Meeting: 4th February 2019, 7.30pm in the Lounge, Elgin Town Hall
At the beginning of the meeting, treasurer Gordon Nicol announced that his application to the National Lottery for funding had been successful, and that the Field Club had been awarded a grant of £1000 for 2019. This was very warmly received and Gordon was congratulated for his efforts.
Chairman Norman Thomson welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained that the advertised speaker, Mike Crutch, was snowed in and unable to attend the meeting. Fortunately Eric Jensen had stepped in at very short notice and had prepared a presentation on Nature in the Cairngorms.
Eric’s presentation took the form of a very fine slide show and commentary which displayed his great skill as a photographer and his extensive knowledge as a natural historian.
This was a personal exploration of the Cairngorms, approaching the central massif from some of the 10 different glens that surround it, including Glen Dee, Glen Lui,and Glen Feshie. His photographs were taken at all seasons and featured mammals, birds, invertebrates (including the very rare mountain burnet moth) and many of the rare and wonderful plants to be found in this area.
The mammals included some striking images of red deer and calves, reindeer, mountain hare, red squirrel, badgers and a weasel. He showed pictures of the ptarmigan in its different plumage, red and black grouse, a dotterel with chicks, young kestrels, a snowy owl, peregrine falcons and last and most memorably a series of photos of a golden eagle. Plants, too numerous to mention them all, included dwarf birch, willows, bog cranberry, arctic bearberry, sedge, rare mountain saxifrages and alpine milk vetch and mountain burnet moth.
This was an inspirational talk for a winter’s evening. It gave the audience an appreciation of the wonders of nature that are here in Moray.
