled to attend the General Meetings ofthe Society.Subscriptions: Life Membership: 401-, Annual: lo/-, (compounding toLife after 4 years), Members of Homerton and Hughes Hall (annual): 51-,Undergraduates (3 years): 151-.Applications to: Mr I. Hephurn, 8 Millington Road, CB3 9HP(City Secretary)Mr C. H. Pickup, Downing College (University Secretary)FIELD MEETINGS IN 1969Besides the field meetings held jointly with the Cambridge Natural HistorySociety, there were three joint meetings with the Cambridge Bird Club tomore distant sites. They were as follows:Sunday 18 May Cley salt-marshes, NorfolkSunday8 June Minsmere and Walherswick, SuffolkSunday 21 September Norfolk coastAll arrangements for these three excursions were made by the Bird Club,to whom we are most grateful. A smaller number of meetings were organisedby the Trust in 1969, but these were very well attended. In 1970 theexcursions will take the form of 'open days' on the Trust's Nature Reserves.The 1969 excursions were as follows:Saturday, 15 February, Welches Dam WashesThe sight and sound of at least 200 Bewick's Swans and hundreds ofWigeon and Mallard greeted the 35 members who braved the arctic windas they climbed on to the bank at Welches Dam. Apart from the cold, itwas a gloriously fine day with the sun shining down on the vast stretches ofice that covered all the further eastern two-thirds of the washes. But thedeeper water flowing down the Old Bedford river and the River Delph hadkept open the nearer flood-water in our reserve, and it was on this that itwas possible to see a marvellous display of wildfowl. Away in the distancewere thousands more Mallard and Wigeon, swimming or standing on theice, together with more herds of Bewick's and Mute Swans, and a gatheringof Greater Black-backed and Herring Gulls. Incidentally it was easy toappreciate how the Mute Swans acquired their name, for the much smallerBewicks kept up a continuous chatter all the afternoon.13