February Monthly Meeting – Speaker: Stuart Harris ‘A reflection on a (silly) season’

Stuart spends much of his spare time scouring the bush taking stunning photographs of the plants and animals he encounters. Along the way he has discovered six new species of peacock spider and greatly extended our knowledge of many other invertebrate groups notably including the beautiful jewel beetles that were the subject of his fascinating and engaging presentation to members in 2024.

Stuart’s searches in the current season have yielded mixed results, the weather playing a pivotal role. In this talk, Stuart will endeavour to share insights into this phenomenon and primarily show lovely pictures of the animals (and plants) encountered. Nothing too heavy with hopefully a few humorous moments.

Bio

Stuart Harris is a local lad who left Canberra in 1984 to serve ten years in the RAAF, both overseas and in various locations around Australia. On returning to live in Canberra an awakening of a natural kind occurred. Stuart started seeing the abundant natural beauty of our area, in particular its wonderful bird diversity. Stuart had always been a keen photographer (like his Dad) and was soon capturing high quality images of birds around the ACT and beyond. This hobby led him to accidentally discover a new species of Peacock spider (Maratus harrisi) which led to a decade of searching that tangent and helping to discover another five species! In the past decade Stuart has gained a Certificate 4 in Environmental monitoring which has led to work in that sector, primarily with birds and also landed him a job at Questacon where he still works as a science communicator. The past decade has also seen Stuart being active within the citizen science community and is an active member of the Australian Citizen Science association (ACSA).

Stuart’s talk will be held in the Slatyer Seminar Room, on the first floor of the R N Robertson Building, 46 Sullivans Creek Road at the ANU. Head up the stepped ramp on the right as you enter the building. Lifts are also available. The Slatyer room will be on your left at the front of the building. Light refreshments will be served from 7pm with the meeting to commence at 7.30pm. Please bring a keep cup or mug for coffee or tea.  Non (and new!) members welcome!

Refreshments available from 7pm. Mugs or keep-cups encouraged. Non-members welcomed.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm.