Latest arrival

[sandworm]

Hello everyone. I'm Mandy and I'm working at the Natural History Museum. I'll be stumbling around this site until I get the hang of where and how to post, so please be patient with me. My main interests are fish and marine life, but I encounter all sorts of stuff in my public enquiries role, and I'm naturally curious. I think this forum is an excellent resource and I'm looking forward to learning a lot.

Cheers !

[GME]

Hi Mandy (sandworm)!!

Welcome to the site. I love fish too. I keep marines, malawis and have a pond filled with carp, etc. But I love all sorts of other wildlife too

That must be great to get to work at such a fantastic place. How interesting!

Explore WAB and enjoy

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Mandy.

[goosey]

Hi Mandy, what a fab job yo have! It won't take long to get to grips with everything that is going on here though it can be a bit addictive - I am on holiday at the moment walking in the Lake District and I still have to find time to see what is happening here Welcome

[buzfuz8149]

Hi Mandy,

A warm welcome to WAB, you are right this site is an excellent place for information, looking forward to your posts and photos.

Carol.

[glsammy]

Hi Mandy, welcome to WAB. I hope you enjoy your time here.

[dragonfly]

hya from East Yorkshire
hya sandworm glad to see you will find this useful for all sorts of things to do with nature

[Jez]

Hi Mandy WAB! The Natural History Website is topnotch! to those that don't know it you can type in your postcode and it comes up with all recorded native plant specie to your area .How cools that. Hope to chat some time have lots of fun

[cresshead101]

hey sandworm/mandy!great to hear from you!(is the name from the book Dune, or just sandworms?random question,i know)any way ,just to say a quick hello and welcome to the forum!hope you have a great time here! as well as being a great resource,dont forget the people on here are great,too! see ya around

[sandworm]

Thanks for the big welcome everyone. I've worked at the Natural History Museum for aons, first on fossil reptiles and birds, then transferred to Zoology to work on Indo-Pacific marine fish, and most recently in public access to the collections and advisory services. I love it when we get stuff sent in for identification which is so weird, the boffins are baffled.

The only reason I chose the name sandworm was because the site won't let me use any of my usual names, and I happened to have some photographs I took in Namibia on my desk. For those who haven't read Frank Herbert's epic story, largely set on the planet Arrakis, known as Dune; watching the desert for "worm-sign" is something the native inhabitants do a lot. The first time I went to the Namib desert, I stood atop a big dune and imagined giant sandworms as in the story. Not that I'm some enormous, scaly thing mind you

Thanks for the tip about postcode botany. I think I've used this once before and got a shock at the length of the floral list. I live in South Bedfordshire, next to sand quarries, which make an interesting environment when the diggers move on. Botany-wise, I'm most interested in the plants used in medicine during the 17th Century. Yep, I'm one of those living history saddoes and you might encounter me on a visit to some English Heritage site one day. Be afraid !