Transactions of the Society

The Society has been publishing its Transactions since 1870. The latest issue covers the year 2007. The first of several substantial papers is the Presidential Address by Professor Tom Williamson of the UEA Department of History who was the Society’s president for 2006-07. His address ranged wide over historical perspectives of Norfolk ’s “natural” landscape of heaths, woods and hedges.

Covering 38 pages is an important paper providing an annotated list of plants of Blakeney Point, illustrated with a number of location maps, especially for some of the less common species. Other significant papers cover whorl snails of the genus Vertigo, Fenland drainage and the effects on the spider fauna (a case study at East Ruston Common), and the changing status of Lepidoptera in Norfolk and the possible causes.

The Society’s research committee has undertaken a number of studies in the last few years and Alec Bull reports on a project at Oxborough Hythe. Bryan Sage updates his 2006 paper on Swanton Novers Great Wood NNR, Robin Stevenson records some recent bryological discoveries in the county, David Richmond tells of the rediscovery of the bog bush-cricket after an absence of 50 years, and David Weaver and Robert Lee report on the chance discovery of a new dragonfly for Norfolk, a southern migrant hawker, at Roydon Common.

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