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Committee

Group Leader Martin Johnson

Treasurer Malcolm Ingram

Membership Secretary Penny Chatfield

Indoor Meetings Laura McLellan

Raffle Janet Southwood

Campaigns Colin Hawkins

Newsletter Editor Val Thompson

Publicity Helen Lumley

Member Jean Crystal

Member Kathy Blackmore

Group Leader Welcome

Welcome to another excellent edition of the

newsletter, with many enjoyable features provided

by our current and past members and put together

with aplomb by Val Thompson, who contributes a

feature of her own. We have welcomed several new

members to the Local Group since the last issue – if

you are new, I hope that this newsletter (another

bonus of being a member!) will help you to integrate

into our friendly community.

Martin

Marsh tit (Minsmere field trip, May 2015)

(Martin Johnson)

Editorial

As we near the end of the year we take a trip back

to summer in the UK and to winter in Australia. We

find out what Ray Prutton did in his younger days

and where Robert Chapman has a new local patch.

With birds becoming quiet after breeding, a group of

us headed off in pursuit of other winged creatures.

Mags Bailey celebrates Fowlmere in a poem and

there’s good news from there but The Lodge is still

waiting for those special heathland dwellers to take

up residence, although there was one surprise

visitor earlier in the year.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this

edition. If you have something for the next

newsletter please let me know, it is always good to

receive articles from group members.

If you have any suggestions for future editions

please come and have a chat at our indoor

meetings - after all, this is your newsletter.

Val

News

We are delighted to welcome Kathy Blackmore onto

the committee. Kathy will be helping to produce next

season’s programme of indoor meetings and has

already made a contribution in the form of an article

for this newsletter.

We learnt with great sadness during the summer

that Mick Green, Chambers’ bird watching coach

driver who for many years took us on our field trips

around the country, had passed away. Mick had

“officially” retired at the end of 2014, but had been

planning to continue to drive us on our field trips this

year. Sadly this was not to be; he will be greatly

missed.

RSPB HITCHIN AND LETCHWORTH

LOCAL GROUP NEWSLETTER

Editor: Val Thompson November 2015: No 17

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Fundraising

Fundraising is an important part of our activities,

and the season got off to an excellent start with the

news that we raised £447 for the RSPB through the

Waitrose (Hitchin) “community matters” scheme in

May. Thanks to those of you who shopped at the

store, and/or who alerted others to the presence of

our charity there.

We were (unusually!) active outdoors during the

spring and early summer. Malcolm, Penny and Colin

had a gazebo (purchased by Malcolm at his own

expense) at the Shefford Summer Fete in May,

where our “everyone a winner” lucky dip bags were

very popular and, as a consequence, we attracted

much interest from the public. Malcolm and Penny

ran a “car boot” at Standonbury, raising £30, and we

also had a stall at a very wet Letchworth Festival in

June. All these events help us both to raise money

and to raise the profile of the Local Group. We plan

to be even more active in the spring and summer of

2016; we hope that you might be able to assist us in

some of these activities!

We hope that you will invest in one or more

numbers for the 2016 “100 Club” (closing date 4

December) and perhaps purchase some of the

RSPB Christmas sales goods that will be on display

at our November and December indoor meetings.

We hold lots of other fundraising activities – just

look around the hall at any of our indoor meetings to

see what we mean!

Indoor Meetings

We’ve already had some great speakers at our

indoor meetings and there are many more to come.

We must mention two, however. Ruth Miller and

Alan Davies had to postpone their talk last season

but they will be here on 8 January 2016 to talk about

their “big year” in 2008, in which they broke the

world record for the most bird species seen in a

calendar year. Their “warts and all” story, in which

they visited 27 countries, is bound to be fascinating

and it will be interesting to hear their reaction to the

news that their record has recently been broken.

In the following month, on 5 February, Liz Goodyear

(the Hertfordshire butterfly recorder) will be sharing

her expertise with us. This talk is a “must” for all of

those who, once bird activity dies down for the

summer, switch to finding and observing these

beautiful and fascinating insects.

Heath fritillary (field trip to Blean Woods, June 2015)

(Martin Johnson)

Outdoor Meetings

This season has already seen us make a successful

return in September to an old favourite reserve,

Cley NWT. Cley was badly affected by the tidal

surge, which hit the Norfolk coast in late 2013. The

“state of the art” Swarovski hide was destroyed and

the marshes were inundated with salt water, but the

reserve is now rapidly recovering and we saw an

amazing 88 bird species on the trip! Other old

favourites such as Elmley NNR (15 November) and

RSPB Titchwell (21 February 2016) will also be

visited and in June 2016 we make our first visit to

Hickling Broad NWT for many years.

