We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer. Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm. You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.
This presentation will look at the birds of Sri Lanka, concentrating on both those found in the National Parks such as Yala, Wilapattu and Udawalawe as well as those that can be found by just walking village lanes. Also, he will touch upon the mammals and insects of the island, all illustrated with his own photographs.
In 2017 he established a Learning Centre for disadvantaged teenagers to help them improve their English skills to aid their employment prospects. He will finish his presentation with a brief overview of his work there and outline some success stories.
Jonathan is a life long birder and over the last 50 years has travelled extensively to watch and record bird species. An all round naturalist, he documents all the natural history in the rural parish of Little Hadham where he has lived since 2007. In 2010 he put all the records into a book for the village archives and is now planning an updated volume.
As from Lockdown Day, 23rd March 2020, he set out to document all the wildlife in his garden for exactly one year and upon completion of the project had recorded 874 species of bird, insect, mammal flora etc including an amazing 61 bird species.
He writes a fortnightly nature article for the local newspaper, the Bishop’s Stortford Independent and is also a tour leader, specialising in Sri Lanka. In January 2023 he is leading (led) a 14 day bird tour of the island whilst during the previous month he will be (was) the Naturalist in Residence at a boutique hotel near Kandy in the hills east of Colombo.