Nature Study as a Hobby
As the summer weather is quickly approaching many of us will wish to be out and about. I suggest an interesting way to utilise the otherwise drifting existence of the long summer holiday period is to change into a pair of substantial shoes and explore the fauna and flora of our surrounding countryside.
It will, however, be more of an adventure than a hike for the newcomer to nature study. The handy person can easily make such apparatus as beating trays, sweep nets and pond "dipping" nets out of everyday oddments.
To many, the word "naturalist" conjures up cartoon-like visions containing a youth wearing horn-rimmed spectacles, careering madly through flowerbeds, net a-flying, after some rare butterfly, with perhaps a rotund park-keeper bringing up the rear. Granted such nets are used for building up sets of butterflies, dragonflies and moths, but hardly in such a spectacular manner. For the beginner, however, a hand lens, necessary to observe the minute structures of the catch, and suitable receptacles arc all that is essential.
Tobacco tins of the flat four-ounce variety make excellent receptacles for beetles, etc. It is, however, necessary to ventilate the tin. The holes should be punched from the inside so as not to damage the specimens on the jagged edges. A leafy twig should also be included on which the captive can hang. For pond dippings, samples of mud, water or aquatic larva, glass tubes are more suitable.
Bardsley Canal offers great numbers of molluscs, insect larvae, water beetles, leeches, water fleas and Cyclops to the collector. The wayside flora also offers flies of countless variety, sap-sucking creatures and numerous small moths and beetles to satisfy the wish of those with a thirst for such knowledge.
If your passion is photography, why not have a change from the conventional family group and try such subjects as wild flowers, or the gleaming dew rinded web of the common cobweaving spider, found in most bushes?
The girls will possibly find beetles rather repulsive and usually prefer to collect and press wild flowers and leaves. Coupled with this inexpensive pastime are the collection and preparation of spore-prints of common fungi. They are quite easy to make. Remove the cap from the stem and place gills or pores downwards on a piece of paper or card, cover with a box and leave overnight. The following morning on removing the cap a beautiful print will be seen. The colour of the spores varies with the type of fungi.
All specimens should be labelled and as much found out about them as possible. In this way a fair knowledge of common plants and animals will be obtained without poring unduly over text-books.
Well, good hunting !
A. DOCKER, 5X.