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AUGUST UPDATE

5th August 2020

Hello everyone,

A couple of updates since the newsletter last week.

Buntingford River Clean CANCELLED
Sunday 16th August
Unfortunately we have had to cancel next Sunday's Buntingford River Clean as East Herts District Council have been unable to supply the necessary refuse sacks and litter pickers or commit to disposing of the collected rubbish. This is a disappointment to both FORQ and members of the Town Council but we hope that a future event can be arranged.

A final reminder that Chalk Aquifer Alliance talks move to a Wednesday night from this week.....

The Interesting Lives of Some Chalk stream Fishes
Chalk Aquifer Alliance - Wednesday 12th August
The next online event in the Chalk Aquifer Alliance's summer events programme is entitled The Interesting Lives of Some Chalk stream Fishes and will be delivered by Shaun Leonard from the Rivers Trust. This is the first of the talks to move to a Wednesday night.

An illustrated talk on the way some of our iconic fish species spend their lives, including where they live, how they find love, what they eat and, maybe sadly, end their days. Many of the images are of beautiful fish and the beautiful places they live; just a few come with a little, guts-and-all warning…

Shaun Leonard is an unashamed fish bloke, inspired by Jacques Cousteau after a wander around his research vessel Calypso in Mombasa harbour in 1966 and a childhood in and on the Indian Ocean and in the trout streams of southern Ireland. After degrees in marine biology and then pollution, Shaun has had a professional life in fishery management, both game and coarse.

He was Head of Fishery Studies at Sparsholt College near Winchester until 2009, when he was gifted a fish bloke’s dream – the post of Director of the Wild Trout Trust. Shaun brings to the Trust a lengthy and ongoing scientific background and continuing involvement with the fisheries and fish farming sectors. He is an avid fisher though continuously disappointed that 45 years of practice appears only to make him worse at the sport with each outing.

Register in advance here.

Joining instructions will be sent to you.

All welcome.

Good News for Glow worms

As some of you are aware, I have a particular passion for a colony of glow worms located close to Barwick Ford. Denise and I first 'rediscovered' them 5 years ago and have been monitoring their glowing season ever since.
We visited the site again regularly this season and with the help of Martin Spackman, were able to enlarge the known area containing glow worms with another find in the woods. The females are the ones that do the glowing and start in late June or early July. The phosphorescent light they emit attracts the flying males who spot the light with their large eyes. In past years the glowing season has come to an end when the set a side land the glow worms are located in is cut prior to the harvesting of the main field.
It was a real treat to take a walk up there the other day to find that the harvest had been gathered, but the glow worm meadow hadn't been cut, giving them the full opportunity to reproduce. This is particularly welcome as the insects are no doubt under some stress from the drying climate which will affect availability of their main food source of small snails.
So well done and many thanks to the Chaldean Estate for not cutting the meadow prior to harvest. The glow worms and other wildlife that the field supports will all benefit I'm sure.

Thats all for now.

Best wishes

Mark
Friends of the Rib & Quin