Welcome to the Nature Section of PSNS

From April to September the Nature Section runs outings to places of interest in our area.

From October through March the Nature Section runs a series of talks on Wednesday evenings. These are normally in the Sandeman Room, AK Bell Library in Perth, The talks begin at 7:30pm and are for members. However you are more than welcome to come along if you are thinking of joining us. Click below for details.

Winter Lectures 2024-25

Here’s an overview of the Nature Section meetings for season 24-25:

2nd Oct	Woodland Trust Standing Up for Trees	Ian Baird, Perth
30th Oct	All about Slugs (Please bring slugs to this talk)	Chris De Feu
13th Nov	Tracking Goosanders in Scotland	Anthony Wetherhill, BTO
4th Dec	Photographing the entire British Flora	Richard Milne, Edinburgh Uni.
8th Jan	Landscape Scale Nature Recovery	David Tollick, Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust
29th Jan	Re-flowering Scotland – what the flowers are telling us about our woods (and what we can do about it)	Kate Holl – Woodland Adviser, NatureScot
19th Feb	Rewilding the Dalnacardoch Estate	Dierdre Stewart & Sam Buckland
5th Mar	Seabirds and HPA 1 (Avian Flu)	Steve Willis
19th Mar	Nature Section AGM	Members

The Nature Section of PSNS is a club for people interested in plant life, birds, insects, fungi, or, in brief, our wildlife, its natural history and its conservation.
We aim to encourage people with an interest in our wildlife to develop that interest by providing the opportunity with indoor talks and outings, and encouraging an individuals own activities.

You may be taking a new interest in wildlife, a keen observer or just wanting to find out more about the wonderful life we can see every day; we can help you with study and enjoyment.
We hope to encourage taking notes and keeping records. We encourage members to make use of national recording forums such as BirdTrack and the schemes of organisations such as Buglife, The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland BSBI, The Mammal Society &c.
Please contact us to register your interest at nature@psns.org.uk
Or contact the section secretary, Liz Lavery at eldlavery@outlook.com

Bearberry, *Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Jeff Banks*

In addition to the series of winter indoor talks, field outings will remain an important part of our programme. These provide the opportunity for members of any expertise, or none, to learn about our local nature from those with experience in identifying and recording wildlife.

Download the Nature Section’s latest Newsletter and Annual Bulletin. Past issues are available from the PSNS Publications page.

Recent Recordings

Download the Nature Section’s latest Newsletter and Annual Bulletin. Past issues are available from the PSNS Publications page.

Our Recent History
The Nature Section was formed in 2022, merging the Botanical and Ornithological sections, to cater for all interested in any aspect of the natural world, in Perthshire and beyond. Our aim is to provide talks and activities that will appeal to everyone with an interest in the study of the animals, (including the diversity of insects), plants and fungi; soils and geology

For a society with a long history, one of the principal aims of our earlier members was to form a collection of the flora and fauna of Perthshire. We no longer collect specimens for museum displays (!) but observe, conserve and enjoy our individual bents, be it birdlife or plants, spiders or butterflies, and maybe collect some images. It all supports our winter evenings, which inform and entertain with discoveries, and a chat over tea.

Shieldbug Jeff Banks

New members are welcome to join us, on our summer outings or at our winter lectures held in the Sandeman Room at the AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 pm. Evenings conclude over tea and coffee.

Bulletins and Newsletters of the Section

The Nature Section produces an annual Bulletin with longer articles describing past activities, and occasional Newsletters giving members more topical news and updates.

The former Botanical Section, which was active from 1957 to 2022, produced regular Bulletins, and the Ornithological Section, active from 1963 to 2022, produced regular Bulletins until 2012 and thereafter occasional newsletters, each recording the Section activities and wildlife sightings. Bulletins can be downloaded from the PSNS Publications page. The Botanical Section Bulletins also have a downloadable Spreadsheet index to excursion venues described in Section Bulletins.

Read the Ornithologists contributions to the PSNS’ “40 years of change and a Year of Covid” on this web site.

Parrot Fungus Jeff Banks

A little bit of our Earlier History

The outstanding work of Francis Buchanan White, the founder of the PSNS, resulted in the publication of the Flora of Perthshire in 1898 after his death. The Flora includes records made by other members, including the Birnam Postie, Charles Macintosh, whose botanical interests influenced Beatrix Potter. Latter day members helped to compile The Checklist of the Plants of Perthshire (available to purchase – see our publications page), and we continue our efforts to update our knowledge of the flora of this, very special area. We work closely with other organisations such as Plantlife, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and the Botanical Society of Scotland.

Today, PSNS members continue to be involved in community activities. For one Doors Open day at Perth Museum and Art Gallery our members produced a series of educational panels on the “Architectural Significance of Plants”