Wimbledon Common Nature Club
Sunday 4th January 2026
The Wimbledon Common Nature Club is run by Auriel Glanville, with helpers including Luciana Teuma and Oliver Mallett. The Club welcomes children from 6–14 years old to come and discover the world of nature on Wimbledon Common. They meet for 2 hours each month in the Information Centre, the same venue as used by Quekett members on excursions, the Weekend of Nature and the Open Day.
As part of the Quekett’s outreach programme, Alan Wood took some stereo microscopes and some interesting slides and specimens to show the children at the annual “Life Under a Microscope” meeting. As usual, some of the parents were keen to have a look too. One of the microscopes was small and suitable for children. It has fixed 20× magnification, a working distance of 70 mm and a built-in LED light; it is available new from eBay and Amazon for prices between £25 and £75.
Small stereo microscope
Alan bought his main stereo microscope second-hand on eBay. It is about 40 years old and would have been used in a museum, a laboratory or a factory. The magnification is continuously variable from 6.7× to 40×, with a working distance of 100 mm. It was originally fitted with a tungsten bulb that was hot, not very bright, and needed a heavy transformer, but Alan now uses an LED ring-light that is much brighter and does not get hot.
Olympus SZ4045 zoom stereo microscope
When everyone had arrived, Auriel led the children and parents on a walk on the Common to feed the birds and to collect some specimens to look at under the microscopes.
Alan Wood
Boy with microscope
The children usually bring back some biological specimens, but this time they brought back ice from puddles so that they could look at the crystals and try to identify the dark-coloured particles.
One of the specimens that Alan brought also included crystals, a geode that had been cut in half. Alan bought it from the shop in the Natural History Museum.
Geode
Alan’s other specimens included a printed circuit board, a parakeet feather, tartan fabric, postage stamps and lichen.
Circuit board
Feather of ring-necked parakeet
Tartan fabric
Postage stamp
Lichen
Alan also brought several prepared microscope slides that were suitable for viewing under a stereo microscope. He bought most of the slides at microscope club meetings, and a few from eBay.
Microscope slides
Foraminiferous sand from Dog’s Bay
Stained section of flower cone of larch (Larix decidua)
Stained cross-sections of male nematode (Ascaris)
Microscope slides
Stained section of earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris)
Stained section of stem of fig
Mosquito larva (Culex sp.)
One of the parents kindly took a group photo for us.
Group photo
Report and most photos of specimens by Alan Wood, photos of people by Auriel Glanville