We ended May with an engagement event in the Red Dragon Centre down in Cardiff Bay, celebrating the release of the live action Little Mermaid film with marine-themed activities. This included colouring sheets, a “hunt for the mermaid purses” minigame, and a dolphin dive VR experience! It was great to see so many young people engaging in the activities, and learning about the incredible marine wildlife we have in our seas.
Cardiff Projects June Update
It has been a very busy month for us here in Cardiff, with lots of engagement events and practical conservation workdays happening throughout the sunny weather.
This event was closely followed by the Urdd Eisteddfod in Llanymddyfri, where our engagement team spent the last 2 days of the event hosting the Wildlife Trust Wales stall. We had a lot of fun interacting with attendees through the medium of Welsh, while also spreading information about the national Stand for Nature project.
While on the subject of Stand for Nature, the Cardiff group is now nearing the end of the Nest box monitoring period, and have seen many chicks grow up and fledge successfully. The group has also been busy working on the design of a new interpretation board to go up at the Roath Wild Gardens, which will help to inform the public about all the amazing wildlife the site has to offer. This has been a great creative process for the group, and elements such as accessibility and engagement have been considered within the design. We hope to see the new board design in place sometime later this year – so keep your eyes peeled!
Speaking of the Roath Wild Gardens, we have also been busy there as part of the My Wild Cardiff project, helping to facilitate some invasive Himalayan Balsam clearance with the WTSWW Local Group, the Council ranger team, and also Cardiff Rivers Group. So far the clearance has been going really well, and we may continue the Balsam bashing into July if conditions permit.
We have also been hosting several species ID sessions through the My Wild Cardiff project as part of the Local Nature Partnership. This has included a couple of Wildflower and Grassland ID sessions at Forest Farm, which has been well attended despite the blazing heat! It’s always fascinating to see the variety of plant life that Cardiff has to offer. Our next ID session will be all about Butterfly and Pollinator ID on the 8th July at 1pm, meeting at Forest Farm.
