TEACHERS at a Hampshire secondary school went on strike after an unwelcome discovery in a waste paper basket.
This emerged at a meeting of the RSPB's Grimsby group where speaker Geoff Lee revealed that he was to blame for the industrial action, which happily was only brief, during his days as a biology teacher at a secondary school in Petersfield.
He had taken his pet grass snake into lessons and left it in its box overnight in the classroom.
After the day's school was over, the creature had slithered out of its box and curled up underneath the waste paper - giving one of the cleaners the fright of her life when she went to empty the basket before lessons the next morning.
Geoff, who now lives in Boston, told his audience: "The cleaners immediately downed tools and complained to the headmaster.
"When I arrived, I was summoned to his office. He was not best pleased and told me in no uncertain terms what to do with my snake!"
The episode was one of many amusing anecdotes that peppered Geoff's illustrated talk about his favourite wildlife-watching haunt - the area of Dorset which embraces the Isle of Purbeck, RSPB Arne and Brownsea Island.
Nothing delights him more than to spend part of summer parked up in a caravan at a site outside Wareham which is his base for exploring Purbeck's geography, its geology, its industrial activity (notably oil extraction), its 30 diferent habitats and its extraordinary wealth of wildlife.
Of particular interest to his birwatcher audience was the status of iconic species such as ospreys and Dartford warblers, but Geoff made sure also to highlight the reptiles, the fish (including corkwing wrasse), the butterflies (including the Lulworth skipper), the other insects, plus the array of seaweeds and wildflowers which go under such unusual names as woolly thistle, snakelock anemone, bog alphodel, ivy broomrape and chalkmilkwort.
On a controversial note, Geoff rejected the RSPB's oft-made claim that warming of the seas was to blame for the decline both of sandeels and the puffins which feed on them.
"On the contrary," he said. "Sandeels thrive in warm water which is why the colonies of puffins in South-west Wales are doing so well.
"The reason why sandeels are faring so poorly in the North Sea is that they are being overfished commercially - with the chief culprit being Russia."
*The next meeting of Grimsby RSPB - at 7.30pm on June 19 - will be the annual meeting and election of officers followed by an illustrated talk by the chairman of Lincolnshire Bird Club, Phil Espin, whose presentation will be on the Great Bustard and other Lost Birds of Lincolnshire. Admission is £4 and the venue is Holy Trinity Parish Hall, Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes.
