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REPORT OF THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB FOR 1999-2000
The Council of the Essex Field Club met five times during the year 1999-2000 at the Red Cross
Hall, Chelmsford. The main work of Council during the year has been to improve the Field Club's
publications and continuing to ensure the future of the Field Club's collections and library.
The Field Club held 51 meetings and an Annual General Meeting during the year, 13 of which were
held jointly with the other societies. The field meetings were as follows: fungi 13, higher plants 9,
moths 1, beetles 1, amphibians and reptiles 2, birds 10, mammals 4, geological 6. general natural
history 5. The joint meetings were held with the Colchester Natural History Society, the geological
societies of Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk and the Essex Rock and Mineral Society, Essex
Wildlife Trust, South Essex NHS, Bishops Stortford NHS and the Essex Bird Watching Society.
Two of the meetings were indoor, with lectures on "Suffolk flora" by Ian Rose and on "biodiversity"
by Jeremy Dagley. Two of the meetings were Group annual meetings. As ever the number and
range of the meetings remains encouraging but the need, in general, to attract more members to
attend is still a problem.
We are very sorry to lose Judith Boniface from Council, her term of office is complete. Her contri-
bution has been valued for its common-sense and has reflected the quiet support she has given the
club over very many years. Council has proposed two new members, Adrian Knowles and Del
Smith, and we look forward to welcoming them to our number at this AGM. Adrian heads Essex
Wildlife Trust's consultancy arm and also now edits the Newsletter for the new Essex Invertebrate
Group (see below). Del is the long-standing County recorder for Diptera and recently wrote the
'Focus on flies' article for the Field Club Newsletter.
Anew Invertebrate Group has been set up, affiliated both to the Essex Field Club and the Colchester
Natural History Society, with the aim of networking amongst the recorders to improve the flow of
information and data and to co-ordinate surveys. Even before the Group was formally constituted,
draft distribution maps for Spiders and aculeate Hymenoptera were updated annually by the Re-
corder (Peter Harvey) and circulated inside the county and beyond.
The first meeting, held at Horseley Cross in November, went really well with 55 people attending
and many useful ideas were generated. The first Newsletter entitled 'Invert' has been published
(April 2000) and lists a number of directions that the Group hopes to pursue, including identifica-
tion workshops, encouraging recording of less well worked groups (including worms for example!)
and special visits to Essex sites in need of recording. We wish the Group every success and look
forward to publishing new discoveries and important invertebrate conservation news in the Essex
Naturalist and our Club newsletter.
Three issues of the Newsletter were published during the year and Volume 16 (new series) of the
Essex Naturalist was published in November. Both now have a new format. So far comments on
both their content and presentation have been favourable. There is much activity in the Field Club
and we need to ensure that this is properly broadcast. Hopefully the new formats of the Newsletter
and Naturalist will encourage people to contribute. It is also worth noting that since the revised
publications came out, we have gained nearly 20 new members (counterbalanced slightly by a few
losses as we tighten up on subscription payments) as a direct result of these.
The Newsletter, as in the past, covered many issues. These ranged from extensive and scholarly
discussion of hymenoptera in Essex and the Thames corridor by Peter Harvey, regular contributions
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)