Field Nats News No.243

Newsletter of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria Inc. Editor: Joan Broadberry 9846 1218 1 Gardenia Street, Blackburn Vic 3130 Founding editor: Dr Noel Schleiger Telephone 9877 9860. Fax 9877 9862 P.O. Box 13, Blackburn 3130 www.fncv.org.au Understanding Our Natural World Newsletter email: [email protected] Est. 1880 Office email: [email protected] Reg. No. A0033611X

Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday 9.30 am - 4 pm. July 2014 From the President that we will need volunteers to help The deadline for the August with, such as the newsletter will be Tuesday July Hi members, welcome to the July Whitehorse Spring 1st at 10 am. FNN 244 will be FNN. It is hard to believe that we are Festival and Yarra going to the printer on the 8th of already into winter as the weather has Plant Show. (More July, with collation on the 15th. been anything but winter so far. details p3)

As you will have read over the past We are also looking for people months, I have been doing a bird-a- who, in conjunction with Council, day throughout 2014. Well on the 4th would be able to help organise the of May my attempts to see a different FNCV annual Biodiversity Sympo- bird every day ceased. Too many long sium. If you can give some time to hours at work had finally caught up any of these, please contact Wendy with me. On the 5th, while undertak- in the office. ing an environmental audit, I saw six birds that I would have been happy to When you are in the hall, keep your see the day before.... Oh well, it was eyes open for new books that are fun while it lasted. regularly appearing, including a new section of books for children. As was mentioned in the June FNN,

the AGM approved a number of Desert Wolf Spider Spinning Egg Sack changes for the FNCV especially to John Harris the Club's constitution. Please allow INSIDE—TIG report and more Index Page me to once again thank Barbara gorgeous images of spiders on p 9. Burns, Robin Drury and Jurrie Hu- Below: Golden Orb-weaving Spider From the President 1 bregtse for their many hours of delib- erations over the format of the new Calendar of Events 2 constitution. Members’ news, photos & 3 There have been a number of observations. changes to Council, as also men- tioned in the last newsletter Thank Minutes of 2014 FNCV AGM 4 you to Robin, Phillipa, Virgil and Jurrie, who have all stepped down, Day Group Report: Island 5/7 for their work on Council over the Hopping in the Galapagos past few years. Their contribution Fungi Group Report: Foray 6/7 has been invaluable. to Bunyip State Park

There are still vacancies as SIG Biography of Jean Galbraith 7 reps for the Day Group and the Fungi Group and also two general Extracts from SIG reports 8 positions on Council, so we are given to FNCV Council looking for people to fill these po- Terrestrial Invertebrates 9 sitions as soon as possible. Group Report: Urban Spiders

I look forward to catching up with A PNG Adventure 10/12 many of you throughout the year at Marine Research Group News. 11 the various Club activities. There are a number of events coming up From the Office 12 Page 2 Field Nats News No. 243 CALENDAR OF EVENTS All meetings are held at the FNCV Hall, 1 Gardenia St. Blackburn at 8 pm., unless otherwise indicated. On days of extreme weather conditions, excursions may be cancelled. Please check with leader.

July

Tuesday 1st - Fauna Survey Group Meeting: Fauna of Equatorial Guinea and the conservation challenges it faces. Speaker: Dr Mark Antos, Parks Victoria. Contact Robin Drury 0417 195 148

Sunday 6th – Fungi Group Foray: Woodlands Historic Park, Greenvale. (Melway Ed. 37 Map 178 C6) WHP 101 entrance off Somerton Road. Meet at 10.30 am, first car park. Contact Virgil Hubregtse 9560 7775

Monday 7th – Fungi Group Meeting: Fungi of the Surf Coast Shire. Speaker: Richard Hartland, a very active member of the Fungi Group who travels widely to record many different and interesting fungal species. Contact Virgil Hubregtse 9560 7775

Friday 11th – Juniors