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Journal of the RUTLAND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY Registered Charity Number 514693 www.rnhs.org.uk No 264 (276) September 2011 CONTENTS Noticeboard 1 Orthoptera report 13 F RNHS events 4 Plant galls report 18 Weather summary 6 Insects and others 18 Amphibian and reptile report 6 Glow-worm notes 20 i Bird report 7 Mammal report 22 Botany notes 10 Bat report 25 e Butterfly notes 11 Mycology 28 Moth notes 12 l NOTICEBOARD d Winter Programme and Membership Card This will come with this Fieldfare. Please sign it straight away (names of junior f members should be put on adults’ cards) and always carry it if you go to Eyebrook or Burley Wood, or use it for books at Uppingham Sports and Books. This card has details of events through to April 2012, so you can plan ahead. a As always, membership subscriptions are due promptly on January 1st. You can renew before that date. All who renew, by Standing Order, cheque or cash, will receive the next Membership Card (with summer programme) with March Fieldfare. Anyone who has only just joined, however, is not due to renew until 1.1.13. r Annual Report e Your Annual Report will be arriving with this Fieldfare. Chairman Mrs A Tomlinson Many thanks to the Recorders for another comprehensive report of the wildlife in River House, 9 Aldgate our area. It is a backbreaking job to get all this information together and the Society Ketton PE9 3TD is truly grateful for their work. 01780 721622 Secretary Mrs L Worrall 6 Redland Close New arrangements at Oakham Primary School from Barrowden LE15 8ES 01572 747302 October 2011 Membership Secretary Oakham CE Primary School has been completely rebuilt and is an extremely and Record Cards pleasant and high-specification building. It is on the same site, but as it is a new Mr G R Worrall structure, members need to be aware of different access and facilities arrangements. contact: as Secretary above Fieldfare Editor Timings: There is NO change to the timings of the meeting. We commence at 7.30 Mrs H Ellis pm and we wind up at 9.30pm. There will be access for members from around 7pm. Old Hunt’s Maltings Water Street Access and Parking: Access to the School is now directly off Burley Road. You Stamford PE9 2NJ can walk up to the front door from the road, and at either side of this pathway are 01780 482048 two small roads which lead off into very small parking areas. Eventually there Programme Secretary will be parking for a reasonable number of cars, but at the moment parking on Mrs D Whitefield site is restricted to these two areas only and there is unlikely to be room for more Dairy Cottage 33 Somerby Road than 15–20 cars (disabled spaces are marked, but this restriction can be ignored for Knossington LE15 8LY meeting nights). 01664 454578 Lonsdale Printing 01933 228855 We recommend that until the new parking area is Changes to Lepidoptera Recording finished, members try parking on nearby roads, Alistair Lawrence is now the Society’s Butterfly where possible. Recorder, taking over from Ron and Jean Harvey Venue: Our meetings will be held in the Main (former Lepidoptera Recorders) who will Hall. Access to this on meeting nights will be continue as the Society’s Moth Recorders. through the side door to the Hall adjacent to the Jean has sent us this about her history with the School’s front door. After 7 pm there will be a RNHS: Society committee member on hand to let you through. Ron and I joined RNHS in the mid 1980s and our interest in moths began following a visit to Facilities: Heating/cooling is entirely integral Dimminsdale wood with a Trust Group, where and automatic. The chairs are somewhat more they were operating UV traps. comfortable than the previous type! Toilets are We subsequently put together some homemade directly outside the Main Hall internal doors. traps ourselves, visited Rutland Water, Prior’s Teas/coffees will continue to be made available Coppice, Burley Wood, etc. and began collecting at the end of the meeting. The tables for these will records for RNHS. now be located in the Main Hall itself. In the summer of 1989 Monty Tyler, the then The School is kindly allowing us use of their Entomology Recorder, left for Cyprus and asked screen, digital projector and microphone system. us if we could take over. We had always had an The microphone is a lapel-mic, and this should interest in Butterflies, Dragonflies, etc., so it was obviate the sound problems encountered with the just getting more involved. As the years have hand-held mic at the previous building. gone by the Society has grown and the number FOR THE FIRST MEETING ONLY, this sound of records have multiplied; so that Phil took on