Philip gave a fascinating talk.  His excellent photographs were explained in a very light hearted manner that did nothing to detract from the talk.  A really excellent speaker that we will hope to welcome back in the future.

"Heart of Oak" John Wyatt 

John gave us a wonderful insight into the life in and around a mature oak tree.  His talk described  that the oak has the largest variety of dependent species of any tree in the UK.  These species were illustrated and described in clear and interesting detail.  John is certainly always a welcome speaker for us to have.

Tony and Anne gave us their customary excellent talk on a region little known to most of our members.  The talk was based on three visits and we were able to see birds at most times of the year.  Anne, the photographer had taken some magnificent shots of Sandhill Cranes in early morning frost and fog and these in particular were enjoyed by us all.  The beauty of this couple is the way they interact during the talk and clearly they are a couple of excellent people to have as speaker and photographer.  We hope to have them back in  the near future.  

Tim gave us another truly eye-opening and fascinating insight into the camouflage and mimicry used in the natural world.  He pointed out that in most cases humans do not really 'see' what is there.  They only notice what they expect to see.  This apparently also goes on in the natural world.  We must have been going around for a long time with our eyes closed!  We look forward to having Tim back in the future.

Richard is an accidental entomologist having decided whilst still at school that it was essential for him to have an additional nature interest during the quiet period of the year for birds which of course coincided with the summer holidays.  He decided against plants - too sedentary and butterflies and moths - vegetarian and opted instead for dragonflies and damselflies.  His interest was endorsed when he realised that Northants was badly represented on the distribution maps.  He promptly got a whole range of sightings confirmed and he eventually became recorder for Northants about fourteen years ago.  His talk was well illustrated with all the common varieties and most of the rarer ones.  His enthusiasm as an amateur was highly infectious and he must one of the best speakers that we have had on non birding subjects.

David gave us a wonderful insight into the life and times of the man that was clearly the father of British ecology.  One of Gilbert White's main achievements was to divide an existing single species into three, the Willow Warbler, the Chiffchaff and the Wood Warbler.  This was all done without use of binoculars!  He not only distinguished between the three by their calls but also by the leg colour.  What a man! The Group was so enthralled by David's talk that we had more questions than for a very long time.

"Chasing the Day: the extraordinary effect of light on birds and their behaviour"  Keith Offord

Keith maintained his record as one of our best speakers.  He kept us enthralled with his slides and his talk on the fascinating subject of the importance of light, or rather the changing length of light on a daily basis, on the behaviour of birds.  The ability of birds to notice even the slightest difference in the trend to lengthening or shortening of the day's length has a tremendous influence on the bird whether it is to sing, to breed or even to commence migration.

Kevin gave an excellent insight into the serious decline in the numbers of Yellow Wagtails in England.  The main problems appear to be associated with changes in British farming techniques and climatic changes and hunting that exist in their winter grounds

Graham made a very welcome return to the group.  His talk covered the influence of modern farming methods on the machair and other important aspect of local environmental aspects such as the introduction of the hedgehog which eats so many eggs.  His slides were superb and were augmented by evocative sound effects.