Residency Road Albany WA 6330

Hi my name is Shelby Armstrong and all my friends call me Shelbo. I go to St Josephs College and I am in year 7. My hobbies are playing soccer, basketball, going camping, and watching T-V. My favourite T-V shows are ‘Little House On The Prairie’ and ‘My Place’. I have been learning the guitar for 4 years and love it.

I live in Bayonet Head and like to play with my pets. I have one dog called Ruby and two chooks who are very friendly and love a cuddle.

I love the Naturalist Club because we go to interesting places.

Member Profile — Shelby Armstrong

Phone: 9841 4844 Rebecca’s Mobile: 0419 199 491

E-mail: rebecca.pritchard@museum.wa.gov.au

Living, caring and learning in our environment

My favourite holiday is at my Nan and Pops they live on ‘Lynton Station’ at Port Gregory. It has a lot of convict buildings and is close to the Hut River which has the best sand dunes. If you go down the dunes really fast on a boogie board you can skim across the river.

F must be my new favorite letter. Last month I was very interested in Fungi – the beautiful, diverse and incredibly important organisms that we tend to take for granted. This month I am totally into Frogs! When Dr. Dale Roberts came down to help us with our night walk I did not fully realize the diversity of frogs that we have here in Albany. They are all so cute and make the best array of sounds! Who would have thought you

could talk to frogs? Dale does! He quacks away to the Crinia Georgiana and they quack right back at him! He has even done a study by quacking once, twice, four times and eight times to see what the response would be. And guess what? They quack back once, twice, four times and then for the 8 quacks they quack back six times! Why do you think this is? Have a think and let me know.

From the Editor

In addition to the monthly events, this year I will be setting members a “one hour outdoor challenge” each month.

As this is the International Year of Forests all the challenges will relate to a tree of your choice. Record all the information for each challenge in your club note book or another journal. At the end of the year I will invite you to bring your journal to the museum to

exhibit it and there will be great prizes for various achievements with the challenges.

If you are missing previous monthly challenges please email me and I will email them back.

September:

Flowers and seeds.

Does your tree have flowers? What do they look like? Can you press a flower for your

Museum Under the Microscope 2

What's been happening 2

School holidays at the Museum 3

Young Nats October events 3

Activity page 4

Member profile 4

Inside this issue:

The Barking gEcho

Volume 6

14th September 2011

Outdoor Challenge—September

Then of course there are forests, fish, food, feathers and Fridays! More of my favorite “F” things.

Your editor and roving reporter !

journal? Does it have seeds? What do they look like? Take a photograph of the seeds or flowers and place it in your journal.

Q. What did the snail say while riding on the turtle's back? A. "Weee!"

Outdoor World Community Fund Don’t forget that if you are purchasing any new camping equipment from Camping World here in Albany then please nominate the Young Naturalists Club as the community group you would like to support. We get rewards when people shop at Camping World and nominate our club. It is important to do this at the time of purchase.

Dr Mark Harvey— Senior Curator & Head, Dept. of Terrestrial Zoology

I have been Curator of spiders and their relatives since 1989 when I joined the Western Australian Museum after moving to Perth from Melbourne. My job as a Curator is very busy with lots of requests for information, looking after the spider collection and doing scientific research. I don’t just look after spiders, though, as arachnids includes lots of creepy-crawlies such as scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen and various other smaller groups, as well as the multi-legged creatures such as millipedes and centipedes.

I do lots of field work every year

and have collected widely in Western Australia and other parts of Australia. In the past three years I have also collected in U.S.A., Japan, South Korea, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, which were amazing experiences.

One of the best aspects of my job is finding new species. Once we have found a new species, we need to prepare a scientific description, which takes a long time, and write a research paper. Once the paper is published in a scientific journal, the species name I selected is always used for that species. Finding names is fun, and I have named species after other people, the places they come from, and a distinguishing morphological feature. My favourite names I’ve

used are Draculoides bramstokeri, Tyrannochthonius rex, and Wuria boutit (say this one out loud).

