Welcome

The Ambleside Natural History Society meets in a spirit of friendship and goodwill to share in all aspects of natural history, geology, the countryside, its scenery, its flora and fauna, its use, its buildings, its history, the activities of its inhabitants, etc. Almost nothing is excluded.

Non-members are welcome to attend our meetings at a charge of £3.

Next Meeting

12 December 2024 at 7:30 pm

Percival Lecture Theatre, University of Cumbria

The Wild, Wild West in Winter

Alan Walker (Wildlife photographer)

Alan has specialised in wildlife and nature photography for the past 20 years and has been published in magazines in the UK, Europe and USA. Alan has also had his work exhibited all over the world.

This talk features both the stunning landscape and the wonderful wildlife of remote places in the USA’s western states in the winter months. In this talk we will visit Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Alaska where temperatures can be below -25C!

A plan of the Ambleside Campus can be found at this link.

The Percival Lecture Theatre is in the Langdale Building, number 5 on the map. Our alternative meeting venue is the Beehive, building number 2 on the map.

Turn in to the campus at The Armitt Museum, park in the car parks about 50m up the hill (free in the evenings) then walk a little further up the hill. The Beehive is the single storey building on your right, the Langdale Building is slightly further, up the steps to the flat area and is again on your right.

The committee always welcomes suggestions for future talks and comments on what we are doing; or if you want to become a member email us at anhs@anhs.org.uk.

Our programmes for previous years are available at the heading tab.

Summer 2024 field trips

16 June – Moth identification at Holehird Gardens

Heart and dart – Agrotis exclamationis

Several moth traps were set in different parts of the garden the night before and we checked them together in the morning with the help of moth expert Guy Broom who helped us identify the different moths we had caught.

Images of moths we observed can be found at this link.

Thanks to Steven Mees and the Lakeland Horticultural Society for letting us use the Holehird site

4 May – Walk in Skelghyll Woods

On a damp Saturday morning in early May around a dozen ANHS members walked the route of the 1966 Skelghyll Wood Nature Trail, designed by Ambleside Field Society. We saw lots of bluebells and ramsons; heard cuckoos and a variety of warblers; found a charcoal burning platform and toothwort (the subject of one of Harold Auty’s lovely woodcuts in the original leaflet) and looked at lichens such as Gyalecta jenensis in the old limestone quarry. In general, there are more, bigger trees than in the 1960s, and fewer wildflowers to be seen. Many of the more exotic trees have gone, however. There’s a lot more beech and holly. An interesting time was had by all: we’ll do more local walks in the future.

Swifts in Ambleside

Following a talk on swifts to ANHS by Peter Moreton in April 2019, Pete Martin set up a small group to monitor swifts and their nest sites in Ambleside each summer.

Click on the links to read Pete’s reports of their observations.

2019 report

2020 report

2021 report

2022 report

2023 report

2024 report

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