SPOT THE BEE FLY ETC. ETC. UPDATE 3RD OCTOBER 2022
We start this update on a sad note with the following message from Joan and Bernard:
“With apologies this is not the usual interesting stories and pictures we have on Bee Fly so expertly produced by Jenny and Mike.”
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“It is with great sadness I have to report the death of two members of the Society.
Only long standing members will remember Les Shaddick whom we have known for about 50 years, from the early days of evening classes run by Pat and Glyn to the many years he belonged to the Society before moving to Dorset. He was a quiet gentle man always interested and always interesting and we kept in touch over the years whenever we were that way. He was 98 years old and with all his faculties and sense of humour, pleased to say I spoke with him on his birthday recently.”
“The other sadness is the death of Ian Finch whom once again we have known for a very long time. He and Elizabeth were always an integral part of our activities and his plant knowledge was extensive. Lots of his donations are in our garden. He was not able to join in recently A) they did not have a computer and B) he had to give up driving. But again, we kept in touch and Elizabeth's great chatty letters were a way to do this.
It has been a very sad week, two great losses.
Joan and Bernard.”
We extend our condolences.
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You may remember we added a note and photos from friend of our Society Alan Meeks of the dry bed of the Basingstoke Canal during the period of drought, well, he has been back since and happy to say the water is returning and Alan has sent the following photos of a Grey Heron taking full advantage of the fresh water. The photos were taken on 12th September so no doubt things are probably back to normal by now. Thanks Alan.
“Mike, after all the rain there have been some improvements in the water levels in the Basingstoke Canal at Deepcut but there are still stony edges in places. Watched this Heron on Saturday for about 10 minutes and just managed to catch it in flight with a short enough exposure to freeze the wing movement using ISO 4000. Regards, Alan” Thanks again Alan for keeping us in mind.
Next a note and a lovely photo of a nesting Oystercatcher from Jean Hoyle.
“Mike, I have attached an image of an Oystercatcher from Iceland. I think this must be a nest among these rocks but it was only a few yards away from a busy pathway down to a beach where people were going to watch seals. Jean”
Thank you Jean.
Finally, a couple from me, - I previously mentioned our Ivy at the bottom of the garden, here is a photo of it completely covering our lamppost and another photo trying to capture a couple of bees in flight, it is still literally ‘buzzing’ with bees!
