Chorleywood RSPB talk.

Elis and I had the privilege to give a talk to the Chorleywood RSPB local group the other night and what a generous lot they turned out to be. In the end we received donations making a total of £65.02!

The Chorleywood RSPB group with me holding forth.

We absolutely love giving these talks but, if there is a downside to them it is that, we are always limited to in the amount of time we have to speak. There is so much to say, so many interesting species to talk about illustrated by Elis' stunning photos, and so many problems facing them all, that trying to decide what to keep in and what to take out is a real problem. Even so, the time that we get with the clubs is far and away better than trying to fit everything into 20 minutes which is the norm for bird fairs and festivals. Getting the balance of interesting species, the message about the problems and making the whole thing entertaining at the same time is a real challenge, but a challenge that we relish. It is always a pleasure giving these talks, we meet such interesting people from all walks of life and always get a great reaction from them all. It is clear that we are very lucky to have a subject that is at once fascinating, worrying, amusing and visually stimulating, yet another good reason for loving waders!

If you are reading this and are a member of a club or society and have not had us visit yet, please have a word with your meetings organiser and pass on our details, we'd love to come and visit you and share our love of waders with you.

When we got home we knew that spring was in the air when we found these two amorous toads on our doorstep!

Common Toad Bufo bufo; Newport Pagnell, Bucks, England. March 2014