On Friday evening, we set up three light traps, with one of the lights inside a small mesh pop-up tent and the other two in front of vertical white sheets. Strong winds on Saturday night did not bode well for the sheets, so we gathered all three lights inside the tent to create a brighter beacon. Many moths were drawn in during the night, alongside a few grasshoppers and even a Western Dung Beetle (Onthophagus ferox). Species observed on the traps were much the same across the two nights.
Read more →Reports
Contains reports from meetings and excursions
KRM Branch Meeting June 2023 The June meeting was a members’ night with a fungi theme. Daniel Heald was the first presenter, and he showed a series of images of various fungi sighted during the recent weekend invertebrate survey at the Field Station on Cooleenup Island in Yunderup. The fungi ...
Read more →NS Branch Meeting June 2023 Unless you have studied stromatolites in the same detail as our speaker, you could be forgiven for thinking of “stromatolite” as the general term given to any organo-sedimentary structure formed via microbial activity, when in fact, as we learnt, a stromatolite is just one of ...
Read more →Main Club July 2023 Two presenters, Chelsea Payne from Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) and Dominic Castledine from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), talked about an important pest currently threatening trees in Perth suburbs. Our president, Basman Al-Jalely, also contributed since that is one of ...
Read more →This year we chose the Walpole Wilderness Area as our excursion destination. All 15 members who attended opted to stay at the Walpole Lodge in the centre of town. The lodge turned out to be an excellent choice, as not only did it provide comfortable rooms at a very reasonable price, but our exclusive use also allowed us to meet around the log fire for our nightly recap before dinner and to use the large screen in the media room for showing photos after dinner.
Our itinerary
We were extremely lucky with the weather; no rain on any of the days, mainly overnight.
Our observations
Plants in flower [37]
Fungi [46]
Fauna excl. birds [19]
Birds [52]
Guest speaker Natasha Bowden delivered a presentation on the activities and capabilities of SERCUL, the Southeast Regional Centre for Urban Landcare.
It was a very informative talk and gave us a good insight into the services and activities that SERCUL provides. The audience thanked Natasha for coming down to talk to us.
Karina Knight, our speaker, worked for 36 years at the WA Herbarium and for the last 15 years as Collections Manager and Volunteer Coordinator there. Karina took an interest in myxomycetes (slime moulds) when volunteer Margaret Brims drew them to her attention, and in 2015 began pursuing this as a special interest.
Read more →Our fingers were crossed when we decided to advertise our May meeting as Frogs, Specimens and Books. We knew the frogs would come out if it rained, but would our members do the same? They did, and instead of rain, we had a perfect night for a walk around Star Swamp, with the temperature at 8.30 pm hovering around 18° C . Of course, this was not good weather for frogs.
Read more →A good turnout of 14 members and visitors joined hosts Bob and Lynette Goodale on a fine autumn morning. Bob provided a rundown of its history and the flora and fauna for new visitors to the property. He explained that the low rainfall over autumn meant the lakes were still dry and no water birds were present. It also meant that there would be very few fungi to be found.
Read more →KRM Branch, 23 April 2023 The April excursion was to Goegrup Lake (Greenfields, Mandurah), and a fine turnout of 17 members and visitors were treated to a beautiful autumn morning. The walk started at the Riverside Gardens car park on the Serpentine Riverbank. Up in the canopy of a tall ...
Read more →