News

The Northern Branch held its Annual General Meeting at the newly reopened Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, on 30th May 2009.  Dr Clifford Wood, Dr Michael Rowell and Professor Donald Lee were re-elected as Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer respectively.  Professor Sandra Edwards, Mrs Muriel Woodward, Dr Christine Masterson (Events Secretary), Dr David Brignall and Mr Gerry White were re-elected and Dr Douglas Wilson, retiring Chair of the South Wales branch, was welcomed to the Committee.  The meeting was delighted to learn that Muriel and Barry Woodward had been jointly awarded the President’s Gold Medal for services to the Branch.

After the meeting, members and their guests were given a guided tour of the newly re-opened Museum by Mr Steve McLean.  The Hancock Museum has been a leading centre for natural history studies in the North East for the last century with important biological, geological and ethnographic collections and now incorporates extensive archaeological collections, and a planetarium.  The museum now includes excellent educational facilities and a large special exhibitions gallery which will be able to support world class displays.

On 3^rd November 2009, the Northern Branch first public lecture under the mantle of the Society of Biology was given by Dr Daniel Nettle to an audience of more than 200 people at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, in a talk, entitled “a behavioural ecologist takes a walk through the Toon: explorations in urban ecology”.  He suggested that we are used to applying ideas from ecology and evolution to other species and peoples but rarely look at modern Britain in a similar way.  When we do we find fascinating ecological patterns.  .  Dr Nettle contended that people’s behaviour is exquisitely sensitive to the ecological context in which they live and gave examples to illustate a remarkable diversity of behaviour even within the small and historically homogeneous areas that our cities comprise. 

The 2010 Annual General Meeting will be held on 17^th April at the Durham Wildlife Trust Headquarters at Rainton Meadows, near Houghton-le Spring.  Details will be included in the next issue of Biologist.  The meeting will start at 2.00 p.m. but tea or coffee will be available from 1.30 p.m. 

There is no additional programme but visitors might wish to look around Rainton Meadows which is a large wetland area developed on the site of a former opencast coal site.  There are ponds and grasslands attractive to wildlife and the lakeshore and hide are close and readily accessible.  The headquarters of the Durham Wildlife Trust has a Visitor Centre with displays shop and education centre.  The meeting will take place in the conference room on the first floor of the Visitor Centre.  Please come and meet the committee and fellow members.  Visitors are welcome.  The centre is open from 10.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

The Reserve is located (Grid Reference NZ 323485) midway between Durham and Sunderland just off the A690.  It is easily reached from Durham, Sunderland, Newcastle and Teesside because of the closeness of the A1(M) and A19.  There are brown signs just South of Houghton-le-Spring on the A690.

There is ample free parking

Please let me know if you would like to become a member of the committee or take part in any of the branch activities.  Professor Donald Lee who has given many years service to the branch has regrettably decided not to stand for re-election as Hon Treasurer and we would particularly welcome applications for this position.

The Charter lecture for 2010 will be given on 11^th November at Newcastle by Professor Chris Hutchison (Durham University).  Details will be provided later.