What happens at the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) Annual Exhibition Meeting?

 

This is the grand entrance to the Natural History Museum in London. The front entrance is German Romanesque architecture style designed by Alfred Waterhouse, a young architect who was called upon when the original architect died. We all fall into our jobs in funny ways, don't we? But I digress...

This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland's Annual Exhibition Meeting here in this fabulous building. I should mention that the BSBI recently changed names from the Botanical Society of the British Isles, but managed to hold on to the acronym. Nicely done!

So what happens at an Exhibition meeting? Well, I walked in shyly to find out and was instantly consumed by a small area of tables showcasing botanical information, fun plant identification curiosities, and plant research information. There was also a large book sale going on. When I say consumed, I don't mean by the exhibits themselves, but by the huge masses of very friendly, eclectic botanists of all ages chattering away about the exciting plants they had recently seen, discovered, or happened upon. 

Following the exhibition period, there were talks by the staff and volunteers of the BSBI to discuss recent society happenings, plans, and updates. Then there were talks about how plant geeks like myself can use different venues to get others excited about the green leafy things around us too. We are encouraged to use digital avenues (social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogging) as well as tutoring, guiding walks, and engaging the public in all ways big and small. The highlights were from:

• John Tweddle (Head of the Angela Marmot Centre at the Natural History Museum) who talked about how he is working to engage the public at the museum with hands on science
• Brian Eversham, who is an amazing speaker and loves nature enough that he crosses over from entomology to botany. He can be heard in this video talking about the Wildlife Trusts in Britain:

It was a wonderful way to spend my day and as I was leaving, I paid my dues to be a member for the next year. I'm really inspired by the national botanical society and I can't wait to be kneeling in the mud next to fellow members looking at a new plant.

Shrooming in London

Recently, I try to get out into the gardens as often as possible. Especially now that it is autumn, the rains have been through, and it is rather warm. The conditions for fungi forays (searching for mushrooms) are perfect! Can you help me identify these? Here are some mushrooms I found around Kew Gardens:

Agaricus sp. (these are related to the button mushrooms you buy in the grocery store!)

Agaricus sp.

Clitocybe inversa

Clitocybe inversa

Clitocybe inversa

Clitocybe inversa

Very nice mushroom with red/orange cap fringed with white feathery scales. Abundant in the area, found growing on mulch. Dark spore print, white fibrous stem without annulus/ring.

same as above

Unknown, very cute small white mushroom cluster on grass

Beautiful blue/green Hygrocybe spp. growing on the leaves beneath a beech tree (Fagus sylvatica).

Same as above. Note white, fibrous stem without ring.

Same as above. Note white/cream spores, adnate gills (gills attached to stem).

A mini forest of unknown little brown mushrooms growing on the mulch beneath Yew trees (Taxus baccata) and pines at Kew Gardens.

Clitocybe sp.

Unknown mushroom. Looks like a mini Ink cap mushroom (Coprinus sp.), but I did not check the gills for ink. It was tiny!!

Agaricus sp. fairy ring

Agaricus sp. Note the annulus/ring around the stem and the dark gills.

Lepiota sp.

And of course, you know I can't resist photographing some wildflowers along the way too.

Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)
Update: This was a fun find - I just learned that the Cornflower is an endangered species and a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species! Wow! Check out more information about it's status. Apparently, this is not so much because of it's distribution (which is quite widespread), but because it is important to the protection of arable lands and therefore, biodiversity.

European Environmental Agency

Recently, I was searching for a comparison of the number of plant species in the UK vs. Switzerland vs. Florida. Yes, nerdy, I know. But as a botanist, this is important information. Not only is it important to understand the biodiversity of your region (these are the main regions where I have studied botany), but it helps to know just how many species you must learn to have a good grasp of the local vegetation.

While searching for this information I happened upon the EEA. Read more to find out what the EEA is.

Since when do birds live underground?

This spring I have had the pleasure of working in a building on the FAU (Florida Atlantic University) campus very close to a small population of burrowing owls. What?? Yes, I said BURROWING owls. I know...strange. Several years ago, while living in Tampa, I had seen a really great presentation at an Audobon Society meeting focused on burrowing owls, a Florida species of special concern. These birds look like very small (about 6 inch) owls with very long chicken legs attached to the bottom of their stumpy bodies. Why the funny looking legs? For burrowing of course. Burrowing owls will create burrows (or use old burrows from other animals) in dry, sandy open areas which are often highly developed areas such as golf courses, airports, and university campuses. They nest in their burrows and will often have 2 to 12 young. I was lucky enough to observe three breeding pairs of burrowing owls at the university. Each of these pairs had about 4-8 young!! I was surprised to see, however, that the young were often of different ages and sizes. It makes me wonder if they lay several clutches in the springtime.

When they are very very young, the baby burrowing owls look like tiny puff balls on a stick. Their legs are so long and gangly that their clumsiness is comical. Here are some photos I've taken of them over the spring. A lot of these photos are poor quality because I wanted to maintain a safe distance from the young.

