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Events, News, Talks

Finding W H Hudson: the writer who came to Britain to save birds

The next CNHS talk, on Thursday 17th October, will be given by Conor Jameson. It will take place at 6:45 p.m. in the the seminar room of the James Dyson Building, in the Department of Engineering.

To find this room, go in via the main entrance to the department from Trumpington St (opposite Hot Numbers coffee shop, entrance marked by a metal sculpture). After a short distance, turn into the space on your left and go straight ahead. You will pass the main Baker Building of the department on your right and the Architecture Department on your left. The James Dyson Building is ahead of you, with some bicycle racks in front of it. The entrance is via a revolving door, but if this turns out to be locked then someone will let you in via a door just to the right of it. The seminar room is directly on your left. Because the talks are out of normal hours, there is some car parking available on the site. Please contact the President for details..

Conor Jameson will talk on “Finding W H Hudson — the writer who came to Britain to save birds”. Conor describes his mission to restore William Henry Hudson (1841–1922), from previously unseen letters held in America. Conor traces the unassuming field naturalist’s path through a dramatic and turbulent era: from Hudson’s journey to Britain from Argentina in 1874 to the unveiling by the prime minister of a monument and bird sanctuary in his honour 50 years later, in the heart of Hyde Park. It is a place where the young immigrant had, for a time, slept rough. The story reveals Hudson’s deep influence on the creation of his beloved Bird Society (RSPB) by its founding women, and the rise of the conservation movement. Cambridge Professor Alfred Newton has a key supporting role. This story reveals the strange magnetism of this mysterious man from the Pampas – unschooled, battle-scarred and once penniless – that made his achievements possible, and left such a profound impression on those who knew him.

All welcome – admission free – please arrive punctually

Events, News, Talks

Wicken Fen: 125 Years of Conservation

On Thursday 9th May Ajay Tegala who is a ranger for the National Trust on their oldest nature reserve. He will talk about the wildlife and management of Wicken, including wetland restoration and conservation grazing – the subject of his new book, Wetland Diaries. Copies will be available.

The meeting will be preceded at 6:45 p.m. by the Cambridge Natural History Society’s Annual General Meeting. For more details of the CNHS Rules and Council see https://www.cnhs.org.uk/about/

Both the talk and the AGM will take place in person in the David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ as well as being online via Zoom. Members will be sent the Zoom link before the meeting.

ALL WELCOME – admission free. Tea and coffee available beforehand from 6 p.m.

News

Optimow – help pollinators

Morgan Morrison is a PhD student at Royal Holloway, University of London and works on pollinator conservation and citizen intervention. She gave a talk to us earlier this year about her work.

She is now looking for volunteers for the second year of the citizen science study called ‘Optimow’.

She explains: “This study will be looking into how you can manage your gardens to help bees, butterflies and other pollinators. In the study, you will be given a mowing frequency to follow and then you will count pollinators in your garden each week. The study will take 15-25 minutes a week for 12 weeks (however odd weeks can be missed!)

This is the second year of the study. In 2023, we had an amazing 180 participants and saw a 75% increase in pollinator numbers by following one of the mowing regimes!! We hope to build on this work, so we have robust advice to give members of the public about managing their lawns to help pollinators. However, this work relies on the amazing volunteers who contribute!!

I hoped the study would interest to all of you and you’d have a good skill set to complete it. If you are interested in taking part you can sign up and find more information on the google form below (https://forms.gle/scmLF3h1XvoHTkcSA).”

Events, News, Uncategorized

105th Conversazione

Book space for your exhibit now!

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Conversazione will be in-person on 19th & 20th April 2024 in the Department of Zoology.

Open to the public: Friday 19th April 1pm – 6pm and Saturday 20th April 10am – 5pm.

For over a hundred years, Cambridge Natural History Society has held an annual exhibition in the Department of Zoology.  It is traditionally called ‘The Conversazione’ (nomenclature of Italian origin) because it is a social event where those attending can not only look at the displays but also have a conversation with the exhibitors.

While the 104th Conversazione, the first in person since the Covid-19 pandemic, did not attract as many exhibitors as the 100th in 2019, it was nevertheless a very successful event and it was SO GOOD to be back in person.  

The Photos on our CNHS Facebook page capture most of the exhibitors and their exhibits.  To see them go to:  https://www.facebook.com/CNHS1857  click Photos, click Albums, scroll down to and click on e.g. Conversazione 2023 Photo Album.  And the Programme or Exhibitor List from 2023 and a number of previous Conversaziones can be viewed or downloaded from our website here:  https://www.cnhs.org.uk/previous-conversazione-programmes/

These photos and the list of exhibits provide a record of fascinating displays and joyous events. We hope these will inspire you to create equally fascinating displays for this year’s event.

A prize is offered for the best exhibit at the Conversazione by an exhibitor who was a school pupil, college or university student at the time of the Conversazione. See https://www.cnhs.org.uk/conversazione/cnhs-student-prize/ for details.

If you would like to exhibit, please read the information for exhibitors and fill in the simple booking form and return it by 5th April.

Events, Talks

Spring talks

The programme of spring talks got off to a good start last week with a talk by Morgan Morrison on Pollinator conservation & your lawn. Here are details of the other talks in the spring programme. Please note that some are in person in the David Attenborough Building while others are online by zoom only.

Admission free – all welcome

The next talk is by Esme Ashe-Jepson on Habitat associations of British butterflies and their foodplants. This is online by zoom at 7:30 p.m. She will talk about her research into the associations of ten species of butterfly and one day-flying moth species and their foodplants in Bedfordshire, UK. She found high variation in associations across species, with species that overwinter at non-adult life stages having particularly restrictive associations, indicating they may be most vulnerable to environmental change.

