Wriggle! The wonderful world of worms

What a good talk we had last night from Katie Mortimer Jones on the topic of Bristleworms and its certainly made me want to go and visit the exhibition at the museum

Katie gave us an introduction to worms at the beginning and it was fascinating to see yet another link to our history we are celebrating this years because one of the other of the three subclasses of Clitellata are the Hirudinea which are the leeches and are the source of the anti-coagulant Hirudin. This was discovered by Prof. John Berry Haycraft D.Sc., F.R.S.E. (1859-1922) our 34th President

She then explained in detail the many other forms of the bristle worms and whilst I knew they had some beautiful forms I was not aware of many aspects of the diversity and biology of them and it was really good to be learning about them from someone who is obviously a real global expert in them

(Picture of Hermodice carunculata Bristleworms by “prilfish”  Used under licence)

All in all a fascinating talk and one that really interested the members who were present with a lively discussion section at the end. 

Andy Kendall

Members Evening 2017

We had a fascinating evening of talks last night 


Al Reeve started the evening talking on the Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project which sEWBREC are running on behalf of all of us who knew Mary

After an introduction to Mary and her career he gave us a full update on where the project has got to working through the approximately 150,000 records that she captured during her life.

he outlined the work as

• 150000 wildlife records to mine out of 20 boxes of assorted papers,
• 14000 slides to digitise (and recover records from),
• 2 unpublished manuscripts to make available digitally,
• an oral record of Mary’s life to create,
• a website, social media presence and blog to create,
• plus biodiversity events, school/community group visits and led walks to organise and run…

As part of the talk and very much after the talk we were able to share our memories of Mary with Al and Pat and they explained how they want to meet with us again and capture this on tape for use in the archive

Further details can be found in a plethora of online services

https://marygillhamarchiveproject.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MaryGillhamArchive/
https://twitter.com/gillhamarchives
https://www.flickr.com/people/marygillhamarchiveproject/


Paul Bowden went next with some excellent pictures of the Birds he had spotted during a trip to California and Arizona. Clearly these are excellent places to visit and Paul has I am sure inspired a few holiday ideas


Eirian Edwards came next with an intriguing talk entitled "Mainly Orchids" where she showed us the range of Orchids that she has been able to see at home in Wales, in the wider UK and around the world. As the title suggested that wasn't all of it as we were treated to a selection of other plants and animals from the places she explored, especially her favourite place Kenfig Burrows


I brought up the rear with a rapid run through some of the places I have been visiting with work over the last few years. On some of those trips I found a brief time to take a walk and see some wildlife like the wonderful Koishikawa Korakuen which is a beautiful landscape garden from the early Edo Period in Tokyo.

Surrounded by buildings such as the Tokyo Dome in the background, it is a real haven

The Moon Bridge

A few other things to note .. the cafe is now open at the university before the meetings take place and we would very much recommend to people that coming early and sharing a coffee etc and having a chat with your friends is a great way to enhance the evening meetings,

It is possible that the sEWBREC team will make use of these times to record some of your memories of Mary Gillham they will let us know

The other speaker for the night that the Cardiff Naturalists Bioscience Prize which we give in honour of Dr Mary Gillham and Professor Ursula Henriques will be myself giving a talk about exploring Lanzarote both above and underground. For those who know me there will be a lot of pictures to hopefully enjoy. The programme is updated with that information

Regards
Andy Kendall

Wallace and Svalbard

You may be forgiven for thinking what's the link between those two as there isn't (to the best of my understanding) any record of the great Naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace going to the frozen north, in fact he's more famous for his trips to the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago

The simple fact is that we had two talks last night and the title reflects the subjects of them both

Julian Carter of the National Museum of Wales led off with his personal account of how he had learned about Wallace during the design and build of an Exhibition that was on at the museum and is now. From the description of that exhibition

On his death 100 years ago, Alfred Russel Wallace was widely praised as the 'last of the great Victorians'. But who was he?

Wallace was many things - an intrepid explorer, a brilliant naturalist, a social activist, a political commentator – overall a remarkable intellectual. In his time, he collected over 125,000 animal specimens, published more than 800 articles and wrote 22 books.

Wallace is most famously associated with co-discovering the process of evolution by natural selection alongside Charles Darwin. Yet we have all heard of Darwin, whilst Wallace has become more of a forgotten figure.

It seems to me that Wallace had a fascinating (if at times stressful) life and contributed to many things such as mapping and surveying the world in addition to his seminal work on evolution.

