A more positive future

I was in Oxford yesterday to attend the 18th Coleoptersist's Day held at the Oxford Museum of Natural History.

Leaving the house at 6.30, I hit Oxford (via a park and ride) at 8.30 and met four other attendees for a healthy breakfast that involved various pig products and strong coffee. Fully fuelled, we made our way over to the museum to find ourselves the first ones there.

A bit of mingling ensued plus a look at the books on sale from Pemberley Books. It was tough keeping my wallet firmly in my pocket but I did pick up a copy of the newly released Water Beetles of Cheshire that had been brought down especially.

The line up was really good this year and no one went massively over time meaning that the whole thing went to plan.

A lunchtime jaunt to the Turf Tavern was followed by an overview of a couple of the Beetle recording schemes, which gave some food for thought plus some head time to how things could be improved.

I have to say that after previously complaining that the beetling world was being outdone by Dipterists it was good to see over 100 people in attendance, a good proportion of whom were under 35. It was lovely to meet a few folk that I'd only previously interacted with via Twitter or Facebook.

A sneaky half afterwards helped to concoct an idea for some field meetings later in the year so hopefully we'll be able to get something off the ground and help reinvigorate the beetle recording world some more.

Big thanks to all the organisers for a great day. Next up, the East of England Coleopterist's meeting