16 June 2007
By the middle of June we had expected a return of the earlier spring sunshine but it was not to be and some beefy showers proved off-putting for this Saturday event at Durgan. A handful of adult HMCG members joined Margaret on the shore but the younger generation were less robust and missed a very pleasant morning on the shore.
27th October 2007
Dr Paul Chanin, international otter expert, talked about the milestones of the last 30 years of otter studies.
Sunday, 6th September 2009
Over 30 friends and members of the Helford MCG gathered at Mawgan Village Hall for an evening “bat talk and walk”. Dr Carol Williams, with her characteristic enthusiasm, delivered a 30 min. crash course in bat identification, life-cycle and habits before we ventured out into the gathering gloom assembling in the woodland car park on the Trelowarren Estate. Bat detectors swung into action immediately and to our delight we heard several pipistrelle bats as they hunted for insects overhead using their stuttering echo-location calls.
Saturday, 13th November 2010
The term ‘plankton’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘wanderer’ or ‘made to wander’,an apt description for creatures which drift at the mercy of winds and currents. Some are large and easily seen – the Macroplankton, such as jellyfish and the Portuguese man-o’-war. Others are small – the Microplankton, which measure a millimetre or so across – or less – and are studied using a microscope. These are collected with a conical fine-mesh net swept or towed through the water and they include a great variety of plants and animals, in adult or larval stages. There is a third, even smaller, size category – the Nanoplankton, such as coccolithophores, which are just a few microns across and only seen with the aid of an electron microscope.
20th January 2007
Leslie Collins, vice-chairman of the Group, delighted a large audience (57) with his fascinating narrative on his favourite pictures as he shared a lifetime of local experience in Gweek.
17 February 2007
A detailed look at this watery world and how we influence it gave a large audience (67) much food for thought as the issues of pollution, clean seas, farming and recreation were highlighted. This followed recent studies by scientists from the Environment Agency, University of Exeter, and the Farming and Wildlife Group as described by Dr Peter Jonas, Dr Julian Greaves and Annabel Keast.
Monday, 18th April 2011
If shellfish, crabs and other marine creatures have an early warning system, it must have clicked on ‘Red Alert’ today as the Seashore Safari got underway. But to no avail. A horde of searchers, 30 adults and 45 children, with ages ranging from 2 to 80, was advancing over the rocks, armed with nets and buckets. There was little chance of any creature remaining undetected as sharp eyes and quick hands and nets probed the rock pools and watery gullies; and soon treasured finds were being placed in the buckets and carried to Ruth for identification.
