Dr Jocelyn Elson-Riggins is a locally-based Whale Poo Ambassador for the Rugvin Foundation and a self-employed research consultant specializing in the fields of marine biology, veterinary parasitology, and wildlife disease.

Jocelyn joins us on Thurs 13th March for her talk "Pooping for the planet: why whales are marine ecosystem engineers" in the Victoria Hall, High Street, Tisbury at 7:30pm. The doors to the Victoria Hall will be open from 7pm and the bar will be available then too. Members are free and guests £2 at the door.

Jocelyn obtained a BSc from Bangor University, an MS from California State University Long Beach and a PhD from the University of California, Riverside. She then spent four years lecturing at Montana State University Billings before undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), UK. Prior to becoming self-employed, Jocelyn was the Supervising Scientist of the RVC’s Clinical Investigation Centre laboratories. Most recently, she has been lecturing part-time at Bournemouth University.

In this session, Jocelyn will give an illustrated and entertaining talk on the roles whales play in marine ecosystems and in the mitigation of climate change. This will include findings from the latest scientific research. These discoveries have shattered previous assumptions about the importance of whales. Finally, she will talk about the threats whales face in today’s world and will open the floor to group discussion.

The Rugvin Foundation’s “Whale Poo Game” will be on display at the talk and if any Young Nature Watch members want to come have a look at it before the talk, they are most welcome. This game was developed as part of a workshop for school-age children. These uplifting and educational workshops are designed to raise awareness of how sustainable living and protection of whales can contribute to healthy ecosystems and the fight against climate change.

We would like to encourage those of you with children or grandchildren to visit the Dorchester Family Science Festival on Sun March 16th where Jocelyn will be running the game in conjunction with Prof. Genoveva Estaban and Dr Demetra Andreou of BU. The children will play the whale poo game first. They will then move on to Genoveva's table where they will see phytoplankton for themselves under the microscope. Then, they will learn about environmental DNA with Demetra. They will "process" water samples to generate a DNA barcode, which they will use to match to a specific marine organism (one of the ones they learned about in the whale poo game).

Recently the Society was given some Natural History books, kindly donated by Val Hopkinson when she left Tisbury. Three of these books have been accepted by Wiltshire Libraries for use in Tisbury Library, so they will be available for a wider audience. They are "The Wiltshire Flora", "The Butterflies of Wiltshire" and "Wild Flowers" by Sarah Raven.

We shall sell the remaining books at our meeting on Thurs 13th March with some additional books donated by Peter and Inés as a fundraiser for the Society. They have been priced at the lower end of the second hand market (from quick research online) and hope you'll support us in finding new homes for this interesting selection.  Please bring cash with you!

UPDATED TIMES

Our AGM will take place at 7.00pm on Thursday 13th February at the Victoria Hall, Tisbury and will be followed by a talk at 7.30pm entitled The Future of the British Landscape by Peter G Thompson, formerly of Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. 

Doors and the bar will open from 6:30pm.

Peter worked for the trust for more than 30 years until his retirement in 2018. In his position as farmland biodiversity officer, he is described as a huge inspiration for many of the Trust’s current farmland conservationists.

Before joining GWCT Peter worked as an agronomist and crop consultant for commercial companies. At the same time, our farmland research group, building on Hugh Oliver-Bellasis’ work, had developed many management techniques to help support grey partridges, especially developing insect-rich brood cover and nesting cover.
These ideas needed to be promoted to farmers by someone who understood arable farming – especially pesticide use - who was BASIS trained and could speak with confidence to farmers. Peter was perfect for the role.

Known for his ability to translate science and communicate the message effectively, Peter toured the country giving advice about arable crop management and partridges. People always understood him and were enthused by his passion for wildlife. He inspired people to do better and achieve more on their farms.

Peter was at the forefront of the development of Farmer Clusters and his ideas, drive and advocacy for a bottom up, farmer-led approach to conservation have helped influence current and future agri-environment policy. A farm walk led by Peter was always a jolly affair, but packed full of knowledge and useful advice.
​
Peter is also a keen birder and has taught himself the identification of UK moths.

Emma Procter

Every year, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) hold a citizen science photographic opportunity at New Year and we would like you to join in. To participate, you need to take a photograph of a wild flower blooming between December 29th 2024 and January 1st 2025. Email it to us by midnight on 2nd January 2025.

