Repeat of Last Week! You are welcome to join the VNHS Saturday Birding Group who will be going to Saanichton Bay Park. As this is a birding hot spot for wintering waterfowl, we should see loons, grebes, diving ducks and dabbling ducks. It is also a good area for passerines. 

Meet at 8:00 a.m. at the parking lot off Mount Newton Cross Rd just a short distance past the all ways stop with Lochside Drive. Watch for the Central Saanich Park sign on the left. There were few people who showed up due to the weather so we are repeating last week. Call Rick at (250) 885-2454 or email Agnes at thelynns at shaw.ca for more information.

MARINE NIGHT
Marine snails: shape changes during development and evolution
Gastropod molluscs (“snails”) have evolved feeding structures to utilize a diversity of food sources. Some gastropods have retained the ancestral pattern of grazing on algae, while others have become suspension feeders, sediment feeders, or predators. Remarkably, however, this diversity has occurred despite the fact that most gastropods begin life as a free-swimming, planktonic larva that must feed on microalgae. Dr. Louise Page, Department of Biology, UVic will explore three questions: 1) How is the larval feeding system of gastropods transformed into the radically different feeding systems of juvenile & adult gastropods, 2) How is this transformation accomplished so quickly, even in predatory gastropods with highly complex feeding systems, and 3) Has the developmental system contributed to the rapid evolutionary diversification of predatory gastropod feeding systems? 

We meet at 7:30 p.m. in Room 159 of the Fraser Building, University of Victoria. Everyone is welcome. Note: UVic parking is $3.50.