This talk was meant to be given by Julian Hughes but was handed over to Jeff Knott, another speaker from RSPB’s S.E. office.

The talk was informative, entertaining and inspiring and the quality of the images and their presentation was very good. The speaker also spoke clearly and well.

However, I have one criticism and this was echoed by a few other people after the talk. With what is meant to be an ‘audio visual’ presentation it is not good practice to keep the same image displayed too long and talk continuously. Some of the images were displayed for two-three minutes while a torrent of information was imparted. A more frequent change of images and a bit less talk would, I feel, have been better – more ‘visual’ less ‘audio’!

In mitigation I would add that this speaker is far from alone in being guilty of this habit a recent, local, speaker was also at fault, and a few others spring to mind. An interesting evening nonetheless.

Trevor Hatton.

18 November

Madagascar, the Red Island

Brenda Holcombe

It's always a pleasure when Brenda Holcombe comes to give a presentation. She informs us about the birds and animals, of course, but also tells us a little about the people who live where she is visiting.

This talk was no exception. Brenda compared the island with her visit some twenty years earlier. There is still much poverty in spite of the increase in tourism - local people do not seem to have benefited greatly from this, in fact the contrast between the way locals and tourists live was quite distressing. There seems to be more understanding amongst the locals however, that the unique flora and fauna of Madagascar is a magnet for tourists and hopefully this will improve their prosperity. Unfortunately, more tourists means more building and loss of habitat.

Some things have improved, one hotel where Brenda and her husband stayed previously had installed more bathrooms - it was no longer necessary to go to the bathroom during the night by finding one's way in the dark through six other bedrooms.

Brenda's pictures of the diverse habitats, incredible animals like the lemurs, lizards and of course, beautiful birds were as usual quite stunning and her talk extremely entertaining and interesting. It is to be hoped that such a diverse and unique place as Madagascar can be preserved in spite of the encroachment of the modern world.

Carol Felix

20 January

Photo Naturalist's Diary

Bob Canis

Despite the 'gremlins' no workable loudspeaker System [again] we were treated to a super evening of beautiful photographs and anecdotes.

Bob is a master at making the difficult appear easy, and it is not until he illustrates some of his precarious hides or tells the story of how he patiently waited to get a top-class picture, that the dedication of the 'long distance' photographer came into the hall.

We started with the more mundane variety of U.K. birds. Blue tit, great tit and long-tailed tit. But Bob wanted close-ups and on a level with his camera. Well that's what we got and so refreshing in their detail. He did not stop at birdlife, fungi were illustrated in all their colourful glory, and he even told us what tasted real good and which were 'definite no noes’. Personally my supreme cowardice shines through on such matters and I wouldn’t eat any of them.

As well as being a local lad and well informed about our S.E. England nature reserves and their contents, Bob is widely travelled in Europe and included some of the scenes and animals, which have come into his viewfinder. The Czech Republic and Finland are two of his favourite and much-visited places, and he treated us to beavers and their 'des res' abodes. What have they got in common with Kent you may enquire? Well there is a small colony of beaver being 'tried out’ near Sandwich on a nature reserve and also some in Scotland, so who knows, one day we may be lucky enough to see them in their wild state in England.

We were promised stunning images in the programme, and how well we were treated. For my part, a Must Visit for another time.

Glen Peacock