Make sure to include details of your name, an identification of the
wild flower and where the flower was blooming (a postcode or grid reference would be great but the name of the nearest place will be fine.) We will send a group entry of all of the photos to Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. In addition, we will display all of the photos on our website for everyone to enjoy. Below is some more
information about BSBI. 

    "The BSBI is for everyone who is interested in the flora of Britain and Ireland. We trace our origins back to 1836, when the society was founded as the Botanical Society of London. We are now one of the world's largest contributors of biological records: our data inform scientific research and underpin evidence-based conservation.

Whether you’re new to plant hunting or you’re already a botanical recorder, we need your help to discover which plants are managing to bloom in the middle of winter across Britain and Ireland.
 
Thousands of people take part in the Hunt every year and this is helping us build up a better understanding of how our wild plants are responding to changing autumn and winter weather patterns. The more we know, the more we can help conserve our wild plants and all the other wildlife they support."

Good luck with your quest! We are looking forward to seeing what you find. Find some top tips for your plant hunt here
​

Don't forget we have our Christmas drinks and a talk from Georgina Starkie on Dormice ecology and conservation on Thurs 12 December at the Victoria Hall, Tisbury. Doors will open at the earlier time of 6:30pm for drinks and food, with the talk starting at 7:30pm.

Georgie has extensive experience of dormice, having worked under the late Michael Woods and she delivers training for organisations such as The Mammal Society and the Wiltshire Mammal Group. She has worked as an Ecological Consultant since 2006 and has experience in ecological site appraisal, in particular for protected species and she holds Natural England licences to survey for bats, great crested newts and of course, dormice. 

Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre (WSBRC) have chosen Tisbury for their inaugural Wiltshire Recorders Forum, to be held at The Victoria Hall on Sunday 13th October. 

Peter Shallcross and Inés López-Dóriga will be giving presentations alongside others from local groups, organisations and individuals with an interest in biological recording and monitoring wildlife in Wiltshire. This event is free and you will find the programme on the eventbrite link below when you reserve your place.

80 spaces available, please book here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/wsbrc-wiltshire-recorders-forum-tickets-1027878380907

Date: Sunday 13th October, 10-4pm
Venue: The Victoria Hall in Tisbury, 5a High Street, Tisbury SP3 6HD
Free Parking at: Nadder Close, Tisbury SP3 6JJ
Alternative Parking at Tisbury Station and around the village.
Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided.

In the place of our first indoor meeting of the autumn, but happening on Wednesday 11 September at 5.30 pm, we have an evening visit to a new small private nature reserve at Swallowcliffe, at the home of society members Esther and Matthew Phillips.

Numbers will be limited so please email us if you can join us. Please note our first talk of the season, on the 12 September, has been postponed to a future date to be announced.

​The Talks page and programme have been updated.
​

There will be space for members to join the YNW activity at the Hinton Hall on Sunday 14th July at 10am. Do come along to see what Andrew Graham has found in his moth traps from the previous night. 

This Saturday CPRE are celebrating Earth Day with three interesting talks in the beautiful surroundings of Langford Lakes. 

Earth Day talks 
​
Lynn Trigwell
Lynn is a Landscape Architect who has worked in both the private and public sectors. Since 2018 she’s been Head of Climate and Environment for Wiltshire Council. She oversees a wide range to services delivered by the Council in partnership with local communities and local interest groups, landowners and managers, statutory bodies and 3rd sector organisations such as Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. These areas include Archaeology, Landscape, Urban Design and Ecology and in February this year Climate was added. Lynn will be speaking about some of the activities that her teams are working on and share some of the exciting new pilot work they are supporting on the council’s own landholdings.

Balancing the challenges and opportunities for our natural environment in Wiltshire.


Alex Atkinson
 
Alex oversees the management the Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts 20 southern reserves, including lowland bog, ancient woodland and everything on the successional scale between the two.
 
Restoring natural processes - practical examples for a managed landscape.


Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson originally trained as an agronomist, advising farmers for 10 years. He then went on to work for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, as their Farmland Ecology adviser, giving guidance to land managers across UK farms. He covers a wide range topics on countryside issues in the talks he gives and leads many training events related to the management of habitats and the wildlife that lives there. He ran the pilot scheme looking into the potential of “Farmer Clusters” for Natural England – which of course has now been widely adopted across the UK.
Now “retired”, amongst many other activities, Peter is Chair of the Salisbury & District Natural History Society.

The countryside’s future – my shot at seeing the wood through the trees