BRIAN Draper presented the last talk until September and thoroughly entertained us with ‘A Naturalist’s View of Scotland.’ He began by putting Scotland in context, through geographical information and a potted history to show the effects of The Clearances on the landscape. For many of us, as he pointed out, we travel to Scotland on organised tours or stick to the main tourist spots and miss much that the country has to offer.

He has been visiting for over 40 years and said that he is finding wildlife is adapting to food left by humans and some of the fun of hunting out birds, for example, has been lost when you can find elusive snow buntings feeding in a carpark! He has often spent days in areas, where he hasn’t met another person or come across houses, to enjoy the landscape and the animals in it.

We saw a wide range of bird, animal and plant slides to satisfy all interests; enjoying his stories and humour as he talked about them. To have photographed a wildcat was one of his highlights. Whilst stalking a male cat seen in the distance he came upon the female unexpectedly and got the perfect shot and both disappeared in the time it took him to lower the camera.

He also told us to believe in Nessie and backed up his statement about seeing the monster with two photos, one of a carved tree trunk and the other of a topiary display. The whole evening was very enjoyable.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 20 September in the village hall at 7.30pm. Gordon Forrest will be talking about ‘Farmers Working with Nature (Set-aside)’.

CAROLE HOUGHTON