| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Coordinator: | |
| Group email: | Natural History group |
| When: | Monthly on Wednesdays monthly 4th Wednesday |
The Natural History group has outings or zoom meetings on the fourth Wednesday of each month except December. For outings we meet in the morning at the location of the field visit, details of which are emailed to members of the group about two weeks before the visit, and usually end with a meal at a local pub. Members are requested to advise the coordinator if they are coming on the trip. Visits may be postponed if bad weather is expected.
Previous meetings have included bird-watching field visits, looking at chalk downland, birdsong in the New Forest; and spotting butterflies at a Butterfly Conservation reserve.
Other visits planned for 2025 are:
| March 26th | Blashford Lakes |
| April 23rd | New Forest, in particular the "Inclosure" known as Standing Hat |
| May 28th | Fishlake meadows |
| June 25th | John Lewis Nature trail. parking at the old golf club. |
| July 23rd | Pitt Down and West Wood (Farley Mount). |
| August 27th | Noar Hill chalk downland and chalk pits |
| September 24th | Langford Lakes |
| October 29th | Titchfield Haven |
| November 26th | Talk with slides Birds of Chile |
Friday 28 th February 2025 meeting – Longstock Nursery , Arboretum and Water Garden.
U3A Natural History July outing
A cool walk in Bentley Wood
A slightly disappointing day all round for wildlife despite the fine weather. Very few butterfly species and it seems as though the season is coming to an end for the SilverWashed Fritillary when we saw only two females and one tatty male. Plenty of Gatekeepers and one or two Common Blues and Brown Argus. The last Purple Emperorwas seen on 15th July. We also saw a hummingbird hawk moth feeding on the
honeysuckle winding up the oak tree. There were dragonflies around the ponds including Common Hawker and Common Darter
plus some Chaffinches bathing in the mud! When Charlie and I were standing by the larger pond we were given an amazing display of the female hawker depositing her eggs under the lily leaves while the male buzzed around her.
The birds recorded (mostly heard and not seen) were
Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tit Woodpecker,Buzzard Chaffinch, Goldcrest, Wren, Robin, Blackbird,
Clearly late June is the best time for this site for butterflies. It is a pity that the high temperature prevented us from going last month but we will put it on the schedule for next year.
Chris and Sue.