So many members brought along slides and talks for this evening that not all of them could be included, so that Brian Spooner's talk on trees had to be held over until a future date. The items presented were as follows.
A winter's day at Slimbridge: Peter Hambrook showed a selection of excellent slides of waterfowl taken only a couple of weeks ago during a visit to the world-famous reserve.
South African birds and other animals: a beautiful sequence of slides taken during two holidays to the country last year by Ray Wilson, set (fittingly) to music from the film "Out of Africa".
Brooklands Museum Surveys: Ross Baker, Dick Alder and Chris Brading discussed the findings from initial surveys for bats, birds, invertebrates, plants and fungi (some further details are presented below).
The Biermann funnel: David Taylor described how he had fashioned his very own version of this equipment - designed to extract microscopic invertebrates from soil - in order to provide food for his collection of exotic bladderworts, which trap and digest live prey in tiny bladders on their roots.
Colony collapse disorder in bees: beekeeper Sandra Rickwood discussed the latest theories behind this disturbing phenomenon.