Further to my email giving notice of the cancellation of tonight’s meeting, this is confirmation that the meeting will not take place due to various issues arising from the pandemic.

The booked speaker gave backword due to concerns over the covid situation and. although I did try a couple of other speakers, I was unable to sort anything at short such notice. I am hoping that this will be the last time we cancel due to covid and intend to carry on as normal from now on. I will try and sort out a back-up speaker that is willing to attend at short notice in future to try and avoid these issues if a speaker is suddenly unable to attend.

I look forward to seeing you all at the February meeting when Catherine Artindale will be presenting her talk on ancient British hedgerows.

Thanks to all who replied to my email regarding getting back together, there was a unanimous vote to return to indoor meetings. As I explained, the Quakers have given us a massive headache by letting our meeting room booking go to another group. This means that, in the short term, we will have to meet on a different day and that day, as voted by the members, is a Monday evening. This will be in place until December and then from January 2022 we will be back to our normal second Tuesday of the month.

The following dates should go in your diariesin bold letters; We have booked the second Monday in the month with the exception of the September meeting which will be on the first Monday. This is because I had a commitment to another group on Monday 13^th September and it can’t be altered as I am doing a lighting demonstration and the club has organised a buffet to celebrate the first post covid meeting. Please note, we will not be providing a celebratory buffet at WNS but will, in all probability, have tea and biscuits 😊

Monday 6^th September – welcome back and President’s night

Monday 11^th October – Ray Brown “Cortez to California”

Monday 8^th November – Mike Watson  “Birding the Rockies ”

Monday 13^th December – Ian Newton “2018 BC”

I can now get on with arranging speakers and will publish an update very shortly. The first meeting back will be a welcome meeting with a quick bit of business to bring us up to date and then there will be a slideshow by me featuring a wide variety of NH subjects photographed during the lockdown period. There will be no special measures at the meeting  with regards to COVID-19, but if you feel that you would like to wear a mask, then please do so but it is not compulsory and I don’t expect everyone to sport one. You will be responsible for your own safety and the Wakefield Naturalists’ Society will not be held accountable in any way.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all again

John Gardner

President

As with all the previous autumn indoor meetings, we are unfortunately having to postpone the December meeting. I was really looking forward to Tom Aspinall’s talk on bees as it came highly recommended. I will reschedule it for next year hopefully when things should be a lot better. I will review with the committee about how we progress things going forward in the new year and it maybe that we have to consider using Zoom. I’ve used Zoom for several of my lectures and joined other clubs in Zoom meetings –  not thee same as meeting in person but at least we can meet up.

I think I will miss the December meeting altogether and not replace it with an outdoor meeting as we are still in Tier 3 and technically shouldn’t meet up. However, I am hoping that we can get together for a field meeting in January,

I wish you all a happy Christmas and look forward to a brighter season in 2021.

I’m a bit late in posting this but by now you will be aware thtat we will not be having the November indoor meeting and, worse still, we woun’t be able to have an outdoor meeting either due to the lockdown. The good news is that I have secured Mike Watson for next November so we won’t miss his talk on the Canadian Rockies. It was a lecture I was looking forward to.

I may consider Zooim meetings for next year and certainly for the AGM but I’m hoping that before any of thar, we will bve able to meet up for mince pies andf an outdoor meeting in December after the lockdown. I’ll be back with more on that soon.

I hope you are all doing well and keeping safe. This is to inform everyone that the October meeting has been cancelled due to the government restrictions during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, we can’t let a little thing like COVID-19 dampen our spirits and with this in mind I would like to propose an outdoor meeting in place of the traditional indoor one.

October is a good month for fungi so I thought it might be a good idea to meet at Brockadale for a fungus foray. There is a ‘rule of six’ in place but generally there are only around 8 or so on a typical field meeting. Do feel free to come along and if there are more than six of us, we can split into groups for the walk round. I am of the opinion that being outdoors and with a bit of common sense with distancing, the likelihood of us spreading anything is minimal. The meeting is, of course, educational which should allow us to have an increased number.

I am trying to reach a local fungi expert to guide us as we don’t have anyone in the Society that feels able to lead us round. I propose we meet at 10:00 in the car park on Ley’s Lane and the date I propose is Sunday 25th October. This is a little later than our normal meeting but it will be a better time for fungus hopefully and allows us to take stock of the situation before committing.

I think it is fair to say that the November meeting will be cancelled too and replaced with an outdoor meet up but I will send notice of any changes at the end of October

It is with great sadness that I have just learned of the untimely passing of one of our members, Karen Nicklin, who has dies sudden;ly and unexpectedly on 24th September 2020.

Karen has been with the Society for at least 10years and has been a popular and active member and was a regular face at our meetings, Karen had a great love for the outdoors and nature, in particular, a passion for ospreys which she dedicated a lot of time to as a volunteer warden at the Loch Garten reserve in Scotland. As a really keen walker and hiker, Karen spent time planning and undertaking walks that combined nature and the landscape and I remember well the talk she gave recently at our members’ evening when she wowed us with views of the spectacular scenery and wild flowers from a recent trek in the Austrian Alps.

Karen was also an active member of the Wakefield RSPB Members’ Group and was regulalry seen on the doorway greeting visitors. Karen also worked as a volunteer warden  at RSPB St Aiden’s where some of us had the pleasure of speaking with her on our recent field trip there in early September, little realising it wouuld be the last time we ever saw her.

Our thoughts are with her family at this sad time.