About the same time, last year I attended the ‘Darwin Scholarship Programme’ at UK organised by Field Studies Council (FSC). First time I was flying abroad and I was excited for two things, firstly as it was going to be all about Charles Darwin, the great biologist and secondly after the course I would be visiting my cousin Vijaya and delivering the goodies sent by her family. Darwin Scholarship Programme is held annually in two places, Brazil and UK. I chose UK because, in UK, the programme is held in FSC’s field centres located in Shrewsbury (which is birthplace of Charles Darwin) and also in Dorking. Although the programme selects 25 participants globally, there was considerable representation from India last year, standing upto its name of being the second populous country in the world! The programme focuses on Darwin’s life, his ideas and thinking, along with identifying, monitoring and communicating biodiversity.
The journey in UK began in Manchester from where I took a train to Shrewsbury town. The ride was amazing, mostly through the country side, huge farmlands with large cows grazing in them and uniform houses. The English country side was just as beautiful as the memories I had of reading about it in books. On my arrival at the Shrewsbury train station, Ms. Jenni Duffel, our course administrator picked me up and we headed towards Preston Montford Field Centre through Shrewsbury.
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| With Jenni Duffell with her botanist husband Mark Duffell PC: Shrikant Gund |
Shrewsbury is a town in Shropshire with River Severn flowing through it. Multi-coloured flowers at the entrances of houses and along the streets add beauty to this town. From top of the Shrewsbury castle a bird view of the railway station and part of the town can be seen. Shrewsbury still houses the place were Charles Darwin was born and the Shrewsbury school were he studied.
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| Victorian style buildings in Shrewsbury |
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| Colourful flowers along the streets of Shrewsbury |
The initial seven days of the Darwin Scholarship Programme was spent in the Preston Montford Field Centre and rest four days at Juniper Hall in Dorking with field excursions in between. Our first field excursion was to Cwm Idwal, Snowdonia National Park in Wales and we were accompanied by Adrian Pickles, Michael Roberts and Ian. Darwin visited Cwm Idwal on a horse carriage for his geoglogical explorations.. The tiny streams with crystal clear water trickled down from the mountains towards the centre of the valley forming a shallow lake Llyn Idwal, Cwm Idwal is definitely a mesmerizing place. All through our hike it was windy and drizzling. Cwm Idwal has made a special place in my memory not only because of its beauty but also it being the best hike in rain which probably only a hiker who loves rain can understand the feeling.
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| Cwm Idwal PC: Sandeep |
The next field excursion was to Llanymynech rocks which are vertical (almost perpendicular to the ground!) and almost 200ft tall. A limestone quarry till a few decades ago, the quarrying has been stopped, and the area has been restored naturally and is home for floral diversity. Dr. Mark Duffel, botanist and horticulturist identified various plants and elaborated upon its history and uses. Probably, it was the flowering season and the beauty of the small colourful flowers only made the visit more worthwhile.
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| Vertical rocks at Llanymynech |
We visited Down House, the house where Charles Darwin lived the last 40 years of his life. Currently, it is a museum with a good collection of things used by Darwin and his family. The audio guide helps in touring and understanding the various locations in the house. Overlooking Darwin’s room was the lawn where he performed many experiments. The kitchen garden and the green house set up by Darwin are still being maintained by the authorities. There was a tennis court in which Darwin’s children played, the shape of the court was like an hour glass which was the shape of original tennis court. Although people criticize Darwin’s research saying his father was rich and could afford to lend him money to buy a house along with so much of open space, but his dedication and commitment towards research eventually helped him to conduct experiments and explore many things. Personally, I feel there could be other contemporaries to Darwin in similar positions but not everybody would have thought of experimenting or exploring like Darwin.
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| Colourful flowers at Llanymyynech rocks |
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| Down House: Charles Darwin's house |
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Sandwalk: Darwin walked here every day and reflected about life around him
PC: Shrikant Gund
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Our next visit was to the Natural History Museum in London, one of the finest museums in the world. It houses everything from the tiniest to the largest organism on earth, natural processes, geology, fossils and lots and lots more. Darwin centre inside Natural History Museum attends to public queries of identifying species and also conducting trainings. It has a huge collection of insects and plants, neatly stacked in specially designed cupboards in temperature controlled rooms.
Plants and insects collected by people in earlier days as a hobby or interest have also made their way to Natural History Museum. Over 5000 beetles of this kind were yet to be sorted out. There were lots of herbarium samples that were collected decades ago and still need to be identified. All these collections helps in educating people who are actual custodians of these species. This botanical section is open for volunteers to help staff segregate and identify herbariums. The museum holds a huge treasure which cannot be experienced in one day.
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| Largest larva (of a beetle) on earth |
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| Herbarium collection which are yet to be sorted and identified at Darwin centre in Natural History Museum |
Our next excursion was a hike to the Box hill close to Juniper Hall accompanied by Ian and Adrian Pickles. Box Hill had many visitors as it is a popular tourist spot which provides them an amazing view of the countryside. We explored the floral diversity of the area with the field guides developed by FSC. There were also natural play trails that made the hike exciting.
Apart from learning about Darwin and field excursions, we also learnt about insects, small mammals, birds and bats. Dr. Ian Cheeseborough and Dr. Nigel Jones led the insect session. We learnt to use different insect trapping methods such as shaking and beating method, nets, malaise traps and pan traps. Trapped insects were later identified in the laboratory with the help of field guides. Similar to insect trapping methods, small mammal trapping also has a variety of methods. We learnt to prepare longworth trap from Dr. Debbie Alston and left it overnight around the field centre. Out of the entire traps only myself and Willian Chan were able to trap successfully a wood mouse and a vole respectively.
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| Successful small mammals trapping experiment posted on twitter by Debbie Alston |
Dr. Debbie also had interesting hands on activities to teach us about population ecology. Debbie also mentioned that there was a Poo Musuem in UK (you read it right all about poo).
On one of the evenings we went around Preston Montford field centre accompanied with Dr. Mike Castle and Dr. Pete Marshall to identify bats and we had instruments to record the bat calls which helped in identifying the location of bats. Dr. Pete mentioned about this amazing bat in Poland which is 43 years old and eats 3,000 insects every night. Bird territory mapping technique was yet another interesting field activity where we mapped the territory of different birds in Preston Montford with Dr. Richard Burkmar. Dr. Rebecca Farley’s class on developing effective field guides was the best because she had animal-shaped chocolates and candies for her activities which were later relished by us!! Dr. Adrian Pickles classes taught effective communication through hands on activities and brain storming.
The Young Darwin Scholars Programme (for children <18 years) was coming to a close and each of us were tagged with one Young Darwin Scholar for interaction. It was an interesting to interact with them and also learn how they wished to be a part of conservation.
Being a foodie I thought this was my opportunity to try new cuisine. Food mostly consisted of fried egg, bread, baked beans, salad, potatoes and the mouth watering cheese cake for dessert. Food was less spicy and sometimes few of us would borrow chilli powder from the cook. Well, I forgot to mention there was meat also, since I am a vegetarian, I didn’t bother to explore that part. On days that we had field trips, we would pack sandwiches for lunch. I was poor at making sandwichs and my friend Kashimana had labeled my sandwiches as ‘disaster’!
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| Variety of tasty food served during Darwin Programme |
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| Darwin Scholars 2016 - Born to conserve! PC: Shrikant Gund |
I thank Adrian Pickles, Jenni Duffell and Ian for making this a successful and memorable programme. Being a Darwin Scholar, I look ahead for success and look backward for confidence i.e, ‘Darwin Scholarship Programme’ .
