Observance of Commonwealth Day

The Observance of Commonwealth Day. On Monday I went to Westminster Abbey for the service to which the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago also attended (and 2,000 other delegates including school children). The service had representation from the different faiths and all the Commonwealth counties. It included key speakers such as Lord Robert Winston - the speeches and activities all related to the Science, Technology and Society theme. At the end of the service the Queen laid a wreath with the help of Savita, Director of the Natural History Consortium and then on her exit from the abbey, Martha from Kenya and Gotham from India were are at the entrance to hand the Queen and Camilla some flowers. David Hill, Uni of Bristol, and I were stood nearby with the flag bearers and the choir as they came out. The results of the Bioblitz will be submitted to Buckingham Palace (BP) with the view to seeing if the Consortium can do a bioblitz of the BP gardens to help promote our work further.

This evening there was a stakeholders event at the zoo for the Bristol Natural History Consortium to celebrate a year of activity in 2009 and the local and national projects (including what we've just done) that will be running in 2010 - the Year of Biodiversity. The museum will be involved at the three main events the Consortium runs - the Bristol Festival of Nature, Bioblitz and Communicate conference. It was a great evening with a fab presentation by Savita and Sara and met some wonderful people from organisations across the city and beyond.

Bioblitz in Westminster Abbey Gardens

Thursday was an exciting day as I was doing a Bioblitz for the celebration of Commonwealth Day in the gardens of Westminster Abbey - this year's theme is Science, Technology and Society. With Savita Custead, Director of the Bristol Natural History Consortium, David Hill, University of Bristol (and lichen guru!), a consultant from the Commonwealth Societies we worked with Martha from Kenya and Gotham from India to find as much nature in the gardens as possible. We found all sorts of plants, many native, others from abroad, various birds and of course lichens (21 species believe it or not)! Highlights included a pair of Peregrines flying in and landing on the Houses of Parliament just 40 metres away and Great Tits busily singing and chasing each other!

On Monday there will the Observance of Commonwelth Day at Westminster Abbey where the Queen will find out more about what we have been doing. Savita, Martha and Gotham will present the Queen with a wreath and those of us involved will get the chance to mingle with the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Camilla! This is a great way in which all the Bioblitzes happening across the UK can be publicised and be given some national and international recognition.