On 19th April 2023, Norwich School was delighted to welcome to Blake Studio one of our best loved and highest profile naturalists: the indefatigable Mike Dilger from the BBC’s ‘The One Show’. He gave a lecture as part of Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s programme of members’ talks, and we were honoured to host them at Norwich School.
With his trademark energy, good humour and deep knowledge of the natural world, Mike treated his audience to his account of an odyssey undertaken with his family to find 1,000 species of plant in the UK during one calendar year.
We learned about rare and exotically named UK species including pasqueflowers, prostrate perennial knawel, Norwegian mugwort and goldilocks aster. Who knew that our local habitats around Breckland were such a botanist’s paradise?
Mike has spent much of his career on TV presenting his encounters with photogenic birds and animals, so, having studied botany at University in his youth, this was a personal journey of rediscovery of the wonder and magic that is the humble British flower.
He successfully managed to reach his target of 1,000 plants during 2021, despite various Covid lockdowns. The hilarious accounts of his hijinks in achieving this ambitious goal made for a very entertaining evening. He has now written up those experiences in his new book: ‘One Thousand Shades of Green: A Year in Search of Britain's Wild Plants.’
Mike was very gracious in spending time with the audience of Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s members, staff and alumni. Some attendees were even privileged on arrival to witness an incredible, prolonged dogfight between our zippy resident peregrine falcon and an enormous lumbering buzzard that had invaded its territory; with each pass from the feisty peregrine, the buzzard would flip upside down, flashing its talons in an aggressive counter-attack, all set against the stunning backdrop of the Cathedral spire and an azure blue sky. This all made for a wholly memorable evening.
We very much look forward to welcoming the Norfolk Wildlife Trust back on site again soon, as they do such wonderful work promoting and protecting our precious regional ecology.
