Programme

Welcome to our provisional meetings programme for summer 2017 and beyond.

Field meetings will posted as blog entries and via facebook as they are arranged

Meetings Programme 2017

	Outdoor Meetings
Date and time	Location and details	Leader
2017
Thurs 25 May	Wenvoe Orchard Walk	Bruce McDonald
Meet 11am	A 5-mile tour of some of the Community Orchards around Wenvoe. This walk is also part of the Vale of Glamorgan Walking Festival. Bring lunch. Stout footwear recommended; country footpaths and can be muddy after rain.
Sat 17 June	Llandegfedd Reservoir	Richard Poole
Meet 10:30am	A guided Field Trip with head ranger Richard Poole. We will meet at the Visitor Centre and walk up the east side of the reservoir, which is very flat with well-made paths for about 1.5 miles (if this is too far for you we could take a few cars to the north end of the reservoir but parking is very limited). There are good flower meadows at the north end plus a hide for bird watching. Bring packed lunch. Return mid-afternoon. Tea & cakes available at the visitor centre but have to be paid for!
Wednesday 28 June	Heath Park	Andy Kendall & Steve Bool
Meet 7pm	The walk will start at the car park next to the Heath Park Miniature Railway (ST 17788 79874 or CF14 4EN for Sat Nav and then drive into the Car Park). We will take a 2 hour tour of the Woodlands and surrounding areas looking at the diversity of the flora and fauna and especially to see the developments that have been made by the Friends of Heath Park since they were formed in response to threats to build houses on this valuable inner city woodland. With many trees planted and areas of grassland protected from mowing, and a wetland pond area created, the site has been developed into a very interesting wildlife area
Sunday 2 July	Rhoose Point	Rob & Linda Nottage
Meet 10.30am	A gentle amble, led by Linda and Rob Nottage, exploring in the vicinity of the most southerly mainland point of Wales. Its varied habitats support a range of butterflies and dragonflies with orchids among the flowers. Bring a packed lunch if you intend to linger (optional).
Sunday 16 July	Penarth Marina and foreshore	Jeff Curtis
Meet 10am	Meet 10am at Cogan Railway Station for a walk with Jeff Curtis, as part of the SEWBReC Mary Gillham project. The walk will re-enact one led by Jeff some years ago looking at alien plant invaders (with alterations to the route because of intervening development). Mary wrote extensively about the Cardiff Bay foreshore and Lower Penarth Cliffs and some of her photos can be seen online. The walk may go on in the afternoon to another nearby location so bring lunch if you are interested in this. There is also car parking at the station or in nearby Andrew Road.
Autumn. Date and time TBC	Dyffryn Gardens arboretum	Rosy Ambrose

Looking ahead to events to celebrate our 150th Anniversary year:

Cardiff Naturalists' Society: The first 150 years
An exhibition at The Cardiff Story (The Hayes, Cardiff), from Mon 4 September to Sun 26 Nov 2017. Looking at the history of the history, this exhibition includes museum specimens and an audio-visual presentation.

Prestigious Lecture: An Evening with Iolo Williams
Thursday 5 October 2017. 7pm. The Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre, Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP. Tickets £12, with a post-talk reception event exclusively for members.

Further details of these 150th year events to follow shortly.
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To give you an idea of our indoor meeting programme - here is the programme our members enjoyed in 2016/2017

All indoor meetings start at 7.30pm in Room 0.23 (ground floor) of the Cardiff School of Management Building, Metropolitan University, Llandaff Campus, Western Avenue, Llandaff, Cardiff, CF5 2YB - unless otherwise stated (*).

