This month’s meeting was held in the New Road Methodist Church on September 4, when members were treated to a brilliant talk by Brian Draper on “The hidden wildlife of a city”.

Mr Draper has worked as an engineer on the River Severn at Worcester for forty years and in that time has had many opportunities to study the wildlife living within that city.

In his talk he opened our eyes to what all of us can find within our own towns and cities.

Within every city wildlife enters along the corridors provided by rivers, canals and railways.

Worcester provides a fine example.

For instance, today there are eight different species of dragonflies and damsel flies living within its boundaries.

And we don’t have to venture outside Worcester to catch sight of the variety of bird life along the banks of the canal which includes reed warblers, moorhens, cranes, swans and kingfishers.

You may also see grass snakes emerging from the mud and occasionally mink and brown rats. The banks of the city’s railways provide homes for many creatures including slow worms, toads, moles, stoats and foxes, all of which venture into the gardens of surrounding houses.

And during the summer months we see a variety of butterflies and moths breeding in our car parks.

Within Worcester we have four species of bat flying above us in the evenings and nights, sometimes accompanied by tawny owls.

Feeding on all these smaller creatures are the birds of prey which nest in the spires and towers of Worcester’s churches, including kestrels, peregrines and sparrow hawks.

As we all know, the River Severn flows through the heart of Worcester, but it’s banks are so rich with many varieties of wildlife that they must form the subject of another talk.

So the message from Mr Draper was; pause, just spend a few moments looking around you, even in your town or city centre. You will be amply rewarded.