nurture Nature too, rather than letting others get away with destroying it. I’m afraid I plan to return to this need by proposing in the next issue another avenue of action that many members can contribute to. - Merry Christmas Meantime enjoy this issue’s articles and look out for our Christmas competition - a quiz of 50 questions scattered throughout this issue. Answer
all correctly and you could qualify for entry into the prize draw. Also the Group’s Secretary has asked me to remind you that we still need a lot of members’ email addresses. Thanks to those that have already supplied addresses, as it makes the process of getting important messages to you both quicker and easier. Finally, on behalf of the entire Council, we’d like to wish you the compliments of the season.
Views expressed in The Harrier are not necessarily those of the editor or the Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group.
John Grant
SOG 40th Anniversary Celebration In a rather surreal moment during the Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group’s 40th anniversary celebration night, about 200 people burst into song. The familiar strains of “Happy Birthday”, under the conductorship of Derek “Maestro” Moore, may not have matched the mellifluous warblings of, say, a Nightingale. In fact, they may well have sounded more like the flatulent raspings of a Great Bustard, but it hardly seemed to matter. The thought was there. And, more to the point, the camaraderie was there. That sense of togetherness, that uplifting sense of sharing a common interest with like-minded human beings, that sense of simply enjoying the company of other birders, surely pervades the Group’s entire existence – and it certainly pervaded the celebrations that took place at The Cut - an excellent auditoriumcum-bar-cum-coffee-shop-cum-gallery in Halesworth, on November 18.
birding – the simple enjoyment of meeting old friends, swapping stories, reminiscing, simply having a laugh. All of that, thankfully, was there in abundance at The Cut. It was especially nice to see some very longstanding group members in attendance – among them founder-member Mike Jeanes, who will forever be associated with the Golden Oriole in Suffolk, such has been his dedication to the species.
The Group linked up with the Waveney Bird Club with the aim of making it an extraspecial evening with a bumper turn-out, and both targets were hit – exceeded even – in a marvellous milestone for both organisations. - a special event Many elements combined to make it so special but one really stood out. It was one aspect of ornithology that sometimes gets forgotten about in all the somewhat po-faced science of, say, avian taxonomy, or the minutiae of emarginations, as important as they may be. It was the social side of Derek Moore OBE, our speaker in full flow
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