Rolling Seas

What is this a photograph of? Can you guess? It's a close up...

Today was a gorgeous fishing day out in the Atlantic Ocean, 10 miles offshore from Jupiter, Florida. Yes, it's Wednesday, but I got a pass from work. Well, actually, even better. My boss took my coworkers and I out fishing on his 21' Sailfish center console boat!! Woohoo! It's the end of the season and apparently it's a tradition. I say, cheers to tradition!

The only glitch was that what was supposed to be a day with wind blowing at 6-9 knots with seas of 2-4 feet tall, we ended up with 6-8 foot tall swells tossing the boat around, rolling us this way and that as we fished the "mixing zone". Unfortunately for my coworkers, they both got badly seasick and were "chumming the water" for most of the afternoon and generally miserable. I was lucky enough to avoid the seasickness and continue fishing! All in all, we ended up getting a meager helping of bait fish (sardines and cigar minnows) that helped us land 3 nice dauphin (aka Mahi Mahi).

We caught a bunch of schoolies that we sent back to the sea for fattening, but these three were keepers, especially the big bull that was about 3 to 3.5 feet long. He was a fun fighter. We certainly earned our dinner.
I'm only 5'3", so even though we didn't officially measure the big bull, I'm pretty sure he's about 3.5 feet.

Then our boss commenced to help us clean these beautiful fish:

Our Mahi Mahi rations....yummy!! Come and get it! Here's the amazing recipe that I cooked these up with. Finger licking good fresh catch.

Even the dog got some!!

That's the tail end of today's fish tale.

Measuring Up

If you've been following me, you know that I have been working for about 6 months for Florida Atlantic University. I have been a biological research technician as part of a three person field crew that is conducting research in the Everglades ecosystem of Florida. Specifically, we are collecting samples that will be used to assess wading bird prey concentrations during this season. What are wading bird prey concentrations, you ask? Well, when we talk about wading birds we are referring to birds that feed by wading into deep pools of water including: white ibis, glossy ibis, great egret, snowy egret, great blue heron, little blue heron, and roseate spoonbill in the Everglades. And the prey concentrations just refers to all the little things that these birds eat such as shrimp, crayfish, fish, macroinvertebrates, amphibians, insects, snails, etc. We sample for these prey species throughout the Everglades once the ecosystem has dried down to capture a representative sample of what prey species are available during the dry season. The idea is that as the ecosystem dries down each dry season (October through May) prey species get concentrated in small pools of water. This makes fishing for prey easier for the birds...kind of a "shooting fish in a barrel" concept. And this research is an attempt to correlate prey species concentrations with wading bird nesting efforts. The general question is: Do birds nest more when the Everglades ecosystem dries down, thereby making prey more available during nesting season? The work I'm doing is on the ground level of the prey concentration side of the project. There are others looking at the bird nesting efforts too. It's a very complex and extremely fascinating project.

Since I have been a bit lax on providing info about my amazing field job at FAU, I will try to post more now. Now that the rainy season has begun, our field sampling season is over and we are back in the laboratory for now. So I will start a series of posts that are a look back at this field season.

That square black thing is our "trap" that we use to catch fish, shrimp, crayfish, amphibians, insects, and any other thing that wading birds would eat.

Do you ever feel like you're being put to a test? Are you worried that you're not measuring up?

Maybe that's how these little squirrel treefrogs feel. As we extract fauna from our throw trap we measure most amphibians and re-release them into the wild. This 3cm squirrel treefrog (Hyla squirella) held still long enough to be photographed and well documented. This particular individual is a dark green color, but this species can change colors like a chameleon. It was noted that in the previous year, these same frogs were especially dark brown. This year, the majority of the frogs we found were a very light green color, some almost yellow green to match much of the dead sawgrass and eleocharis.

Still Measuring Up??

Some other things we measure and record as prey for wading birds:

This is a big lively Southern leopard frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus).

And here is another leopard frog we caught on another day.

We also measure and record tadpoles. I'm not sure what kind of tadpole this is, but we can be sure that wading birds would eat this if they were given the chance.

This little guy looks totally unassuming from the top, but flip him over and you've got this beautiful golden speckled soft underbelly:

I'm not sure what species he is, but I'm guessing young Pig Frog.

This is an apple snail. The Florida Apple Snail (Pomacea paludosa) is a very important part of the Everglades ecosystem. This large freshwater snail is the principal food source of the endangered Everglades kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus), a really beautiful and magestic raptor native to the region. Unfortunately, the Florida Apple Snail is under a lot of pressure. First, is it now in direct competition with 4 introduced species of apple snails that are bigger and more aggressive than it is. Studies are currently under way to see if the Everglades kite will eat the invasive species of snail as well and if it contains the same nutrients it obtains from the native species. Second, artificially controlled water levels in the Everglades ecosystem by the South Florida Water Management District have negatively affected the abundance and distribution of native apple snails in its home habitat. Read more about how apple snails are important to the Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Plan here.

To see the fish and other prey species that we collect and analyze back in the lab, check out this posting.