Berwick Wildlife Group

Present: : Fiona Aungier, Molly Hardie, John Inglis, Elizabeth Martin Fisher, Enid Turnbull, M. Williams, Gill Young.

Apologies:. Leslie Cook, Malcolm Hutcheson, John Rae.

Items	Subject	Decisions to Make	Outcome
1	Minutes of last meeting	Agreed?	Agreed
2	Matters arising not below	Discuss briefly.	None.
3	Recent events and surveys.	.	Trees E.Ord & Castle Ter. Went well & proved very interesting. FA is to write to Philip Miller. Reptiles One brief sighting of a lizard + toad and frog tadpoles. Season too dry for many banded snails but EMF found enough for recording. Bats Two visits to viaduct and bats seen but none actually emerging from it; roost may be nearby. Bioblitz FA & LC attended bat session. Pip. + Soprano Pip. detected around village. Good numbers of orchids and other flowers on Snook, finding them made easier with Phil Davey's help (Botanical leader could not attend). GY has excellent pictures. Bees First day rained off, second this coming Saturday. Butterflies Some good sightings recently. M Hardy proposed exchange of last week's findings between groups. Good idea! Goody Patchy Excellent walk led by Maurice McNeely. Thanks to him, & to EMF for write-up for Advertiser. Squirrels All three surveys in Kyloe completed. No sign of further grey incursion. JI saw a red (+ a cuckoo) at Ford Moss.
4	Forthcoming events and surveys	.	Bats Ruth Haddon is attending the Riverdene survey. Discussion on light pollution. Bumblebees 2 All set to go ahead. Whin sill Grassland This + photography needs to be attended to as soon as possible. FA to arrange.
5	Green Festival, Sun 28th June. Theme: Seas and Coasts. Timetable for helpers.	.	After much discussion it was agreed that the effort of preparation, setting up and manning stall was not justified by results on the day – especially as few of us to do it this year. Also, last year, conversation was completely drowned out by the deafeningly loud live music. BWG will give event a miss this year.
6	Future events.	.	OPAL (Open Air Labs.) want BWG to hold hour-long sessions examining lichens, etc., to assess air pollution in September. OPAL supports wildlife groups, and will put link to Group on their website. Agreed. Carboniferous Rocks AONB event, 15th.July, 2-4pm. Meet at pillbox, Cocklawburn.March 10th 2010. Graham Bell, topic tba. Possibly Arctic Flowers. M Hardy to organise. AGM 2010 to be followed by a speaker (suggestions?); also a display of group's work. M Hardy to enquire about a leader for fungus foray in autumn.
7	Donations	.	Donation of £50 gratefully received from Gerard McDonnell and Howden’s Joinery. FA to write thanks and send photos of handover. This, together with cash in hand will enable purchase of new heterodyne bat detector.
8	Tesco	.	Article on the new Tesco site appeared on front page of Advertiser. It appears that the e-consultation hub will not be active for several months yet, so plans can only be viewed at Council offices. M Hardy proposed a further copy of M Hutcheson’s recommendations for tree planting be sent to Tesco, with copy to Council at Morpeth. FA to carry this out.
9	Any other business	.	None.
10	Date/venue of next Meeting	.	15th July, then 19th Aug at Castle Hotel.(7.00 @ The Castle).