Newsletter LEICESTER LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Spring 2015 Number 100 The longer days will soon be upon us when we will be resuming our summer pro- gramme. Once again, I want to thank everyone for their fantastic support related to the Newsletter. I have received a large number of articles for this edition and it has been impossible to include them all and therefore they will be published next time. I hope you enjoy this Newsletter as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Since it is our 100th issue, I am going to hand over the front page to Jan, our presi- dent who works tirelessly for the Natural History Section, to tell us about the history of the Newsletter. The copy date for the Autumn Edition is 23 August 2015 Celebrating the100th issue of the Newsletter: Jan Dawson The first number of the Natural History Newsletter was brought out and edited in spring 1963 by Ian Evans, who had arrived in Leicester in 1959 as the then Assistant Keeper of Biology at the New Walk Museum. Dynamic and with a strong commit- ment to community service, he set about promoting the relevance of the Museums Inside this issue: Service within the local natural history scene. At that time, the Botany and Zoology Sections were the only two Sections of the Page Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society dealing with natural history. A third, the A Winter’s Tale 5 very popular Ornithological Section had split off from the Parent Body in 1946 as a society in its own right. In 1962, Ian suggested the two biological sections should Hawk-moths 6 amalgamate as the Natural History Section and the following year inaugurated the Toadlets on the march 7 first Newsletter. Based on the example of the Loughborough Naturalists’ Club magazine “Heritage”, it would deal largely with classified systematic records but it “Abundance” 8 was also to act as a means of communication between members and other local naturalists. It would be issued quarterly and the new Natural History Section’s em- Do you have Mice? 9 blem of a badger’s head illustrated the first cover. So the Newsletter started off Lea Meadows 10 chiefly as a method of collating records to get some idea of the status and distribu- tion of plants and animals throughout the county, with the aim of seeing how this Weather 11 might change over time. The winter of 1962 had been brutal, only too clearly demon- strating the important effect that the weather had on the wildlife and by the third issue A green corridor 12 Hilda Gawadi had been persuaded to write up detailed weather reports, which were Rutland rambles 14 maintained until 1966. Horse a botanist? 18 By 1965, Ian was becoming increasingly involved with conservation work. Issues 11 and 12, notable for a survey of hedgerows were combined and also issues 13 to 16, Crossword 19 in which a survey of garden birds had been set up. The results were given in issue Society Information 20 17 and it is intriguing to find here an early record of overwintering blackcaps, possibly as a result of the new interest in feeding garden birds throughout the winter. The Newsletter then folded till the spring of 1974 when the then Chairman Lang Lewis Celebrating the 100th issue of the Newsletter continued decided to revive it. There were to be only two issues a tographers were now happier to contribute and, as the year in the spring and autumn and the Newsletter would Section membership includes an enviable selection of no longer have a section devoted to systematic records. exceptional wildlife photographers, we now have a very Members were encouraged rather to contribute personal attractive Newsletter. anecdotes and observations, in addition to the reports of So much for the actual production of the Newsletter and local surveys and research. At this time the Biology Sec- the stalwart Section members who made it happen. The tion of the Museum was setting up a separate Ecology all-important content is enormously variable, informative Unit and Records Centre and possibly it was felt that that and fascinating. Areas covered include formal surveys, side of the Newsletter’s remit was being handled profes- locally based or on behalf of national institutions, informal sionally, ensuring a direct feed into the planning process. reports of members’ local patches and specialist inter- In spring 1975 the Newsletter went metric on A4 and ests, write-ups of winter meetings and summer field trips Lang was already appealing for someone to provide de- throughout Leicestershire and Rutland and in the 1970s tailed weather reports, commenting the while in his edito- and 80s, of out-of-county excursions and weekends away rials. In 1981, Harry Gabbitas stood in as acting editor, – even of holidays abroad. Ian Evans, now retired to As- leaving Lang to write the weather reports himself, main- synt in Scotland – nearly