Don’t forget that some of these trips are shared with

our good friends from the Stevenage Local Group,

when there is a possibility that the coach may be

filled. It is recommended that you book early on

these occasions, to “avoid disappointment”.

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My Navy Lark By Ray Prutton I was born in 1940 on the Westmill estate in Hitchin where I still live. I attended Wilshire Dacre and the now demolished Old Hale Way schools. I left school aged 15 and worked in Stevenage, cycling to work six days a week. In 1956 I enlisted in the Royal Navy and trained in communications (teleprinting flag signals and Morse code). My first ship, HMS Kenya, was deployed to Stockholm, Sweden during the 1958 soccer World Cup. My next ship was stationed in the Persian Gulf for a year (very hot!). I came back to UK by way of Pakistan, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) the Seychelles and Mombasa, East Africa. I also did two tours in the Mediterranean Sea based in Malta.

Ray in Carthage, Tunisia in 1966 (Ray Prutton)

I was married in 1960 and went to the Royal Navy wireless station on the island of Mauritius, where I spent two years with my wife and young family. Returning to the UK I served in minesweepers at Portsmouth, doing fishery protection duties off Iceland, Greenland and Norway (blooming cold!). I also served at the Admiralty in London where during 12 hour night shifts my job was to prepare a news bulletin of 3000 words extracted from daily newspapers and the BBC. It was then transmitted at midnight to all ships and bases world-wide. I left the Royal Navy in 1967 and worked mostly in construction and engineering. I was employed laying the first water mains in the area of countryside which later became Milton Keynes. Mostly I worked in Hitchin and Letchworth until I injured my back, which led to my being employed as a meter reader working in Bedfordshire and

Hertfordshire, until more back problems forced early retirement in 1999. I have three sons, a daughter and seven grandchildren. One family lives in Bristol and one son and his family live in Canada and I am to be a great grandfather this year. Two sons and a grandson live locally. My wife passed away in 2012. Since then I have taken up fishing which means I can sit and fish and birdwatch at the same time (what could be better?).

One that didn’t get away (Ray Prutton)

I joined RSPB Hitchin and Letchworth local group in 1987 and my first coach trip was to Minsmere during that year. Since then I have had very many enjoyable outdoor meetings and regularly attend monthly meetings, although I sometimes struggle to hear the speaker owing to increasing deafness. I am a life-long supporter and match day staff of Hitchin Town Football Club. I saw my first game with my father when I was aged seven and have been a regular at matches since 1970. At home I have a 28 year old cockatiel, three tanks with numerous tropical fish and a vivarium with assorted stick insects, so I have plenty to keep me busy, as well as running the 100 club for the group of course.

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Beardie Thingies

By Kathy Blackmore

I have only been keeping any form of bird list since

last year so in December I was filled with newfound

enthusiasm for compiling a ‘year list’ for 2015,

egged on by Sean who regularly keeps me on my

toes about such things.

On the morning of 1 January I was having a

leisurely cup of coffee in bed, familiarising myself

with BirdTrack, when I noticed that more than one

local birder had already loaded over 30 sightings

into BirdTrack! Were we going to be up to the

challenge ahead?

Peter, my husband, and I started the year with a

visit to Paxton Pits, followed by Stubb Mill,

Strumpshaw Fen and Buckenham Marshes on 2

January where we saw cranes in flight along with

marsh and hen harriers at the raptor roost,

contributing to a total of 52 species for the day and

62 species for the year so far. Quite good for

novices we thought.

Common cranes (Nick Upton rspb-images.com)

It was about this time that a target bird emerged –

the hitherto elusive bearded tit or bearded reedling

to give it its international nomenclature. Over the

next couple of months it became clear that it was

not so much a ‘target’ as a ‘bogey’ bird! I had

training on the call from friends and my RSPB app

on my iPad and I found lots of people who

described where they had seen flocks of them.

Early in the year I went on three visits to RSPB

Minsmere, where I saw cranes, bittern and water rail

among the 75 birds seen on one day. I went to

Weeting Heath, where I saw firecrest and stone

curlew, then on to Lakenheath Fen where we even

heard the little bittern. Oh, and I have also been to

Amwell Nature Reserve, Fishers Green, Titchwell

Marsh and Wicken Fen so some brilliant birds but

no beardie thingies in the Eastern Region.

