The Society holds regular indoor and outdoor meetings throughout the year. During the winter months, speakers are invited to the club to give entertaining talks on a wide variety of subjects, while in the summer months, field meetings are held at various locations where members can get to grips with the local wildlife.

All indoor meetings are held in the Quaker Meeting House, Thornhill Street, Wakefield, WF1 1NQ and commence at 7:30pm prompt. Annual membership is £10 per year.plus a £1 door fee. Visitors are welcome to attend any meeting but there is a £3 door fee per person.

All persons taking part in our field meetings do so at their own risk. Neither the Society or it’s officers will accept any responsibility for any injury, loss or damage howsoever sustained. Please wear suitable footwear for outdoor meetings and packed lunches are advisable on the more distant field trips.

2020 Meetings

May 11th – No Meeting

Cancelled duu to the Covid-19 pandemic but feel free to do a survey of your own garden or patch and let us know what you see,

June 14th  – Brockadale

Lockdown should allow us to attend this local resreve as a group and still maintain social distancing. There should be plenty of wiild flowers and insects to see.
Meet 10.00 a.m at car park on Ley’s Lane, Pontefract WF8 3JS

July 11th – Blacktoft Sands RSPB Reserve

Birds and Insects,(2-3 hours)
Meet 10.30am at the reserve car-park,
Following on from Mike Pilsworth’s fascinating talk about the Humber estuary, a visit to this reserve is well overdue. Check beforehand due to the Covid-19 lockdown which may mean the resreve is still closed to the public.

August 9th – Rodley Nature Reserve, Leeds  – cancelled as reserve is not open (see latest for rearranged trip to Wintersett)

Insects and flowers. (2-3 hours).
Meet 10.30 a.m. at the car-park on Moss Bridge Raod, Rodley, LS13 1HP
After last year’s visit that showed a great deal of promise but the weather was awful, we will try again for flopwers and insects. Again, a site that will allow us to manitain social distancing if it is still required.

Please check ‘news’  pages for any last minute changes/details prior to outdoor meetings. Meetings may be cancelled or rearranged if weather is too bad

Tuesday September 8th – “Cortez to California” – Ray Brown

Ray will give us a general nature talk of this fascinating area. It’s likely to feature a mix of mammals, birds and wild flowers.

Meeting cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions

Tuesday October 13th – “Two Islands and a Rock” – Reg Senior

Reg is going to cover the Isel of Mull, Arran and Bass Rock in this Scottish themed talk

Meeting cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions (see below)

The October indoor meeting has been replaced with an outdoor meeting to Brockadale for a fungus foray which will take place on October 25th.. Meet 10.00 a.m at car park on Ley’s Lane, Pontefract WF8 3JS

Tuesday November 10th – “Birding Canada’s Rocky Mountains and High Plains” –  Mike Watson

Professional nature photograpoher Mike Watson takes us to the wild and rugged Rocky Mountains to see some of the amazing creatures to be found there

Tuesday December 8th – “Behaviour, life-cycle and ID of bees” -Tom Aspinall

A talk about these important insects and long overdue at the Society. This talk comes highly recommended by Barnsley Naturalists’ Soceity

2021 Meetings

Tuesday January 12th 2021 – “Hedgerows in the Landscape” – Catherine Artindale

Sheffield naturalist xxx takes a look at hedgerows around Rockley (Barnsley) and tells us how to age them and what makes them special

Tuesday February 9th 2021 – AGM followed by “The President’s Progress” -John Gardner

The annual general meeting will take place followed by a presentation from president John Gardner featuring whatever wildlife he has been capturing dutring the unusual conditions of lockdown 2020!

Tuesday March 9th 2021 – TBC

Tuesday April 13th 2021 – Members’ Night

The indoor meeting season closes with a selection of short presentations from our own membership. Always a great evening.