Bob Jarman describes some of the spectacular displays at the recent Cambridge Natural History Society’s annual festival – the NatHistFest
The Cambridge Natural History Society held its 105th festival in the University Zoology Laboratories in Downing Street on 19 and 20 April.
“It’s our annual exhibition on the wonders of the natural world,” said Monica Frisch, one of the organisers. “This was our 105th exhibition, held annually since 1920, and is often called ‘The Conversazione’ or The Conversation, to encourage discussions about our natural world and as a showcase of local natural history.”
“This year we had 40 exhibits,” said Paul Mardon, who helps organise the event. “In our centenary year, just before Covid, we had 100 exhibits! We also offer prizes to the best student displays.”
This year the student first prize went to a Year 9 pupil from the Perse School, Maito Shiodoe, with a display titled ‘Meteorites aren’t as rare as you might think!’, including a microscope examination of a metallic meteorite fragment found in his garden.
Paul Rule illustrated some of the wildlife in his garden in Langham Road, Cambridge.
“I have recorded 1,615 species of everything - plants, animals, birds, insects, mosses, fungi and slime moulds, including 1,298 invertebrates – insects, spiders, slugs and snails,” he said. “I’ll soon be moving to Ely so I’ll have to start all over again!”.
There was also an exhibit of death’s-head hawkmoths. Remember those from the film Silence of the Lambs?
Gwenda Kyd always has an original display about plants, and this year it was titled ‘Feisty food plants and how to tame them’. It was all about the human body’s response to the vegetables and fruits we eat, including a 1633 quote from John Bodyer, who introduced the Jerusalem artichoke: “They stirre and cause a filthy loathsome stinking winde within the bodie”!
Duncan MacKay illustrated findings from a sequence of moth traps set up across the city, including the Botanic Garden and the new meadow outside King’s College Chapel. So far, 400 species of moths have been recorded.
Rhona Watson and Diana Caulfield, of Jesus College, illustrated the wildlife found in the college grounds, including their resident roe deer stag, water voles, snake’s-head fritillaries and the occasional visit of badgers spotted by the night staff on their security cameras.
The animated display of animal skulls by the Wildlife Trust particularly attracted the children.
Nichola Hawkins, of the Wild Flower Society, illustrated oxlips, early purple orchids, our bluebell woods, and demonstrated a fascinating rust fungus found on creeping thistle that copies the scent of the thistle flowers and attracts pollinators that help spread both the thistle and the fungus.
The Cam Valley Forum’s presentation looked at the pollution in the Cam as it flows through the city.
“The sewage infrastructure at Haslingfield is a major source of faecal bacteria that is polluting Cambridge swimming spots. Haslingfield sewage treatment works was spilling sewage into the River Cam for a shocking 34 per cent of the time in 2023,” the forum noted.
A poster illustrated species of breeding birds that have been lost and gained in Cambridgeshire. The most recent county extinction is the willow tit that once bred at Wicken Fen but the glossy ibis, a bird typical of the river deltas of eastern Europe, bred for the first time in Cambridgeshire in 2021 and was also a first for the UK.
Peregrine falcons have been nesting in the city centre for the past 10 years and the current female was ringed as a chick in Wakefield in 2021; the current male bird is about 11 years old.
Richard Dowsett had a fascinating display of ‘Stories in wood’ - knots, cankers, fusions and charcoals and a beautiful piece of fenland bog oak intricately carved into a small trinket box.
“Our Natural History Festival or NatHistFest is always free to enter,” said Paul Mardon “We should remember the late Henry Tribe, who displayed different models of molecular biology and chemical processes for 51 years.
“We must also thank the university’s Department of Zoology for letting us use their facilities,” added Monica Frisch, “and especially their staff, who help us every year.”