system will not be available. We will institute Orthoptera, Roy Lemmon took on Plant Galls and alternative facilities, but they will obviously not Gill took on ‘Other Insects’. be as good as the facilities we will have use of The present change-over is the next stage of thereafter. PLEASE BEAR WITH US! delegating some more of the work! A Loop hearing system is installed in the Main The Society is truly grateful to the Harveys for Hall. their entomological recording over such a long We think the new School is a wonderful building period, for their continuing as Moth Recorders, and we shall very much enjoy being located there. and to Alistair for volunteering to become It is a magnificent addition to education provision Butterfly Recorder. in the area and facilities for families generally. Ann Tomlinson We are sure all members will be comfortable attending meetings in the new Hall. Any questions about these changes, please contact me. A new Honorary Member Ann Tomlinson When Mike Iannantuoni left the area last year, the Committee decided they would like to thank Mike for all his help and support to the RNHS over the years, in particular with sound Sound Recording Competition engineering, photography, programmes and When we arrived home from Spain, I opened posters, by making him an Honorary Member. my post, and had a lovely surprise! I have just Mike sent a lovely letter in return, and here is the won first place in the Sounds From Nature Class, text of that letter, received in April. again, for the 2011 contest, and 2nd place as Thank you for your recent letter and thank you well. I recorded both of these in France this May. and the RNHS Committee for appointing me an The first one has also been put forward for the Honorary Member of the Society. I am delighted forthcoming International Contest, so I’m keeping at becoming one of an ‘honoured’ select few. my fingers crossed for a winner in this category. I very much enjoyed my time with RNHS whilst The winning entry was a recording, in stereo, of in Rutland and will enjoy keeping up to date with Marsh Frogs, Tree Frogs, and a Midwife Toad. news ‘from a distance’. Phil Rudkin Ann Tomlinson IMPORTANT! National Planning it. But there is a strong groundswell, led by our friends and colleagues in national organizations, Policy Framework (NPPF) such as the National Trust, to try to force ministers You will no doubt have heard about this latest to think again. The RNHS and LRWT will make document from the Government. Frankly, formal objections. everything bad you have read about it is PRETTY But the more voices, the more chance ministers MUCH TRUE! will realize how wrong they are. Please, please The NPPF is supposed to deliver streamlined take time to write to your MP to voice your planning arrangements for the benefit of objections to this misguided government plan. communities and the economy. It goes hand-in- Please, if you can, go online and register your hand with the government’s policy on Localism, objections on the consultation itself: which is subject to a current Bill going through Parliament. The theory behind Localism is that it http://www.communities.gov.uk/ returns local governance back to local authorities planningandbuilding/planningsystem/ and residents, rather than using bureaucratic planningpolicy/planningpolicyframework/ machinery remote from the local scene. You can register your protest in the National Both documents contain fine words and Trust’s campaign here: sentiments, but the reality is much murkier. The https://www.planningforpeople.org.uk/ way things will work is that the Localism Bill ?campid=NPPFOA (debated in Parliament) purports to give local communities the say on what gets built where. or you can write direct to: But in fact, the planning policy they work under Department for Communities and Local is to be defined by the NPPF, and if a proposed Government development would be permitted by this policy Eland House the presumption is that it will happen, despite Bressenden Place what the local community might think of the London proposal. SW1E 5DU This is because the NPPF gives priority to The consultation period ends on 17th October. economic growth. Although this document Please act! pays lip service to the ideas of sustainability, Ann Tomlinson environmental protection and the importance of green space, wild areas and a healthy environment for us all, terms and actions are not clearly defined. By contrast there are clear A message from Kazakhstan directions that there should be a presumption for One of the great things about vounteering at, or planning applications to be permitted and for the indeed visiting, Birdfair, is that you can listen to planning process to be speeded up.