News archive

January 2009

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Indoor Meeting - The Birds and Wildlife of Yellowstone and the Grand Teton by Ian Rowlands

I thought this was an outstanding presentation by a former RSPB warden (at Loch Garten, Minsmere and Titchwell) who founded the tour group Speyside Wildlife (now sold on) and who is currently co-owner of the company Planet Whale and a trustee of the whale and dolphin charity ORCA.
The Yellowstone and Teton National Parks are one of the largest temperate-zone ecosystems on earth. A protected wilderness the size of Scotland, they offer hotels, easy motoring and friendly rangers. The two-part talk was a mixture of facts, stunning atmospheric photographs and amusing anecdotes which held the attention from beginning to end. Pictures and stories about bison, pronghorn antelope, moose, beaver, grizzly and black bears, coyote and the re-introduced (but carefully monitored) wolf were interspersed with those covering trumpeter swan, bald eagle, mountain bluebird, American robin, great grey owl, cedar waxwing, bufflehead (a lovely photograph), Brewer's blackbird, Swanson's hawk and many others. We learnt, for instance, that there are 350 - 400 grizzlies and about 600 black bears in the Parks and that the re-introduction of the wolves had resulted in an increase in the number of pronghorn antelopes because the wolves targeted the coyote. And then there was the scenery: spectacular views of lakes, prairies, wild flowers and trees set against the background of the stunning Teton mountains; the Hayden Valley; and, of course, the fabulous geothermal areas including what must be the world's best known geyser, "Old faithful". The lovely autumnal shot of Oxbow Bend in particular remains in my mind. All in all, a gripping evening well worth the journey on a cold January night.

Brian Shreeve

Saturday, 10 January 2009

Quiz Nite 2009

Quiz Nite 2009 at New Haw Hall started pretty much like most other years, Craig and Louise turned up from Wales, Craig to be Question Master and Louise to kindly help in the kitchen along with Angela, Avril, Mary and Marion. Two Alans, Peter, Craig and his friends helped to get the Hall ready and by 7.15pm everything was in place for a flying start at 7.30pm. Teams started to arrive and the general buzz of conversation gave an air of anticipation....Was there a team out there to topple Hannah and friends from the top place?

Our "Ref" and Master of the Questions was on form and charmingly adorned in black Estonian hat with red bobbles and having decided that speed was of the essence, had also turned up in Mary's black gym lycra with the go-faster pink stripes! Ah well ..no accounting for taste!!

With nibbles and crisps adorning the tables and wine and drinks flowing the first round got off to a cracking start.. With slightly different rounds this year there was some quizzical looks around the room. A round about Food had replaced the traditional Geography questions and a round about TV replaced the usual Entertainment round. But obviously these changes did not cause too much consternation as by the finish only 22 separated the 9 teams.

The decision about when to play the Joker ended up being most significant this year as nearly all teams chose well and did well. However, there were two teams, had they played their Joker in a different round ....could have won!!

The final result,:
yet again Hannah and her Hellraisers beating
The Twitchwells into second place by just 2 points.

Once again Hannah's team kindly gave their prizes back, a very generous gesture to the RSPB. Karen (Simon's sister) and husband Stuart (Simon having succumbed to Flu missed this year) kindly sold Raffle tickets. The total sum raised £377 which will go towards Lowland Heathlands and Coastal Marine Life in the South East.