Volunteer profile
Age: Why pretend? I've embarked on my 77th journey around the sun.
Occupation: Retired as Honorary Academic Director of the Cornish Biological Records Unit in 1993 - and now fully and contentedly occupied as a volunteer recorder with ERCCIS and the Trust.
Background: One of six, I was born on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. We emigrated to New Zealand when I was two and between the ages of four and seven I had my only formal education. At the age of seven we returned to Cornwall where I was educated by my father, elder brother and oldest sister.
By the age of ten, with the enthusiastic co-operation of my younger brother, I was rearing "fat stock" - mainly caterpillars of the cabbage moth - and trying to identify moths. Soon afterwards I was collecting bones, shells etc. for my first museum-cum-zoo.
Adolescence brought an intense interest in marine life, an interest which led to many low-tiding sessions over many years. Molluscs had a special appeal - as did ectoparasites, particularly mites. Attendance
Role in the Trust and ERCCIS: After helping to integrate CBRU books and files with those held by the Trust, I turned to busying myself with editing the faunal records on ERICA and am now preparing them for transfer to the national system Recorder 2000.
In the early months of 1992, over a hundred dolphins were washed ashore on Cornish beaches and many of the calls came through to the CBRU. From 1993 we were asked to report and arrange collection of carcases for post-mortem, as a voluntary part of the new government-funded scheme. This has continued and has led to me holding the strandings database for Seaquest.
What is your favourite species?: The ash black slug Limax cinereoniger, which is found in ancient woodlands (and doesn't eat your lettuces!), and a tiny spiny-shelled snail called Acanthinula aculeata.
What was your most memorable record?: Lots have equal place: jewel anemones at Kennack; gold and star cup corals at Marazion; sea slugs spawning at Feock; a monarch butterfly; feather mites under the microscope. So many firsts to be savoured.
Where is your favourite site for recording wildlife?: I've turned over stones all my life - and you can do that in your garden! But my favourite areas are the Helford and Feock.
What conservation issues concern you most?: Keeping as many examples as possible of the many habitats - dunes, heath, wetlands, woodlands and that most special of man-made habitats the Cornish hedge. My current concern is the harvesting of calcified seaweed in Fal Bay and Estuary.
What sort of volunteer work have you most enjoyed? That's difficult as I have been fortunate in finding much enjoyment in everything I have undertaken.
What is your advice to other people wanting to volunteer?: Natural history study in the context of nature conservation reaps its own reward. I agree with Robert Louis Stevenson: "It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire …"
Interview by Tricia Hoskings
"I agree with Robert Louis Stevenson: 'It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire …' " (Stella Turk)
Photo: Richard Warwick
