Transactions

Transactions of the Society

On the front cover of the latest issue of Transactions (Vol. 44 Part 1 2011) is a delightful picture of one of the Society's most extraordinary members, the late Dr Richard Hamond - "Dick" to everyone. He is pictured with his close friend, Professor Ray Williams, searching Half-Moon Pond at Cley for the minute aquatic creatures that were Dick's lifelong study. It was to be their last field trip together before Dick died at his home at Morston in July 2010. In a moving and amusing biographical memoir to "a unique Norfolk naturalist", Professor Williams writes that "Nobody who met Dick Hamond ... could ever forget him."

The Hamonds have lived in Norfolk for 500 years and can claim connections with an astonishing roll-call of the county's ancient families. Like his grandfather, Dick served as president of the Society. His presidential address "was a masterly historical synthesis of the marine habitats, oceanographic conditions and fauna of Norfolk, delivered in his grandest theatrical style," writes Professor Williams. It is a tribute to Dick's formidable industry and expertise that his list of publications on marine minutiae covers three pages.

Also in this issue is the 2011 presidential address by Professor Fred Cooke on "A thousand years of birding in Castle Rising". Dr Bryan Sage provides his latest - and final - update on the coleoptera of Swanton Novers Wood and Tim Strudwick offers "a provisional county list" of the bees of Norfolk, with an invitation to the county's naturalists to fill in any blanks.

Other papers cover the discovery of a small nail fungus, visitors to sallow catkins, the mosses and liverworts of Bawsey County Park at King's Lynn, and the appearance of the stripe-winged grasshopper in East Norfolk, together with weather and wildlife reports for the year.

For copies of Transactions (price £5.00 including postage), see the Bird and Mammal Report page.