Obituary - Frank Murgatroyd

Frank Murgatroyd has died at the age of 97. He was a much respected and liked ex-president of Halifax Scientific Society to whom you could take any flowering plant, grass, sedge, fern or fungus and he would usually give you its identity there and then without looking it up. "The Flora of the Parish of Halifax" was his work; ( this covers the whole of Calderdale basically.)

He was initially a bird watcher; found a Desert Wheatear at Upper Gorple in his younger days. People came from all over to see it.

He was also a very quiet, phlegmatic, unstressable man. When anyone created fuss about what they saw as damaging developments in natural areas, he would say that he had a "What goes around comes around" atitiude to changes.

Funeral arrangements to follow.

Welcome New Recorder

ROE DEER AT WARLEY by SB (Panasonic Lumix)

Our Mammal Recorder, Ian Lomas, has had to resign for personal reasons, and Linda Kingsnorth has bravely stepped forward to fill the post. Linda has been an active naturalist since she moved to the area, with a particular interest in badger protection, and has done otter monitoring with Ian.

Some might remember Linda as the Halifax Scientific Society Treasurer for a while, and on the Friends of Calderdale Countryside Group.

Each order can have any number of recorders, but the nominated Mammal Recorder is the person who collates the records. ( Please send via this blog, or if more sensitive, to the email address at the top.)

With best wishes and thanks to Ian for his generosity with his knowledge and great concern (along with Tina of course) for our local wildlife. 

ID HELP

                                   Found at SunnyVale Sunday largest fruit body 50 cm across.

‘Botanical Threads’ at Bankfield Museum

Saturday 9 March - Sunday 5 May, ‘Botanical Threads’ by Vivienne Brown at Bankfield Museum. Beautiful textiles depicting Botanical Illustrations, embroidered panels, made with paper quilted, fabric, stitch, machine embroidery, pencil crayon, graphite pencil some framed some just mounted. Nearly all for sale at prices across the board.  Free admission.

Owl Pellets

            Common Shrew above and Pygmy shrew jaw bone below ,found in Long eared owl pellets from an upland site.

 Pygmy shrew  skull also found in long eared owl pellets

Large tibia and femur bones found in tawny owl pellets from an urban site in queensbury possible Rabbit,,
  if any body knows any places where Owl pellets could be found i would be very grateful for the information,,

Calderdale Priority Species meeting - 7th March

The next Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species workshop will be held on Thursday 7^th March at the Mytholmroyd Countryside Office, above the library – please arrive at 7.15pm for drinks ready for a 7.30pm start.

The meeting is open to all with an interest in taking action to conserve Calderdale’s species of conservation concern and will include a round up of progress over the last year and discussion groups to agree plans for 2013.

Please pass on as appropriate.  If you intend to attend , it would be helpful if you would let me know your main interests to help plan the discussion groups.  

I hope to see you there,

Regards,

Hugh