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February 2019 Contents / Diary of events FEBRUARY 2019 Bristol Naturalist News Picture © Alex Morss Discover Your Natural World Bristol Naturalists’ Society BULLETIN NO. 577 FEBRUARY 2019 BULLETIN NO. 577 FEBRUARY 2019 Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk CONTENTS HON. PRESIDENT: Andrew Radford, Professor 3 Diary of Events of Behavioural Ecology, Bristol University Nature in Avon – submissions invited; HON. CHAIRMAN: Ray Barnett [email protected] 4 Society Winter Lecture; HON. PROCEEDINGS RECEIVING EDITOR: Subs. due; Welcome new members Dee Holladay, [email protected] ON EC 5 Society AGM ; Bristol Weather H . S .: Lesley Cox 07786 437 528 [email protected] 6 Natty News: Fossil evidence on evolution HON. MEMBERSHIP SEC: Mrs. Margaret Fay of feathers & colour vision; volcanic doubts; Beech 81 Cumberland Rd., BS1 6UG. 0117 921 4280 disease; migrant murder; Fin whales [email protected] 8 BOTANY SECTION HON. TREASURER: Mary Jane Steer 01454 294371 [email protected] Botanical notes ; Talk Report; Field Mtg Reports; Libby Houston’s BULLETIN COPY DEADLINE: 7th of month before new honour (p10); Plant Records publication to the editor: David B Davies, 51a Dial Hill Rd., Clevedon, BS21 7EW. 12 GEOLOGY SECTION 01275 873167 [email protected] 13 INVERTEBRATE SECTION . Notes for February; Health & Safety on walks: Members Wildlife Photographer 2018 participate at their own risk. They are 14 LIBRARY Books to give away responsible for being properly clothed and shod. Dogs may only be brought on a walk with prior 16 ORNITHOLOGY SECTION agreement of the leader. Meeting Reports; 18 Breeding Bird Survey; Recent News 19 MISCELLANY Botanic Garden Avon Organic Group 20 Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project; Cover picture:: Twenty of the 48 plants found in flower on New Year’s Day. Alex Morss’ ‘composite picture’ referred to in the ‘Field Meetings’ entry on page 9. Bristol Naturalists’ Society Discover Your Natural World 2 Registered Charity No: 235494 www.bristolnats.org.uk Diary of events Back to contents Council usually meets on the first Wednesday of each month. If you have any matters you wish to be discussed by Council, please contact the Hon. Sec. at least a week in advance. Visitors & guests are welcome, free, at our lectures and field meetings. If contact details are given, please contact the leader beforehand, and make yourself known on arrival. We hope you will enjoy the meeting, and consider joining the Society. To join, visit https://bristolnats.org.uk and click on membership. Members are members of ALL sections. JANUARY Wed 30 Geology Section AGM Geology 19:30 page 12 FEBRUARY Tue 12 Urban Buzz project & Invert. Section AGM Invertebrate 19:30 page 13 Wed 13 Tracking birds Ornithology 19:30 page 16 Wed 20 Dinosaurs: Myth & Reality Society 19:30 page 4 Sun 24 Slimbridge Ornithology 10:00 page16 Wed 27 Geology of the Area North of Bristol Geology 19:30 page 12 Wed 27 Mistletoe (Talk) Botany 19:30 page 8 MARCH Sat 9 Goblin Combe Geology 14:00 page 12 Wed 20 Bristol Naturalists’ Society AGM Society 19:30 page 5 Wed 27 Copper Porphyry Geology 19:30 page 12 Wed 27 TBC Botany 19:30 page 8 OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST 20 Oct.-24 Feb, Wildlife Photographer of 2018 M Shed page 14 Fri 15 Feb Urban Peregrines Gorge & Downs 19:00 page 20 Thu 21 Feb Build a birdfeeder Gorge & Downs 10:00 page 20 Thu 21 Feb Nick Wray Travels in China Botanic Garden 19:30 page 19 Sat 23 Feb Origami Animals Gorge & Downs 10:00 page 20 Sun 24 Feb Spring Tour Botanic Garden 10:30 page 19 Thu 28 Feb Fermenting Veg – traditional preserving AOG 19:00 page 19 Nature in Avon Vol 78 With winter weather in the offing, now is the time to write up your summer activities! Now accepting papers and short notes for Volume 78. Deadline 31 March Please send contributions to [email protected] 3 SOCIETY ITEMS Contents / Diary SOCIETY Winter Lecture DINOSAURS: Myth and Reality Wednesday, 20th February Speaker: Vicky Coules 7:30 p.m. Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, Westbury Hill, BS9 3AA Dinosaurs are as popular today as they have ever been – so much so, a new dinosaur discovery usually makes the national news. Images of dinosaurs are everywhere – but how realistic are these images? What do dinosaurs really look like? And how do we know? This talk explores the visualisation of dinosaurs from the first discoveries to today, how they have changed and how new science is revealing more about the reality of these extinct creatures and the lives that they led, than we had ever thought possible. Vicky Coules is an artist and writer currently researching for a PhD across the Departments of Art History and Palaeontology at the University of Bristol. BNS Subscription Renewal 2019 Subscriptions were due on 1 January Current rates: Single Membership £25 ‘Household’ £35 Student £10 Payment options: By cheque to ‘Bristol Naturalists’ Society’ (posted to Membership Secretary) Bank Transfer/Standing Order to: Lloyds TSB: Account number: 00697372: Sort code: 30-92-13. Please quote your name as reference otherwise there is no way of linking the payment with your membership. N.B: If you don’t wish to renew your membership, please let me know, as this greatly helps to reduce the administrative costs involved with subscription reminders. Many thanks for your support. Margaret Fay Membership Secretary: 81 Cumberland Road, Bristol BS1 6UG Email: [email protected] We welcome new members: Mrs. & Mr. Julian Mary Colwell-Hector 4 SOCIETY AGM Contents / Diary 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 20th March Westbury-on-Trym Methodist Church, Westbury Hill, BS9 3AA To be followed by a Presentation – details in March Bulletin Election of Council Most Council Officers and Members are required to stand for re-election. However, the President of the Society, Professor Andy Radford has been elected for a longer term and remains in post. Council Nominations are: Ray Barnett Member/ Chairman Tim Corner: Member Lesley Cox Hon. Secretary Robert Muston: Member Mary-Jane Steer Hon. Treasurer Steve Nicholls: Member Margaret Fay Hon. Membership Secretary Jim Webster Hon. Librarian Dee Holladay Hon. Proceedings Receiving Editor Section Representatives David Davies Hon. Bulletin Editor Richard Ashley: Geology Clive Lovatt Hon. Archivist Mike Hutchinson: Inverts Mark Pajak Hon Webmaster Giles Morris: Ornithology Alex Morss Publicity Secretary Any member of the Society wishing to nominate a fellow member for election should inform the Hon. Secretary as soon as possible. Lesley Cox (Hon. Sec.) BRISTOL WEATHER Contents / Diary November and December 2018 As winter progresses, we can take a look back to the end of 2018 and compare it with the historical record for Bristol. The September to November period was the 19th warmest autumn in 128 years of data with an average temperature of 12.0°C when the all time average is 11.0°C. It was the 39th driest autumn since records began in 1882 (which is 137 years of data) with a total of 186.8 mm. For the individual months, November saw an average temperature that was 1.0°C above the 30 year average. Rainfall was very close to the 30-year average at 91.9 mm. Air pressure was below the average and the maximum wind gust of 46 mph on the 29th was the strongest since 54 mph on 4th January 2018. November was also the windiest month since January 2018. Interestingly, the wind direction was more from a Southerly direction than is usual. By December though, the predominate wind direction had returned to the more usual SW pattern. The average temperature of 8.5°C in December was 2.6°C warmer than the 30 year average for the city. This was the 5th warmest December behind 11.1°C in 2015, 8.9°C in 1988, 8.8°C in 1934 and 8.6°C in 1974. Continuous data began in 1885. The monthly rainfall of 116.9 mm was the second highest monthly fall of the year after March. It was the wettest December since 2013 when 155.4 mm was recorded. Barry Horton 5 NATTY NEWS Contents / Diary Bristol University is featured this month with a number of papers. Origin of feathers: An international team including researchers from Bristol University has found that Pterosaurs (flying lizards) benefitted from four different feather types. In Pterosaur integumentary structures with complex feather-like branching, by Yang, et al, the authors describe how the discovery has put the origin of feathers back to a point 70 million years before previous estimations. Professor Mike Benton said, ‘We ran some evolutionary analyses and they showed clearly that the pterosaur pycnofibres are feathers, just like those seen in modern birds and across various dinosaur types. Despite careful searching we couldn’t find any anatomical evidence that the four pycnofibres types are in any way different from the feathers of birds and dinosaurs. Therefore because they are the same, they must share an evolutionary origin and that was about 250 million years ago, long before the origin of birds’. The team’s paper has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, Dec. 2018. Iridescence in feathers: Another team mainly composed of members from the University of Bristol researched this phenomenon. Nordén, et al, write, ‘Some of the most varied colours in the natural word are created by iridescent nanostructures in bird feathers formed by layers of melanin- containing melanosomes. The morphology of melanosomes in iridescent feathers is known to vary but the extent of this diversity, and when it evolved, is unknown. We use scanning electron microscopy to quantify the diversity of melanosome morphology in iridescent feathers from 97 extant bird species, covering 11 orders.
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