BC AGM and Members' Day
A superb day spent at Cheltenham Racecourse at the Butterfly Conservation AGM and Members' Day, hosted ably by the Gloucestershire branch. It was particularly enjoyable seeing the hills where I grew up as a boy in the distance, and where my love of butterflies first started. The area is now a BC reserve (see
http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/t ... shire.html).
Gary and Lisa manned the UKB stand and raised a good amount for BC, sales of the UKB calendar going particularly well.
The AGM business was followed by the Butterfly Conservation Volunteer Awards, with many worthy winners. After the welcome from Sue Smith (chair of Gloucestershire Branch), we heard from Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business, M&S who provided some insight into why "big business" is interested in conservation and why M&S and other organizations are becoming increasingly green. This was followed by a superb presentation from Jim Asher on "The state of butterflies in the UK: the results of the BNM survey 2005-9". This has resulted in the latest publication which will be available in the next 2 weeks or so - "The State of the UK's Butterflies 2011". As you might suspect, the picture is a mix of both losers and winners.
- Dr. Jim Asher
Orlando Bloom's mother, Sonia Copeland Bloom, then told her story of how she became engaged in butterflies, resulting in her latest book, "Crystal the Small Miracle".
The afternoon was packed with excellent presentations, starting with Matthew Oates discussing "Studies of Fritillaries in Gloucestershire", in particular, the plight of the Marsh Fritillary and Pearl-bordered Fritillary. I know Matthew is one of our most well-known Lepidoptera experts, but he demonstrated just how important careful observations and recording are, especially those conducted over long periods of time.
- Matthew Oates
Matthew was followed by Dan Hoare, the South East BC Regional Officer, who have a great talk on "Conserving butterflies and moths in the south-east woods", based on work performed across the south east in the previous 3 or 4 years. Dan was followed by the Marsh Awards, with some very worthy winners. But the highlight for me was seeing David Simcox pick up the well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. I've been lucky enough to spend a good amount of time with David over the years, on and off, (David is best know for his work, with Jeremy Thomas, on the Large Blue) and I can't think of a more worthy winner. An interview with David can be found here:
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/reports_davidsimcox.php
- David Simcox
The day concluded with Mike Dilger, BC Vice President and presenter on the One Show, giving us an entertaining talk covering his background, his promotion of Lepidoptera on the telly, and the challenges of getting more exposure for Lepidoptera on TV. The perfect combination of humour and information. "Infotainment", as he put it
- Mike Dilger
As ever, great to see so many UKBers at the event, which will be held in Nottingham next year.
Cheers,
- Pete
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