Joan Andrews one of our past presidents then talked to us about a trip to Svalbard that she and another of our past presidents Tricia Woods took in 2014 and showed a range of photographs of the various wildlife that she had encountered. I was impressed by how close they had been able to get to some Polar Bears, Walrus and many of the birds, and wish I'd been there with my camera

That was the last of our indoor meetings for the season so we will be focused on going out and seeing some wildlife across the summer whilst our 2015/16 programme  is developed - look out for it towards late summer, but please come back here and also take a look at, and join in the other information sources we have on-line and try and join us at one of our outdoor events

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/CardiffNaturalists/
Twitter https://twitter.com/cardiffnats

Members evening

Once again a wonderful set of talks from the members of the society about all sorts of things

I never fail to be entertained on these evenings and the best thing is getting ideas of places that we'd like to go and see ourselves and things we'd like to learn about if we had time

We had Christine and Paul with Cyprus and Morocco respectively and Phill with a whirlwind tour of Northern Europe's top sites. Linda entertaining us with how you can use the new books that are coming out to review and revise the things you have previously identified Barbara enticing us to visit the Ger region of France with some of the wonderful scenery (and apparenrtly food & drink ) of the area

Oh! and I followed up with some California girls (and boys)

BRENT VALLEY SANCTUARY

We were recently sent this

Hello,

I'm renovating my house at the moment and when clearing out, I came across this flyer.

I saw that the society is still running so just thought I'd send a pic as perhaps it's of interest to someone there.

Cheers,

Ross

I admit that I hard not heard of the sanctuary so with a bit of help from the internet

"The members of a branch of the Selborne Society bit upon an admirable idea. London grows outwards : every year the grip of the town fastens more and more on vanishing country, and where it fastens it generally kills.

With the coming of the town and its roads and railways the country has to be protected, if it is to survive at all, against the enemies the town brings with it ; against wanton spoiling and defiling, against the destruction of its birds and beasts, against the trippers and streets hawkers who grub up its ferns and flowers.

The Brent Valley branch of the Selborne Society looked at the practical side of that difficulty as it affected their own neighbourhood. Why should not they, while there was yet time, secure and protect a sanctuary of wild life, particularly bird life ?

A wood, one of the few remaining in the district, seemed to offer the opportunity of such a sanctuary, and after some negotiation it was arranged with the farmer on whose property it stands that the fences surrounding the wood should be kept up and that a keeper should be appointed. "

I admit to not finding any recent references so any information would be appreciated.

To Read more about the sanctuary take a look at this old reference http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/15th-january-1910/9/the-brent-valley-bird-sanctuary

INDOOR MEETINGS: AUTUMN 2014

The Cardiff Naturalists’ Society indoor meeting programme for 2014/2015 was recently announced. Click on the ‘Programme’ tab above to see the full programme.

Here, Indoors Meeting Secretary Hilary Wicks gives further information about the Autumn 2014 series of evening lectures. These all start at 7.30pm in Room 023 (ground floor) of the Cardiff School of Management (Metropolitan University, Llandaff Campus, Western Ave, Llandaff, Cardiff), unless otherwise stated. If lost, members can ask at the Main Building reception where a notice and signs to the lecture theatre will be placed.

The meetings start on Monday 22^nd September with the AGM, followed with a talk by Linda and Rob Nottage on ‘Wildlife of the Dolomites’. Expect photos of snow-capped peaks, flower-filled meadows, and interesting insects, as they present highlights of their recent wildlife holiday in Italy.

The next lecture on Monday 13^th October is by Sally Snow: ‘The world’s largest fish: an introduction to the whale sharks of the Philippines’. She will introduce us to the whale shark, the world’s largest fish, with fascinating insights into its biology, distribution and migration in the Philippines, with a look at the potential impacts of developing whale shark tourism initiatives both in the Philippines and worldwide. This lecture centres around the work of the NGO Physalus and its Large Marine Vertebrate Project, which has been studying whale sharks in the Philippines since 2011.

The following meeting on Wednesday October 22^nd will be a talk by Paul E Bowden: ‘Birds and Mammals of Southern India (Bangalore to Kochi)’. He found Southern India a great place to visit in January, with favourable weather - a little rainfall and the temperature not too hot. Also at that time of year there was very little insect activity, so no malaria tablets were needed. He covered about 1,000 km (630 miles) in a three-week journey that took in Bangalore (Karnataka), Valparai (Tamil Nadu), and Thrissur and Kochi (Kerala), visiting five Nature Reserves. He recorded a total of 181 species of birds, including 14 endemics, and captured 113 species on HD video and 83 species as stills; while also photographing leopard, tiger, Asian Elephant, mongoose, spotted deer and numerous other mammals. Tea and rubber plantations were visited, and the journey included a drive across the Western Ghats. The whole trip was done by taxi, which he suggests is the best way to travel in India. By the end of the trip, the taxi driver was well trained in bird and mammal recognition!

In contrast, the next lecture by Adrian Lloyd Jones on Monday 6^th November is entitled ‘Return of the Beaver’. This will be an illustrated presentation on Eurasian Beaver (Castor fiber) and how they create and manage wetland ecosystems for the benefit of many other species. The presentation will also cover the Welsh Beaver Project and its proposal for a reintroduction of the beaver to Wales.

The meeting on Thursday 13^th November is a lecture by Kate Mortimer-Jones called ‘Seabed Life around Wales’. This is a combined meeting with Cardiff Group South and West Wales Wildlife Trust and Cardiff University student Wildlife Society, and will be held in the Wallace Lecture Theatre (Ground floor), Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff.

The last meeting in 2014 is the XMAS BASH on Monday 15 December, with Adam and Dave’s Biodiversity Quiz. They will test your (often obscure) knowledge of the plants and animals found in South Wales and the (crazy?) people who record them.