Members Evening, 16th November 1996

Mentbers

Evening, 16th November, 1996

Our Chairman welcomed some 25 members to what promised to be an enjoyable evening. In his introduction he outlined the programme and gave a warm welcome to Michael Chinery who had joined us for the evening to judge the photographic competition. Richard Stewart gave an update on the second. year of recording for the Millennium Atlas. He highlighted the additional cecrads chat had been covered this year and the increase in records of some species. Richard suggested chat we should all sec ourselves a target of looking upwards far more often in 1997 to improve recording of Purple Hairstreak and Whice-leccer Hairstreak for that matter. He also expressed the need for greater effort to find Dingy Skipper sites which will be reflected in our 1997 Field Trips. On the subject of migrants, there was the inevitable mention of Painted Ladies and the Silver Y and even more exciting, the hopes for Queen of Spain F ritillary which seem keen on visiting Suffolk each year lately. Tony Prichard's talk on moths outlined the plans for moth recording in the coming years. He talked about the 23 moth species found in Suffolk that are of national importance and their particular habitat requirements. Tony also outlined how these species feature in the Regional Action Plans. Moths almost always cake second place to butterflies and as a result are underrecorded. The Branch is making plans to increase considerably the recording, knowledge and interest in moths. Whilst we were all enjoying midevening refreshments, Michael Chinery continued with his judging of the photographs. Directly we were all re-seated he lee us into the secrets of what he looked for in a good picture and derailed the points that had led to his decision. The outcome was a total success for Tony Prichard our Conservation Officer (Moths) winning both Butterfly and Moth categories. Well done Tony. Our Chairman then went on to explain our work with the Regional Action Plan of which more can be read in a separate item in this newsletter.

The evening drew to a close with a general discussion followed by thanks to the Butterfly Hotel who again were our sponsors for the occasion.