It’s an interesting and exciting job, and I’ve met some great people and visited some awesome places.

Want to know more? Mark will be visiting Albany for talks at the Museum during October—come along!

Page 2

Museum under the Microscope

THE BARKING GECHO

What’s been happening

Bush Care

Busy Bee

Frog Watch

VOLUME 6 Page 3

School Holidays at the Museum

Workshops: 10.30am each day

listed

Mon 3rd and Mon 10th Oct

Amazon Art – Discover amazing facts about rainforest life. You will be guided step by step in artistically layering the intricate colours and patterns of three rainforest creatures onto plaster moulds. Decorate your room with these works of art. 8+ years. $7

Tues 4th Oct and Tues 11th Oct

Foods from the forest – Using ingredients sourced from rainforests prepare and cook a delicious delicacy. Delight your taste buds with a smorgasbord of tropical fruits. While waiting for your treats to bake create and decorate a unique rainmaker. 5+year. $7.

Wed 5th Oct and Wed 12th Oct

Carnivale – Enjoy the street party atmosphere of a Brazilian Carnival. Dress in colourful masks and costume. Have a beautiful butterfly or hairy spider painted on your face. Make and play a set of

maracas and learn to rumba. 5+years $7

Thurs 6th Oct and Thurs 13th Oct

Warp and Weft – Explore the functional and traditional uses of baskets and woven items in rainforest cultures. Learn the resourceful art of basket weaving, and then create your own unique masterpiece. 8+years. $7.

Fri 7th Oct and Fri 14th Oct

Electric Blue – These iridescent and remarkable Morpho butterflies are amongst the worlds largest. Discover why their habitats are under threat and how you can help protect them. Learn the delicate skills involved in displaying dried insects then mount your own stunning specimen to take home. 8+ years. $7.

Bookings essential. All children 12 years and under must be accompanied by an adult. Phone 9841 4844

Remarkable Rainforests –the

Discovery Centre

Adorn yourself with feathers and paint as you learn about the Yanomami, an indigenous rainforest tribe from the Amazon. Enter a traditional shabono (hut) and experience life in the village.

Fascinating plants and animals await you under the dense canopy. Construct your own bromeliad, complete with a poison dart frog to take home.

Enjoy Carnivale as you imitate the colourful sights and sounds of the forest. Try out some rumba moves dressed in flamboyant masks, boas and feathers. Play the maracas and make your own Pandeiro (Tambourine).

Explore the rainforest layers as you model creatures for the diorama. Paint a fabulous red eyed tree frog or craft a blue Morpho butterfly.

All ages. Activities range from 50c to $5. 10am to 4.30 daily. 30th Sept to 16th Oct.

Young Naturalists Club Events - October

Sunday 16th October 1pm to 3pm (optional) “Flora and Fauna Photography ”Location: Whale World Fauna Park

I am very excited to say that we have secured Sam Clarke to help with this event! Sam is a world renowned nature photographer who is donating her time to help our Young Nats master their pho-tography skills. Our resident Club Photographer, John King, may also be on hand to help with this. We have also been very lucky to be able to do this event out at the Whale World Fauna Park. But

wait there’s more!!! Rosie Smith of Whale World will also conduct tours of the fauna park and explain about the care of captive wildlife. Please book for this one.

Sunday 23rd October 9am to 11am (core event) “Tangaroa Blue Beach Clean” Lo-cation: There will be two beaches to choose from but details will come closer to the time.

This truly is what we are all about in many ways. 46,000 pieces of plastic are estimated to float in every square mile of ocean! 77 Australian species, 20 of which are

already listed as endangered are impacted by marine debris! That’s why Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society was cre-ated – to help protect our oceans! Now we can do our bit. We will participate in the beach clean up, record all de-bris collected and learn about why this project is so important and done in the way it is done. Please book for this one so that I have enough equipment for all.