Adapted from the FFNC newsletter article of P & T Shields.
Dr Christina Zdenek addressing the members
The afternoon commenced with quiz on bird identification but with a twist – only parts of each bird were visible for people to use for identification. A great deal of amusement and comments were made.
Dr Christina Zdenek followed with an extremely interesting talk on how certain kinds of rat poisons are killing our owls (and eagles, quolls, and pets) and what Birdlife Australia is doing to try and stop that.
The second-generation rodenticides are
banned from public sale in many countries (e.g. USA, Canada, EU and Malaysia) but not in Australia. Birdlife Australia believes that widespread public use of long-lasting second- generation rodenticides is killing wildlife on a major scale and is focused on preparing submissions to the Federal regulator as well as campaigning secondary targets such as retailers.
Following a break for afternoon tea, one of our members, B Jahnke, presented a thought-provoking talk on “Educating the public”. He compared the syllabus for secondary education in biology in the 1980s with the current Queensland syllabus, highlighting the major differences and wondering aloud whether current students are obtaining the fundamental knowledge and principles to study biology (i.e. understand our living world).
His talk stimulated much discussion and gave us all some thoughts to consider into the future.
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| Nothing better than a convivial chat around a fire. |
As dusk came some of us convened to the “waterway” to enjoy an evening meal and bonfire.
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