A love of all things wild - tribute to Dr Gill Stevens

...to celebrate the life of a true one off, golden spirit and dear friend.  And to send thoughts and love to her husband Graeme and Mum Joan.

Gill and Stuart (Centre Manager) at the opening of
the Darwin Centre Sept 2009

Gill passed away 13th January after a long and determined battle with cancer, aged 45.  She died peacefully in Trinity Hospice with her family around her.  

AMC Team

Gill was Head of the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity and a hugely respected member of staff and botanist, she had worked at the Natural History Museum for many years.

She was a source of inspiration and amazing force for fun.  She had a quite unique knack of bringing dried specimens and preserved people to life!

We worked side by side for 2 1/2 years then I took over her post for 9 months while she was having treatment.  She came back to work and I took the plunge and joined Dominik in Mozambique.  

Stuart, Me, Gill - once the confetti had settled

Gill then worked on despite her health.  She had a passionate drive to inspire and engage everyone in the wonders of the natural world and to that end developed much Citizen Science.  She gained a huge lottery grant for the museum to take natural history training and learning into the field...OPAL the Open Air Laboratory.  

Gill leaves a physical legacy in the form of the Centre with its staff, programmes and collection - a legacy to foster the next generation of naturalists.

But she also loved music, theatre, poetry and to find the hidden, sunny corners of life.  She has seen more live music than anyone I know...she filled every moment.

I have danced in muddy fields and laughed in dark holes thanks to Gill.  She has left us with wonderful memories and SO much to thank her for.  Here are some poems for you ...



    
A Small Dragon

I've found a small dragon in the woodshed.
Think it must have come from deep inside a forest
because it's damp and green and leaves
are still reflecting in its eyes.

I fed it on many things, tried grass,
the roots of stars, hazel-nut and dandelion,
but it stared up at me as if to say, I need
foods you can't provide.

It made a nest among the coal,
not unlike a bird's but larger, it
is out of place here
and is quite silent.

If you believed in it
I would come hurrying to your house
to let you share my wonder,
but I want instead to see
if you yourself will pass this way.

Brian Patten

I'm going to plant a heart in the earth

water it with love from a vein

I'm going to praise it with the push of muscle

and care for it in the sound of all dimensions.

I'm going to leave a heart in the earth

so it may grow and flower

a heart that throbs with longing

that adores everything green

that will be strength and nourishment for birds

that will be the sap of plants and mountains.

Rosario Murillo

Gill's Birthday Oct 2010

A wild one: love and thanks for the words and the music

Help needed...with bird identification on my doorstep in Oxford

This most intriguing and elegant goose appeared in the snow at Christmas, right here on my doorstep and quite alone.  (It is not Africa but it is wildlife!)  In the thick snow it was bullied by Greylag gangs whenever we tried to feed it. So Dominik and I spent a lot of time working out strategies to distract the others and sneak food to our favoured mysterious goose.

Then the snow melted and to my joy it has stayed. It has cheered up my home run no end - I look forward to seeing it and on occasions tracking it, when it wonders down the tow path towards port meadow.  But I can't identify it and my wildfowl ID skills are fair to moderate (having worked for the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Barnes) and it's not in my bird book.  Calling my birder friends...can you help?  



A first: think have just been party to a sentiment never uttered before in history of man OR dinosaur...

Am currently doing a bit of research for a forthcoming exhibition at the Natural History Museum Age of Dinosaurs.  (Wonderful work - am so enjoying tackling the timescales, and the thought that humans have hardly made an appearance compared to the huge, bizarre and exotic creatures that ruled the planet for 160 million years.)

...well while on the phone to Mum I mention that tomorrow I have to go and photograph some coprolites (fossilised dinosaur poo)...she obviously drifts off a bit and says in an alarmed tone:  no, no I would really like you to have highlights not copperlights!  What Mum?

(I am sure the worlds of palaeontology and hair-dressing rarely, if ever, collide!)

Here is a coprolite taken from the NHM picture library - a beautiful spiral one from a coelacanth, the flesh-finned fish that was thought to have died out at the mass extinction 65 million years ago...only to appear in 1938 at a fish market in South Africa.  The exotic looking fish was 1.5m long Latimeria - a living fossil.  The wonders of nature...

Coelacanth coprolite - a 'preview' image from NHM picture library

Oh...'those are easy...you need to get into the forest!'

Trithemis arteriosa

...that was Steve's reaction to my dragonfly photos. He is an expert at the Natural History Museum, friend and ex colleague.  He says the interesting stuff will be near forest streams... 


Palpopleura lucia

 I was so sure this collection (see earlier blog entry brimming with self congratulation) were rare and would excite him to the point of jumping on a plane!  But no, although he did concede that they are good quality images. 

Thankfully it has not dampened my enthusiasm -I now want to hunt in those forest streams until I find the 'hardly known to science' flighty camouflaged ones.

