The third online NatHistFest is now open for viewing. Just click on this link to go to the list of exhibitors. To view an exhibit just click on it and it will open in a new window. The window with the list of exhibitors will stay open so you can easily switch between it and exhibits.
Exhibits from the first online NatHistFest, held in December 2020 and the second NatHistFest (2021) can still be viewed.
The online talk on Thursday 27th October will be given by the CNHS President, Harriet Allen. She will explore the ways in which data ‘from the air’ add to our knowledge of natural history.
ONLINE via Zoom. Members and those on the CNHS email list will be emailed login details nearer the time.
To be added the mailing list for events: email webmaster [at]
cnhs.org.uk To become a member: see details on this website.
The CNHS talk on Thursday 20th October will be 22 years of demonstration and research for nature-friendly farming.
This talk will be online via Zoom at 7:30 pm.
Georgie Bray, who manages Hope Farm for the RSPB, will talk about their experiences, gained over the past twenty years, of demonstrating that it’s possible to run a successful farming business, that produces food, makes a profit, and is valuable for wildlife as well. She will talk about carbon emission reductions, farm trials, and habitat management.
ONLINE via Zoom. Members and those on the CNHS email list will be emailed login details nearer the time.
To be added the mailing list for events: email webmaster [at]
cnhs.org.uk To become a member: see details on this website.
The next talk, which will be online on 13th October at 7:30 pm, is about the archives of Cambridge Natural History Society. Monica Frisch has helped look after the Society’s archives which include the first minute books from 1857. She will highlight some of the pioneering naturalists who have been involved in the Society, from its first president, Charles Cardale Babington to Oliver Rackham and David Attenborough, among others. The archives show how the Society has changed and adapted over the years.
ONLINE via Zoom. Members and those on the CNHS email list will be emailed login details nearer the time.
To be added the mailing list for events: email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk To become a member: see details on this website.
CNHS will have a stall at the Big Biology Day on Saturday 15th October. The event, at Hills Road Sixth Form College, on Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PE, is billed as a free fun-packed educational day of biology. The publicity says
The event runs from 10am to 4pm
The talk What midges can tell us about past environments THIS THURSDAY 6th October, will now be held in the Main Seminar Room in the David Attenborough Building on the New Museums Site, not the Department of Geography as previously announced.
The David Attenborough Building is in the New Museums Site CB2 3QZ. Enter the site through the archway from Pembroke Street and go up the flight of steps in front of you. Walk straight ahead and you will come to the entrance on your right.
The talk will start punctually at 6:45 p.m.
ALL WELCOME
The first talk in the Cambridge Natural History Society’s autumn programme will be held in person.
The speaker, Stefan Engels, is a palaeoecologist at Birkbeck College who studies the response of natural ecosystems to abrupt environmental change. In his talk he will explain how fossils of chironomids (non-biting midges) can be used to tell us more about past climate change and how they can contribute to a better understanding of Insect Armageddon.
The talk will be held in the large Lecture Theatre in the Department of Geography and will start promptly at 6:45 p.m. There is no charge for admission.
The Department of Geography is on the Downing Site, in the south-eastern corner, best accessed from the end of Downing Place.
The talks on 3rd November and 1st December will also be in person. The talks on other dates will be online via Zoom.
ALL WELCOME
Now the summer holidays are – almost – over many organisations are starting to promote their autumn programmes. Brief information will be added to the CNHS Diary but fuller details will be on the organisations’ own websites.
Cambridge Geological Society talks are all going to be in person, on the 2nd Monday of every month from September 12th onwards. They will be at a new venue: Hall 1 in St Andrew’s Centre Histon http://standrewshiston.org/contact-us/ at 7:30pm (doors open at 7:00 pm). Non CGS members are charged at £3.00. Their list of events can be found at http://www.cambsgeology.org/events
The first autumn talk organised by the Cambridge Group of the Wildlife Trust will be at the end of September, probably online.
Cambridge Natural History Society’s own programme of talks will start in early October and will include the 3rd online NatHistFest.
Our field studies visits to the Backs continue on Sunday, August 28. This is an afternoon excursion and we will be visiting Clare College, parts of the Backs and some churchyards.
College visits mean that booking is required, as group numbers are limited by the colleges. If you would like to come, please contact Jonathan Shanklin (jdsh@bas.ac.uk) who will place you in an appropriate place on the list, with priority given to CNHS members. If you are successful in booking you will receive details of where and when to meet.
The field studies aim to record the natural history of the area, and this one will focus on the flora, though we will try and identify other things as well. They also aim to introduce members to this natural history and how to identify species. With the continuing drought, it is currently a question of identifying the dead plants!
On Thursday evening (July 28) we are visiting Wandlebury to see the flora of some of the new land that Cambridge Past, Present & Future have recently purchased.
Meet at 6:30 pm by the cycle stands in the car park. To get to Wandlebury from Cambridge, keep going along Hills Road, past Addenbrooke’s and along the Babraham Road. You then get one of the steeper hills to climb in the area. Once over the top descend a bit and the car park entrance is on the left. Car parking charges apply, but cycle parking is free. We will be joined by a former warden.
All welcome.