16th February 2023 Meeting at Hinchingbrooke Country Park and also on Zoom attended by 14 people and 6 on Zoom. The meeting started with Cllr Lara Davenport Ray from the HDC where she is Executive Councillor for Climate and Environment introducing the Councils police for “Biodiversity for All” Neil Sloper then went through the policy including what it covered and the grants that were available. This included measuring the baseline for different sites and working out ways to improve the environment, from highway verges to creating new habitats for the community.
Wilf Powell then gave an illustrated talk on the “Wildlife of Estonia”. Estonia is a small country in the Baltic about 100 miles by 100 miles, its population is small and it lies on a geographical crossroad where the fauna of the east and west Europe meet that of the north and south. The eastern flyway for migrating birds passes along the coast resulting is very large numbers of species moving through. There are over 100 species of butterfly (England only has 59).
Wilf has visited six times over twelve years and showed an astonishing mix of birds, butterflies, dragonflies and flowers in great detail, all labelled and very high quality photos. The photos included Swallowtail, Large Copper and Poplar Admiral Butterflies. Capercaillie, Grey headed Woodpecker and White tailed Eagles were amongst the birds and Elk and Red Deer. Also various orchids, Fen Violet and Wood Cow wheat for the plants.