The following three talks, on 22nd February, 29th February and 7th March are all in person at 6:45 p.m. in the David Attenborough Building, but also on Zoom.

Thursday 22nd February: Indonesia, Alfred Wallace and Krakatoa Olwen Williams
In person, David Attenborough Building 6:45 p.m.

Thursday 29th February: Otters – in Cambridgeshire Peter Pilbeam
In person, David Attenborough Building 6:45 p.m.

MARCH

Thursday 7th March: Phenology in the Botanic Garden Rose Fricker
In person, David Attenborough Building 6:45 p.m.

The last two talks on 14th and 21st March will be online by zoom only, at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday 14th March: What and where I record Jonathan Shanklin
Online by zoom 7:30 p.m.

Thursday 21st March: Moth trapping in Cambridge Duncan Mackay
Online by zoom 7:30 p.m.

News

CNHS Small Grants

Cambridge Natural History Society is launching a scheme of occasional awards of small grants to help research into natural history in the Cambridge area.

The grants, of up to £200, are aimed particularly at our younger members and early career scientists. The research may involve any aspect of natural history in its broadest sense and a grant may be used to help purchase equipment, cover travel costs, pay for
specimen analysis, cover publication costs, etc.

Full details can be downloaded here.

Applicants should send their submission to grants@cnhs.org.uk

News, Talks

Pollinator conservation – and your lawn

The first talk in the CNHS spring programme will be in person on Thursday 8th February, at 6:45 in the David Attenborough Building.

Morgan Morrison, is researching pollinator conservation at Royal Holloway, University of London. She will talk about her PhD research on which covers all things pollinator conservation. From bees, butterflies and hoverflies to disease, protected areas and citizen science. Morgan will cover questions about ‘whether diseases are spillover from honeybees to wild bee?’ all the way to ‘how citizens can help pollinators all from the comfort of their lawns?’. She will also be introducing a citizen science study taking place in summer which you could help with.

This talk will be held in the David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ at 6:45 p.m. Please arrive punctually – otherwise you may not be able to get into the building! Tea/coffee will be available beforehand.

The talk will also be available on Zoom. Those on the CNHS mailing list will be sent the link a few days beforehand. To join the CNHS mailing list, email mailings@cnhs.org.uk

ADMISSION FREE – ALL WELCOME

Events, Talks

Cambridge Antiquarian Society meeting POSTPONED

Cambridge Antiquarian Society have brought our attention to their forthcoming talk on “Rewilding’ Later Prehistory: Archaeological Wildlife and its Role in Contemporary Nature Recovery”

This has had to be postponed takes place on Monday 5th February 2024 at 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm, in the Law Faculty, The David Williams Building, Sidgwick Site, West Rd, Cambridge.

The speaker, Dr Anwen Cooper, is a prehistorian at Oxford University.

They tell us this talk will present initial findings from the UKRI-funded ‘Rewilding’ later prehistory project – a collaboration between and Knepp Castle Estate, Oxford Archaeology, the Universities of Oxford, Exeter and York, Centre for Ancient Genomics, Toulouse, and Historic England. Through a study of human-landscape relationships during the Bronze and Iron Ages in Britain that puts wildlife centre-stage, the project aims to foreground the ‘wonder and enchantment’ of past wildlife and to create pathways for reconnecting with contemporary nature recovery practices. As well as verifying historical occurrences  of species that may be reintroduced into ‘rewilded’ landscapes, the project will produce stories of long term landscape change and of past human-wildlife entanglements that can inspire current attempts to reconnect people with nature.

All welcome.

Further inforamtion at https://www.camantsoc.org/event/cas-talk-rewilding/?instance_id=69

News

Volunteer opportunities

Duncan Mackay has been volunteering at the Botanic Garden for some time and finds it is a very rewarding experience and always most interesting. He says “Several of the Museums are also looking for volunteers. If you have time to engage with these activities, I am sure you will find the staff delighted to have your help. So to start your adventure in exploring the opportunities for volunteering around Cambridge here is a good place to start: https://ucm.volunteermakers.org/get-involved/

or specifically for Natural history: https://ucm.volunteermakers.org/get-involved/museum-of-zoology/visitorengagementvolunteermuseumofzoology/19/ “

Duncan also notes that the Biological Recording Company has many free webinar See https://biologicalrecording.co.uk/ for details of these and their other events.

Events, Talks

CNHS talks in November

Thursday 9th November: A biodiverse city
6:45 p.m. in the David Attenborough Building and online
Guy Belcher, Biodiversity Officer for Cambridge City Council, will talk about the City’s Biodiversity Strategy.

Thursday 16th November: Fieldwork: A Dendrochronologist’s
perspective on Science, Life, and Adventure
7:30 p.m. online
Paul Krusic will speak on the challenges of finding trees that have not been disturbed by humans, from which a pristine record of environmental change is captured in the annual variations of tree growth. Where do such forests exist and what does it take to get there? These forests are where he does his research, from the Himalaya to the
Tropics, using dendrochronology to learn more about environmental history and how it relates to climate change.

Thursday 23rd November: The life of the Cam: In sickness and in health
6:45 p.m. in the David Attenborough Building and online
Stephen Tomkins, from the Cam Valley Forum, will talk about what he has learned from trying to help improve our local river. Over abstraction and other changes have been harmful – we have a very sick river: abused by our own un-natural history. Wetland wildlife has a huge capacity to bounce back from near extinction, but that requires much more of all of us to help it improve.

Thursday 30th November: How the Andes influence Earth’s climate
7:30 p.m. online
Morag Hunter will talk about the interaction between the uplift of the Andes and carbon dioxide budgets in the atmosphere. She will describe the geology and outline the chemical weathering of the rocks found in the Cañete Basin, western Peru.