Urgent Request from Flat Holm

Tonight (Wednesday 19th September we heard about the following request 

The historic Flat Holm island is being reviewed by Cardiff Council and they want to hear what YOU have to say about it.

The Council want to hear from the public about their views and experiences of Flat Holm Island.

Cardiff’s Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee will be investigating the way Flat Holm Island is run and is inviting the public to have their say.

“If you have a view please email (by Thursday 20th September)
scrutinyviewpoints@cardiff.gov.uk and your comments will be considered as a part of the investigations.”
Councillor Craig Williams, Chair of the Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee

Thank you

New Field meeting Announced

An additional field meeting has been added to the programme sent to members 

This is listed on the Programme on this blog, and oon the main society website which is shown to the right of this post

The New meeting is Saturday 8th Jun which is a full day meeting at  Taff Fechan, Merthyr and is a joint trip with WTSWW

Regards
Andy

Update on Orchards

We have received an update from the Welsh Traditional Orchards Inventory project

They have now finished locating and mapping all of the potential orchards, apart from a few areas of Ceredigion still to be done in the next couple of weeks. Below is a table showing the number they have found in each county, along with the number and percentage allocated so far to volunteer surveyors for ground-truthing. As you can see in some areas they are still in need of volunteers

Early next year the inventory will be fully available to all via CCW. PTES will also produce county summaries with key statistics such as the remaining area of traditional orchards and the condition these are in. This should be useful for a wide-range of conservation and heritage projects, will produce baseline data for BAPs and hopefully help secure future funding for this important habitat.

County	Potential orchards	No. allocated	% allocated
Blaenau Gwent	6	6	100.0
Bridgend	105	41	39.0
Caerphilly	95	94	98.9
Cardiff	57	48	84.2
Carmarthenshire	811	206	25.4
Ceredigion*	374	50	13.4
Conwy	222	42	18.9
Denbighshire	601	45	7.5
Flintshire	762	149	19.6
Gwynedd	412	81	19.7
Isle of Anglesey	355	53	14.9
Merthyr Tydfil	18	5	27.8
Monmouthshire	975	388	39.8
Neath Port Talbot	106	31	29.2
Newport	123	115	93.5
Pembrokeshire	119	14	11.8
Powys	957	235	24.6
Rhondda Cynon Taff	124	86	69.4
Swansea	267	230	86.1
Torfaen	33	30	90.9
Vale of Glamorgan	368	114	31.0
Wrexham	310	148	47.7

You can contact PTES via www.ptes.org if you are able to help them

Out of the Woods 2012

The Out of the Woods Festival 2012 organised by Cardiff Council in Bute Park turned out to be a nice day as hoped and Cardiff Naturalists were proud to be a part of creating enjoyment for adults and children alike

We had an informative display with information on the things that have been seen in the parks, with some specimens of common plants collected to be able to explain what they were to people

We also had books for sale and pictures of local plants, animals and scenery for people to admire

Mike Dean and Danii Roberts manning the CNS stall at the out of the Woods festival

Out of the Woods and into the Sunshine (hopefully)

Cardiff Naturalists are pleased to be presnt at the 2012 Out of the Woods festival in Coopers Field Bute Park organised by the Cardiff Sity Council Parks Department on Sunday 19th of August 2012

Lets hope its as nice a day as this was in October 2010 when I took a wander to see the Autumn colours

We will have a stand with some botanical specimens for you to see, things that you can find in the park

We will also have information about the society, posters about what we do and books for sale of you want something to take home

We will have a number of rare titles available at reduced prices so do stop by and say hello if you are able 

If you want more details you can find them here and here

Coryton Orchid Stolen

It is with great sadness that we report that the Common Spotted Orchid Var.rhodochila that was reported  in the Newsletter and again in 2011 in leaf and in full flower has been reported stolen

This wonderful bloom was reported as having been dug up in the following way

I am contacting you & your Society as probably interested persons, to inform you of illegal activity which has occurred at the Coryton roundabout Cardiff. 

I have been studying our native orchids for over 30 years & have visited many sites all over the UK. It was already known to me that an unusual form of the Common Spotted orchid (var rhodochila) occurred at the Coryton roundabout & this year after a trip to the Kenfig NNR on June 24th with 4 other naturalists, we stopped at Coryton on the return journey & found amongst the many normal Common Spotted & hybrid orchids, 2 beautiful specimens of var. rhodochila. One was fully out & the other which was the best specimen was just opening. I have seen var. rhodochila in Somerset,Wiltshire,Hampshire & Kent but this partly opened specimen at Coryton was the best I have ever seen.

I returned yesterday (1st July) to obtain photographs of this plant at its best & was devastated to see that both plants had been dug up. The selfish person who has done this has denied genuine naturalists the opportunity to see these beautiful plants possibly forever at this site & they will probably die off if the roots have been damaged.

Hoping that some plants may return one day.

Since that communication we have been in touch with the council and  the traffic wales group and there are no cameras covering the site so the police have no evidence to take action upon
 
Please if you hear anything get in touch and we can (in confidence if needed) pass on any information

Regards
Andy

Ptarmigan in Denali National Park

A picture submitted by Eirian Edwards one of our members as a challenge for the newsletter which deserves to be available in higher resolution for those harder of seeing at that scale (click on the picture for a full sized image)

Regards
Andy