Dear friends

As we speed towards the end of another calendar year, this season is always a good time to reflect upon the past twelve months in the world of natural history and for us as a society and to plan for the year ahead.

We have had an especially good year of walks and talks reflecting the diverse interests we all hold as individuals within the Milton Keynes Natural History Society (MKNHS); presentations from some of you, our members, have especial significance for me but many of the external speakers we have enjoyed have certainly broadened my horizons.

One recent talk from Anna Rowlands, principal ecological consultant for the East-West Railway Project, gave us an insight into the re-naturalisation of the project route. Ironically, this came the week after hearing a brief article on national news that another national infrastructure project had publicly declared the cost of providing additional wildlife highways to enable creatures to co-exist with the project once completed was indicative of the problems for construction developments these days!

We learned that there has been and continues to be huge investment in ensuring that the project managers for our part of the East-West rail route, whilst taking the railway through some valuable sites for wildlife, are putting in new areas for flora and fauna and refurbishing many existing sites along the route at significant cost. New Badger setts, replacement Bat ‘houses’, new ponds and wetlands are a few obvious examples of this amazing project. They are to be commended for such an enlightened approach to what is a multi-million pound transport enterprise, having achieved slightly more than the legally-required 10% biodiversity net-gain and are continuing to monitor the net gain for another thirty years.

This refreshing and innovative transport infrastructure development gave me real hope for the future of similar such projects and made me feel a lot less cynical towards large-scale developments of this nature.

That is not to say that all such projects enjoy the same degree of care and investment for nature but it is very good to know we have people and organisations who are actively involved in ensuring habitat destruction through development is negated and properly compensated through creating new and similar habitats and in many cases, actually improving the diversity of wildlife found locally.

The expertise and interests we have within the MKNHS membership is surprisingly diverse and it is true to state that we have some exceptionally skilful and talented wildlife observers and recorders in the society.  It is time we noted down these interests to ensure that those of us who would like to improve our knowledge and skill-base can be given the opportunity to do so.

With this in mind, I met with several of our members in early November to discuss ways of improving our identification skills through different routes. We are fortunate in having individual members possessing the wherewithal to want to improve upon our identification abilities.

Groups such as our existing Plant Group have been exceptionally successful in bringing together those of you with real botanical identification expertise and those of us who simply have an interest in being shown some of the beautiful flora Milton Keynes has to offer the enthusiastic amateur botanist. We are picking up identification skills from one another in this group.

By having an up-to-date list or database of individual members’ areas of interest and the extent of their knowledge, identification expertise and experience we would be able to steer others of us towards society members with similar interests. By so doing, we would increase our ability as a society to offer accurate identification advice to anyone requiring such assistance.

There are many short courses available throughout the year through other organisations (such as the Wildlife Trusts and Field Studies Council), for those of us who wish to improve upon our existing identification skills or indeed, who want to explore aspects of nature we are unfamiliar with. Our society has experienced members who have both the enthusiasm for and knowledge of such courses, their availability and relevance.

This is a short precis of our discussions and the ideas put forward to improve the society’s identification skills.  More details will follow as the year progresses with a view to establishing more wildlife identification diversity within our society’s membership for those of us who are interested in gaining additional skills.

We lost one of our society’s longest established members this Autumn, our distinguished President, Roy Maycock, himself an expert botanist and former county and local plant recorder. Roy joined what was then a small group of wildlife enthusiasts in the late sixties.

Roy’s enthusiasm for recording vascular plant occurrences in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes was well known and he was always most interested in seeing and confirming a plants presence where and when he was able. We have gone from a society with a handful of like-minded nature enthusiasts to where we are today more than fifty years on with nearly a hundred dedicated members. He was a passionate supporter of wildlife recording and it is entirely appropriate that we look ahead to the future with this in mind.

We are not all going to possess Roy’s enthusiasm and desire to record or identify different aspects of Milton Keynes’ natural wonders; for many of us, simply being amongst wildlife and to enjoy its myriad forms and behaviours is enough and by belonging to the MKNHS we are able to further our love of the natural world.

However, we may be able to provide support, offer relevant advice and ways to improve our identification skills for those of us who would like to be involved in more specific aspects of natural history enjoyment. I would like to make a start on this by creating a knowledge and interests list which we can utilise, ultimately to the advantage of all of us.

As a locally focused society, it is not within our ability to influence international events. For example, the recent sad announcement of the probable extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew, the first bird extinction in mainland Europe since the 1500s, principally through habitat disturbance and loss of its breeding grounds in the Asian Steppe, cannot be something we could have hoped to alter.  However, we could possibly make a difference locally by having the ability to assist, for example with surveys of wildlife present in habitats potentially affected by planning applications. This could be an area which would be valuable to possess and to improve upon.

Your society’s committee members continue to work hard in order to ensure that we have a hugely interesting and diverse programme of events throughout the year for us all to enjoy. We dip into some wonderfully strange and unfamiliar worlds with people who are able to guide us through their areas of expertise.

I hope and believe we will have a year ahead of even more wonder, interest and enthusiastic participation from us all, whether this be through simple enjoyment of our beautiful local wildlife by attending our Spring and Summer walks and our Autumn and Winter talks and presentations or by more involved participation in society activities.

As the Chair of this society, I feel so very privileged to represent you all and to know many of you well (and I certainly want to get to know more of you in 2025). Your membership of the MKNHS in these times when we are experiencing so much local and national habitat degradation, real existential pressures on many species of flora and fauna and of course, changing climate patterns is so important simply through showing how many local people do care about their environment and its associated natural history.

I thank you all for your continued support and friendship.  We are indeed lucky people to so enjoy our natural surroundings and wildlife and I find enormous enjoyment from just associating and experiencing this with you all.

I very much hope you have had a warm and wonderful Christmas time and wish you all a fulfilling and nature-filled year ahead.

Matt Andrews
Chair of MK Natural History Society
December 2024