 

not sure at the moment. Will get back to you!
a glimmer of hope

 

impossible. A female damselfly

The captions are Steve's identifications and comments.  It has inspired Dominik to dig around in his huge photo library but I have a feeling this response is quite valid - it is a reminder that you can get imbued with the sense of wilderness and your wish for pioneering discovery on occasion...and the truth is...it is not ALL rare!

A new upload...is this hard to see specimen interesting...please?

WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS 2010: and thrilling camera trapping

• Seeing Golden Cat at Mareja from the car only 10 m away - perfectly silhouetted, a rare and elusive large cat species which was instanting recognisable in our mammal book with its dark brown fur, small very slightly tufted ears, and tucked 3/4 length tail
• Peter trapping a very interesting giant elephant shrew with a russet behind and spots, it may be a new sub-species...
• Identifying a new Duika for the area, Harvey's Duika
• Hearing a deafening and mysterious rush of air and then seeing a Marshall Eagle decend from above me (I was lying on the veranda) and swoop to get a chicken, it lowered its white legs like a jumbo jet coming a ground
• And finally the all time high spot is here for you to enjoy.  It was our first attempt at using the new camera traps (wonderfully supplied by Peter, Ox University) which we put at the waterhole and just look at these two videos....

please watch both in order, you will see why

our christmas and jasper's....

Our first christmas in Europe for 3 years - and in every way it was like a refreshing cool/snowy breeze after life in the oven. 

I greatly wanted to be at home with my family around me with a large turkey (with darling Jay who always wears his party hat far longer than anyone else - and this year was no different).  It was wonderful and a stark contrast from the last two years...which included tourists and

·         2008: much cooking over an open fire for guests, a kidney infection, a 5 hour drive on christmas day to Sauli to return the Queen (with only one dry roll en route). We arrived back in Pemba at 11pm and missed Rebecca’s offer of pork and chocolate roulade...

·         2009: we decided to have a feast and killed the large angry alpha duck which I lovingly cooked in a large pot in the furnace with all sorts of nice ingredients...but the skin did NOT crisp so at the last Dominik unexpectedly plunged it into the furnace caking it irredeemably in 1cm of fine ash...

Anyway this year as you may know we left Jasper in charge.  Jasper has lived in Pemba for many years, he knows Moz and its ways and also Dominik and his ways..he is highly practical and fantastic at stepping in as our temporary manager and Fixer. 

Jasper's christmas...he managed to drive all the way back from Nampula in time to collect food from Pemba and then deliver it to Antonio at Mareja on 24th, in preparation for our 2 booked Dutch guests (and further 4 visitors arriving 26^th).  Once at Mareja he waited and waited to welcome the visitors...who did not appear.  He arrived home, after a 6 hour round trip, too late and tired to enjoy Christmas eve. Argh – poor Jasper.

I have just heard that our guests on 26th did come but only for 1 night not the planned 2.  They saw 4 elephants and 6 antelope which is wonderful...but all that preparation and food...for so little return. I am heartily pleased we came home this year.  Imagine we would have prepared a Christmas feast with prized duck killed and all else polished and eventually eaten alone.

I could not have borne the disappointment of so much work and waiting in vain and another year without one Christmas carol, brussel sprout or the sight of Jay in a paper hat...it is funny what you miss most.

INSECTS delivered: from damp dwelling to dry pinning

...from obscurity to a preserved data rich entity in a monumental institution far far from their place and habitat of origin.

We managed to deliver our damp bags of insects to Darren at the Natural History Museum in Oxford just before he went home for Christmas.  In the process he showed us the results of all Mariel's hard work.  It was so moving to see a beautifully prepared polystyrene sheet with tiny neat labels bearing the location 'Mareja' and insects in all sizes from the almost microscopic to inch long.  There they are quite dead and preserved but representing their species and the reserve and much else.

Early in December the Rangers carried out the second dung-beetle transect, carefully following the instruction they were given by Zia, Catherine, Mariel and Peter in the summer.

We had the option of human, cow, pig or elephant dung... we managed to collected fresh elephant dung, discovering a huge amount on the road to Mareja.

Jose and Saleman did a fantastic job - placing the small muslin wrapped dung bundles over a buried cup containing soapy water, under a plate canopy, against the rain.  Each trap 50m apart on a 500m transect.  It didn't go precisely to plan as Jose disappeared for an impromtu holiday for 10 days but as a first attempt by the Rangers to carry out research...it was fantastic.  They did the transects in 4 of the 5 locations for 24hours each (not the ideal of three days) - next time.

And they bagged their catch in special researchers bags with essential data written on water-proof paper and then filled with 90% alcohol.  They caught many more insects than in the summer as the rains have begun.

I wrapped them all in many plastic bags and transported them home...they arrived and are now awaiting sorting by Mariel and identification by world specialists.  Mariel is doing this wonderful work as a volunteer...THANK YOU from me and your Mareja research team.