abroad! —has contributed inter- taining this until 1989, when the job was taken over by esting reports of wildlife from the far northwest on and off Jim Venables. In 1995, Jim was succeeded by Dorothy since 1993. Phillips who maintained this important tradition until 2007. Any selection must be invidious but among formal sur- But since then, in spite of appeals, this aspect of the veys of particular importance we may include the Field-by Newsletter was not covered until 2014, when Tim Harts- -Field Survey organised by Ian at the Museum and the horne gallantly stepped into the breach. And there is no Phenological Survey initiated by the British Naturalists’ doubt that, particularly in this time of climate change, this Association. The Field-by-Field Survey of land use is an area we should try to keep our eye on. throughout the county was set up in the late 1960s – al- In 1982, Harry handed over to Doreen Thompson who though the idea had been proposed by a member of the did a sterling job as editor until illness forced her resigna- then Botany Section in the early 1900s! Areas of possi- tion in 2005. In spring 1999 we get the first photo repro- ble natural history interest were to be marked up on 6″ duced in the Newsletter – of our fungus foray on Beacon maps and specialists then detailed off to evaluate them. Hill and in autumn 2000, we have another of an owl pellet Many such areas became Sites of Special Scientific Inter- consisting of an entire digested mole! That issue also est, even National Nature Reserves and were given statu- had a Millennium face-lift of new green covers and a bold tory protection, while others were purchased by the Wild- front cover design by Maurice Heighway. A third photo, life Trust, all ensuring sympathetic management. of a coelacanth, illustrated a book review in the spring In 1974, Alan Morton, our then Secretary, introduced the 2001 issue but the reproduction of the Newsletter by pho- Phenological Survey to the Section. Members were tocopying, while cheap and adequate for text, was fairly asked to note the timing of such events as the flowering disastrous for photographs. It was not till Maggie of particular plants, the spawning of amphibians, the arri- Frankum took over as editor in 2006 that determined ef- val and departure of migrant birds, etc, all in relation to forts were made to incorporate them in the Newsletter. the weather. Analyses of the survey forms were written The layout was altered to two columns per page to en- up by Alan for three years until he left the county, when sure no waste of space and the use of digital photo- Duncan McNeil and Frank Clark undertook the job. But in graphs meant that adjustments could be made before 1982, the survey forms become more complicated and their incorporation into the computer file and its subse- the Sections’ enthusiasm waned. quent printing. But it was a tricky business and the final photocopied result was still disappointing. Other Section surveys have covered Leicestershire am- phibians, fresh-water life at Foxton Locks, and as the new Maggie resigned at our AGM in spring 2014 and we were reservoir was filling, at Rutland Water. There are News- very grateful to new member Pouran Khodabakhsh who letter reports on the wildlife value of the disused Gran- offered her services. At this point the Committee decided tham Canal, then under threat of restoration, of the the Newsletter should be reproduced digitally, ensuring Aylestone Meadows and the three areas of NE Leicester- better definition – and we could have colour photos! Pho- Page 2 Celebrating the 100th issue of the Newsletter continued shire for which new coalmines were being proposed. In Tony Fletcher first introduced the Section to lichens 2004, Dorothy Phillips organised Section members to as- but, more recently, it has been Ivan Pedley who has sist the Wildlife Trust in recording on their reserves and encouraged members to tackle these difficult organ- most recently Jan Dawson suggested the Section check isms, half fungus, half alga, but now recognised as out the Welford Road Cemetery. This report, with manage- important indicators of air quality. ment recommendations, was sent to the Council in 2011. Phil Lucas was the Section’s fern expert early on but Over the years, naturalists have emphasised the value of a vascular plants have always had a strong following, long-term study of a particular patch and several members Edith Hesselgreaves, already mentioned, Steve have adopted this approach. For some 15 years, Edith Woodward, Ian Evans and his wife Pat, one of the Hesselgreaves, one of the 1988 Flora recorders, reported authors of the 1988 Flora and, most recently, mem- on the wildlife, especially the plants of her home parish of bers who are also members of the Botanical Society Groby, while Harold Godsmark did the same for Shearsby, of the British Isles.