Willow Beach Field Naturalists

Meetings & Speakers

Attend a WBFN meeting

Meetings are free to attend and are held at the Cobourg Public Library located at 200 Ontario St., Cobourg. Doors open at 7:00 pm and the meeting starts at 7:30 pm. Due to venue capacity limits, registration is required to attend in person. Check this page each month for speaker details and the registration link. Alternatively, you can attend by Zoom. The link will be posted with the meeting information each month.

To view previous meetings, please visit our YouTube channel.

A group of Short-billed Dowitchers perched on a partially submerged log

Meetings coming up

Holes, Highways and Hydrocuts

Landscape with a grassy field and hydro towers running through.

Date: Friday, Sept 25th 2026

Doors open: 7:00 pm

Meeting start: 7:30 pm

Speaker: Robert Ormston

Description:  Southern Ontario’s geography is dominated by human infrastructure. Often this infrastructure can be wholly destructive to nature, but sometimes it can influence ecosystems in surprising ways. This talk will focus on species and ecological communities around three types of infrastructure (quarries, highways and hydro rights-of-way), and how these areas may be of interest to naturalists as examples of what communities form after human disturbance. 

Restoring rare ecosystems in the Northumberland County Forest

Large oak tree against a blue sky

Date: Friday, Oct. 30th 2026

Doors open: 7:00 pm

Meeting start: 7:30 pm

Speaker: Matt Mair

Description: Club President, Matt Mair will be speaking about some of the ongoing restoration projects within the Northumberland County Forest – a  2,225 hectare area of mixed use greenspace south of Rice Lake and within the Rice Lake Plains region. The restoration sites are focused on oak savanna, tallgrass prairie, and sand barren ecosystems. Matt will be giving an overview of the history of the sites and the restoration techniques being implemented to restore its rare ecosystems and the flora and fauna within

Future meetings schedule

Adult Red-tailed Hawk soaring with open wings

Nov 27, 2026: “Visual Storytelling – stories from around the world” + Arts and Crafts Sale

Jan. 29, 2027: tbd