Despite having good membership numbers, the attendance rate for field trips has been disappointing throughout the year, so it has been proposed to make some changes for next year. That having been stated, the Indoor Meetings were reasonably well supported. Three of these took place in the United Reform Church Hall (Ramoth) in Cowbridge and were delivered by our own members.

 In February, John Andrew treated us to a presentation of the Wildlife of the North West Passage and in March, Dave Evans gave us a talk on The Pitfalls and Pleasures of Foraging for Wild Plants. In November Geoff Jones gave his talk on South America and Antarctica.

The main aim of the group is to undertake field trips which we endeavour to do, weather permitting, for the rest of the year. These are organised by the members. In April we travelled to Flemingston where we met representatives from the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Glamorgan Bird Club to observe the progress of the Restore the Thaw project. Part of this project involves releasing water voles.

In May we met in Brynna Woods to go in search of Oil Beetles this time, and the following month, in June, a small group with the help of Alan Rosney from the Glamorgan Bird Club, looked for sand martins which are regular summer visitors to an area of river bank near Peterston -Super -Ely. July saw us going a little further afield to Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea, to explore the wildlife there under the guidance of Dr Ben Sampson.

There were no field trips in August or September. August is traditionally a month when many people are away, or on grandparent duty in the school holidays. There was a poor response to a suggestion of a short- notice trip to Llanishen and Lisvane Reservoirs in September.

In October, we went into Cardiff to the Museum and had a fascinating, conducted tour of the Marine Invertebrates Department. 

The year ended with the AGM in December in the Church Hall again, with a Quiz and the results of the Photographic Competition with the accompaniment of some festive sherry and mince pies, an event which is very much a team effort, with the winners from the previous year organising the quiz and photo competition. A small selection of the entries can be seen below. There was also a display of other interesting photos from the year.

In advance of the AGM a short survey had been undertaken to assess and gauge the willingness to continue the group. There was a strong feeling that we should continue, but as only 10 members are now able to attend field trips regularly on our usual day, the first Thursday of the month, it was proposed to run the group on a more ad hoc basis. This may mean that events will take place at short notice but can be arranged according to the weather forecast if necessary.

Hopefully, with a flexible, team approach the group will thrive.