Speaker: Zoe Smith
Reporter: Sue Gale

The club was very happy to see Zoe return following her previous talk about Peregrines. Her new job with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation saw her intimately involved with the reintroduction programme of White-tailed Sea Eagles in the Isle of Wight.
The focus of the organisation is wildlife conservation and species recovery and Roy Dennis himself has been involved in reintroduction programmes of Osprey, Red Kite, Golden Eagle and Sea Eagle.

Speaker: Carl Chapman
Reporter: Sue Gale

In March we were lucky to welcome Carl Chapman – in person – to an indoor meeting. Sadly, it seemed that a good half of the membership was absent because of Covid! Carl is a noted local naturalist and photographer who runs a tour company called Wildlife Tours and Education; he is the
County Recorder for cetaceans, Chair of the Liaison Committee of Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society and he set up the Marine Conservation for Norfolk Action Group, to name just some of his many hats. He does consider himself principally an ornithologist, and he certainly knows his birds.

Speaker: Matt Eade
Reporter: Sue Gale

Matt Eade works for Naturetrek and manages tours to Shetland for that company, so he was keen to convince us that it is a splendid place to go birding. And I can vouch for the fact that he is dead right, having been a number of times and intending to go again. Shetland is the most Northerly archipelago in the British Isles – by some distance, and is at a similar latitude to Oslo, so it has a different range of common birds from ours down here in Norfolk. You won’t find Robins and Blue Tits all over the place, but you might easily encounter Eider ducks, Black Guillemots or Red-throated Divers.

Speaker: Nick Moran
Reporter: Sue Gale

Nick recollected that he had given a talk on this subject to WVBS some 7 years ago, but assured us that this was an updated version suitable for our current times. Nick is currently Training Manager for the BTO, based in Thetford, having moved from managing Birdtrack some 5 years ago. But he has always been interested in birding, and one tip from his father that has stayed with him, and registered strongly with me, is ‘Common things occur commonly’. Put another way that many of you will recognise – ‘Downgrade, my dear’.

Speaker: Paul Eele
Reporter: Sue Gale

After a career in the RSPB that culminated in 15 years as Warden at Titchwell, Paul moved to become Warden at the Holkham National Nature Reserve 4 years ago. This was a very big step up in terms of area, as the Holkham reserve covers some 4000 hectares, many times larger than Titchwell and stretches along the coast from East of Wells to Burnham Norton. Paul and his colleagues manage the NNR and also support tenant farmers on the estate with conservation advice.