Date	Title	Speaker
2016
Mon 10th October	AGM followed by ‘The Niagara Escarpment, the Bruce Peninsula (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve) and Georgian Bay’ Starting at Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side), this talk will look at some of the plants associated with the globally-rare habitats of Southern Ontario, along the Bruce Peninsula, Manatoulin Island and Georgian Bay. This includes the alvars (limestone bedrock) associated with plants which rarely occur elsewhere, such as Manatoulin Gold.	Eirian Edwards
Tues 25 October	‘A Lighter Shade of Green’ The lighter side of conservation and natural history field work, by the President of the Gwent Wildlife Trust.	Roger James
Thurs 10 November (*)	‘Plants on the Edge: Arable Plants of Wales’ This talk by Colin Cheesman, from Plantlife Cymru, is a combined meeting with Cardiff Group Wildlife Trust South West Wales and student Wildlife Society Cardiff University. Venue: Wallace Lecture Theatre Main Building, Cardiff University Park Place Cardiff.	Colin Cheesman
Wed 23 November	‘Cardiff  University Otter Project: Otters as sentinels for environmental health’ The lecture will give a brief overview of our native Otter, and the work carried out by the Cardiff University Otter Project in collecting, dissecting and archiving otters found dead in the UK, along with the associated research into freshwater contamination and disease.	Dr Elizabeth Chadwick
Mon 12 December	‘Xmas Bash’ with photographic quiz: ‘Wildlife Connections’.	Linda and Rob Nottage
2017
Sun 8 January (*)	‘Annual Birdwatch’ Held in conjunction with the Wildlife Trust, starts at the Channel View Centre off Avondale Road, Grangetown, CF11 7HB. There is parking overlooking the River Taff. Rob and Linda Nottage will be leading this walk around Cardiff Bay which can continue into the afternoon if members wish. Bring a picnic lunch if you intend to stay.	Linda and Rob Nottage
Mon 16 January	‘Members’ Evening’ CNS members’ photos showing different countries and diverse habitats. Contact Hilary Wicks if you want to show photos on this evening.
Tues 24 January	‘Natural history collections in Welsh Museums’ The National Museum in Cardiff is by no means the only museum in Wales with natural history collections. Local museums across Wales care jointly for approximately 100,000 botanical, zoological and geological specimens. These include mummified cats, algal herbaria, and coal and iron ore. Together, they form Wales’ Distributed National Collection. This talk will introduce some of the curiosities from these collections, explain their historic significance and outline why they are relevant and important to society today.	Dr Christian Baars
Thurs 2 February	‘Fforest Fawr Geopark - the first 480,000.011  years’ The western half of the Brecon Beacons National Park was designated a Geopark 11 years ago and boasts a record of earth history going back 480 million years. A UNESCO landscape since 2005, it is famous not only for its Old Red Sandstone and a spectacular glacial legacy but also for its karst scenery and waterfalls. Then there is its contribution to making Wales the world’s first industrial nation.	Alan Bowring
Thurs 23 February (*)	'Birding Around the Arctic Circle' An illustrated talk that will include 38 species of bird in Iceland, and wildlife from Estonia and Finland. This is a combined meeting with Cardiff Group Wildlife Trust South and West Wales and Cardiff University Student Wildlife Society and will be held in the Wallace Lecture Theatre, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff.	Paul Bowden
Tues 14 March	‘Flora and Fauna of Northern Peru’ A presentation of the wildlife encountered during a tour of Northern Peru from the Pacific coast to the Andes in August 2016.	Phillip Blanning
Mon 27 March	'Student Bursary award evening' 'Project Noise'. A talk by the winner of this year's Bioscience prize awarded in the memory of Prof Ursula Henriques.   Project Noise set out to develop a new approach to rainforest bioacoustics, using the extensively described botanic plots of Danau Girang Field Centre, Sabah, Borneo as recording sites. Instead of training bioacoustic work on a particular species or taxonomic group, as is standard practice, this project attempted to record and analyse the bioacoustic product of the ecosystem as a whole. Also 'Lanzarote, Exploring over and under the volcanoes' An illustrated talk with Audio/Visual presentation regarding a brief visit to explore the unique geology and wildlife of Lanzarote. As well as the spectacular volcanic scenery in Timanfaya (Astronauts are sent to train there), part of the trip included underground exploration of non tourist lava tubes, an aspect of the island that most people to not get to see	Eve Treadaway Andy Kendall