Lichens - short course in Wenvoe

Wenvoe Wildlife Group have organised a short course on Lichens on Saturday 14th November.

It is just two hours: from 10.30am to 12.30pm.

It will start with an indoor introduction to Lichens, before we go out to see which ones we can find in Wenvoe.

No experience necessary - this is ideal for anyone wanting to find out about these fascinating life forms.

It will be led by Barbara Brown of the Natural History Museum's OPAL project.

Anyone can come and the course is free, but places must be booked.

To book and for further details e-mail: bruce7@btinternet.com

Hedgehog Rescue and Conservation

CHECK YOUR BONFIRE BEFORE LIGHTING IT !

We had an absolutely wonderful talk last Monday on Hedgehog rescue and conservation by Erica Dixon from http://www.hedgehoghelpline.org.uk/ 

She was helped in the talk by Poppy the hedgehog who is an unfortunate victim of an accident and has been blinded though a bad head injury, but is otherwise healthy. You can see Poppy being posed for in the pictures below (of course with her injury she was not aware she was being photographed)

The work that the helpline do is wonderful and we had some facts about them and how they were born with spines, and some fascinating information on how you care for an animal that is only days old. It takes a lot of dedication !

We were all then very sad to hear just how much they were needed to be called on given how rare hedgehogs are getting.  Hedgehogs were abundant throughout Britain, with an estimated population of perhaps 30 million in the 1950s. By 1995, the population was estimated to be only about  1.5 million and declining again since then

We were shown some awful pictures of injured animals and we had a very apt reminder of the need to check bonfires before being cheered up with some pictures of success stories and happy hogs being released.

Poppy as has been said is not able to be released so she is being kept to entertain people like us on an occasional basis and spends most of her time in a nice secure garden. She was happy to be awake because with no eyes she has lost perception of the time of day.

All in all a fascinating talk and I know a number of our members exchanged information about being a release site or becoming a helper. if you want more information then take a look at their website

http://www.hedgehoghelpline.org.uk/

Zoe Melvin wins Bioscience Prize 2015

Bioscience Prize 2015

The Bioscience Prize is awarded annually by Cardiff Naturalists' Society in the memory of former member Prof Ursula Henriques, for the best 2nd-year fieldwork project in the Bioscience Department at Cardiff University. Andy Kendall presented Zoe Melvin with the 2015 award (below) at the CNS meeting on Monday 28 Sept, during which Zoe gave a talk about her project on mosquitoes in Borneo. Zoe has written an article, based on her talk, which will feature in the next CNS newsletter.