July began by leaving Orkney behind for a while and headed to southerly regions of the UK. As you can see from the map below, July has seen me literally travel the length and breadth of the country! From Orkney to Irvine, North Berwick, London and Portsmouth. Phew!
This month’s travels!
My first event this month was at the North Berwick Seabird Centre in collaboration with MASTS and colleagues from Heriot Watt, SAMS and even St Abbs Marine Station to provide activities for the centres visitors about Marine Invasive Non Natives Species! The centre is running interactive activities for children this summer called Professor Egghead and the Alien Invaders and with funding by MASTS we were able to co-ordinate our work with this event. I set up a table with some specimens, games and leaflets about Non-Natives and focused on the Check-Clean-Dry Campaign to highlight the need for Biosecurity in tackling them.
My stand at the Seabird Centre
My next training opportunity came when I went with some of my fellow trainees to visit one of our colleagues David Meekan based at the Scottish Wildlife Trust in Irvine. We began on Stevenson beach with one of the volunteers showing us how they clean the beach by hand and how much of a turn around their work has made. An absolutely amazing achievement and the beach looked fantastic! I couldn’t help heading for the strandline and having a look. It wasn’t long before I found what I was looking for, the invasive brown seaweed Sargassum muticum!
Sargassum muticum
David showed us his local green spaces where we had the chance to have a look at some moths captured by another volunteer. We looked around the apple tree orchard that volunteers had planted for the community to use and I managed to get a snap of these solider beetles in an area of green space behind a factory where they are encouraging wild flowers to grow! Not a bad picture with my phone if I don’t say so myself!
After so many adventures with my traineeship it was time to take some holiday time. Not one for relaxing on a warm, sandy beach abroad I walked from Milngavie to Crianlarich with my other half. A 46 mile journey skirting the beautiful Loch Lomond and it is also the half-way point of the West Highland Way! As you can see, I enjoyed every bit of it and so did he.
3 days later I found myself on an overnight bus from Glasgow to London with Rebecca Crawford, a masters student at Heriot Watt University’s Orkney Campus. Mary Spencer Jones, the senior curator of the Bryozoan department at the Natural History Museum, not only allowed us to work at the museum for a week but also to stay with her in her home.
The Natural History Museum
We were presented with opportunities that helped us with our projects. We looked at the collection of bryozoans and even saw some specimens from Darwin’s Beagle voyage!
Bryozoans from the Beagle!
We were given a tour by Paul Taylor of the Paleobiology department looking at the Bryozoan fossil collection. Working with Mary and Paul gave me the opportunity to discuss the growing decline in taxonomic skills and their fears for the future. The work I am doing as a Natural Talent trainee was certainly put into great context and the value of the skills I am learning are invaluable to the biological community.
We had other tours such as the non intrusive techniques the museum use to study their specimens. This included the xray machines and scanning machines. We even had a look at some of the specimens they have made using a 3D printer!
We visited the coral exhibition as you can see in this picture.
And we met the museums giant squid on a tour of the tank room. This room is where large specimens are stored in alcohol. Many are so big they cannot fit into glass jars and are instead stored in large metal tanks.
The tank room and the Giant Squid
I was next given the opportunity to work with the V factor volunteers at the museum who are currently working with Mary. The V Factor is a volunteer opportunity for the public to embark on assisting the museum with scientific research over a 10 week period and the group they have this summer are so friendly, welcoming and they were fantastic to spend the day with. They are working on counting and identifying bryozoan colonies that have grown on the shells of Scallops. More information on the V Factor can be found here-
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/jobs-volunteering-internships/volunteering-interns-information/v-factor/index.html
I talked to the group about TCV and my project as well as answering their questions throughout the day. What makes V Factor particularly special is that their laboratory has a viewing window for the public to see them hard at work and ask the team questions about their work. This was a great opportunity for me to get out of the lab and in amongst the visitors to talk about invasive Bryozoans, Invasive species and TCV of course!
Rebecca, Mary and I with the volunteers. I have no idea why this picture came out so small!
Afterwards Rebecca and I joined the V Factor volunteers on a tour of the DNA facilities at the museum. We all had to put on white coats and shoe covers before heading in as the area is a ‘clean zone’ and to reduce the potential to bring in any unwanted DNA we must be suitably clothed! The facility was amazing and we were even allowed to see the Ark. The Ark is where the tissue of endangered species are kept.
The Ark
Lastly, I headed further south with Mary to Portsmouth to carry out a survey of one of the Marinas there. As you can see in the next picture, it wasn’t long before we found Non-Naties. This was such a good opportunity for Rebecca and I as there are non-natives down south that we do not have in Orkney. In this picture, the creamy, slimy covering is the colonial sea squirt Didemnum and below this, where there is a black crust, is the invasive Bryozoan Watersipora subatra.
What can I say? Another busy month on my traineeship. And what do I have next? Another day at the North Berwick Seabird centre, hopefully some Shore Thing work, bioblitzing on Millport and then it’s back up to Orkney again.