Butterflies have an AGM

On Saturday I left early to travel to Swindon for the Butterfly Conservation national AGM. I left in plenty of time, but when I arrived at the M4 at 9am a wide load travelling at 4mph caused a delay of 40 minutes by the time I had detoured around the queue.

The meeting was opened by Maurice Avent, Chair of BC Wiltshire Branch which did a wonderful job of hosting the AGM this year. The Butterfly Conservation Volunteer Awards were then presented, and our very own Neil Hulme received one, richly deserved for all his work for Sussex branch over the years as Conservation Advisor, walk leader, past chairman and many other duties.

The talks as always were very varied and interesting:

“The changing fortunes of Wiltshire’s butterflies” by  Mike Fuller, Recorder for Wiltshire.

“Long term changes in UK Butterflies” by  Dr Tom Brereton, BC Head of Monitoring

“Small but not brown - a window into the extraordinary diversity of the UK's micro-moths”  Dr Phil Sterling, author of Micro-moths: a field guide (I use this invaluable book)

“Conserving butterflies and moths in Morecambe Bay” by  Martin Wain, Morecambe Bay Limestones Project Officer

The keynote speech was “Sky Wars: Moths v Bats” by  Professor Gareth Jones, University of Bristol. He gave a fascinating account of bat and moth wars and described how counter measures are an ancient practice.

The AGM next year will be in Suffolk and hopefully Sue’s knee operations will have been successful and allow her to attend.

an early start

Outstanding Volunteer Award presentation to Neil Hulme by BC Chair, David Dennis

Lisa & Gary Richardson, Richard Lewington, Neil Hulme, Pete Eeles.

UKButterflies gave him the “2013 UK Butterflies Outstanding Contribution Award”.

Richard Lewington is the well known wildlife artist who created the print of the Long-tailed Blue that was presented to Neil.

Dr Phil Sterling

Martin Wain, Morecambe Bay Limestones Project Officer

Keynote speaker Professor Gareth Jones