In June we embarked on a three week trip in our

caravan to God’s own country, the land of my

forbearers. Mark Brandon, from The Lodge reserve,

told me that those beardie thingies could be seen in

the northern edge of their range at Blacktoft Sands

on the River Ouse near the Humber Estuary. Surely

Yorkshire would not let me down.

On the first evening at our first site we were

delighted to see a pair of barn owls hunting over the

field just in front of us and we later found a pair of

tawny owls with an owlet in a horse-chestnut tree

just 100 yards away. In addition there were oodles

of tree sparrows on our bird-feeder right outside the

caravan window.

Tree sparrow (Ray Kennedy rspb-images.com)

Our first reserve visit was to RSPB Bempton Cliffs. I

have been visiting Bempton regularly for over 20

years but this visit was a bit different. The new

visitor centre had been open for just over two

months and they had had literally thousands of

visitors and already signed up hundreds of new

members - there were more people on the cliff paths

on that day than I had seen on all my previous

visits. However, the weather was just how I

remember it – cold and blowing a gale, typical

Yorkshire summer! The birds did not disappoint:

lots of guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, gannets,

herring gulls and the comical puffins on the cliffs. In

addition we saw more tree sparrows, skylarks and

linnets on the fields and many and various gulls

flying over the sea.

We went to Blacktoft Sands on a sunnier, calmer

and warmer day. Another packed RSPB Reserve,

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this one full of rather serious birders, with lots of

helpful staff and volunteers helping all the visitors to

see the special attraction for the summer - a pair of

Montagu’s harriers. We were delighted to see them

flying and doing food passes along with a couple of

pairs of marsh harriers as a bonus. We asked all

the local birders about the beardie thingies and they

said they were always around but no one was

bothering with them today because of the ‘Montys’!

In spite of the fact that I was bothering I still didn’t

see any!

The last part of our holiday took us near

Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales, where we

continued to see brilliant birds on our walks and on

the caravan site where we were able to watch a

family of redstarts from our window.

One very noticeable thing about this area of

Yorkshire was the lack of raptors. We saw a

number of kestrels but even in remote areas of the

Dales there were no other birds of prey to be seen,

not even a buzzard. Here in Bedfordshire and

Hertfordshire we get so used to seeing buzzards,

kestrels and red kites so regularly that the lack of

them in the wide Yorkshire Dales skies seemed

strange. We could only assume that management

of grouse moors had something to do with it. If you

have any comments or insights on that I would be

pleased to hear them.

The rest of our holiday predictably did not provide

any opportunities for my target bird but we did see a

total of 109 species, not bad for novices.

Footnote

The beardie thingies were eventually seen at

Titchwell Marsh in August – bird ticked!

Bearded reedling (Andy Hay rspb-images.com)

July’s Purple Patch By Val Thompson During July birds often go quiet and become less easy to see so for the past couple of years our monthly Old Birds Walk has taken us to Chicksands Wood in search of butterflies. Many people think that Rowney Warren is Chicksands Wood as it is close to RAF Chicksands but is nearer to Haynes. The entrance is at Appley Corner where there are a few parking spaces. On entering the wood there is a wide track that leads through an avenue of trees. At the top of the slope is a monument to Lord Halifax, who in 1749 was the President of the Board of Trade and founder of the capital of Nova Scotia which was named Halifax in his honour. The area around the monument is quite open, so butterflies are attracted to it and it is a good spot for silver-washed fritillaries. Continuing along the track another open area appears. This year it was where we found our target butterfly; the purple emperor. Despite its regal name – it is referred to as “His Majesty” – it has the rather unfortunate predilection for dog poo and, true to form, ours was sitting on a pile. It did give us very good views and photo opportunities - this must be the only time we have been pleased to see dog mess.

Purple emperor (Jan Murphy)

Further on the track divides. The left hand fork leads to a monument to Henry John Osborn. The Osborns were the family who lived in Chicksands Priory and owned the wood. The clearing around the monument is good for a variety of butterflies as there is a big area of brambles here. Turning right at the monument leads back to the main track. This can be followed through the wood, passing old railway workings from when there was a World War II ammunition store at the site. The track

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meets the Greensand Ridge Walk which leads back to Appley Corner, making a circular route. There are numerous rides crossing the main track and any of these can be good for butterflies. There are also birds to be seen and buzzards can usually be glimpsed as they sail across the sky, alerting us to their presence with their mewing cries.

White-letter hairstreak (Betty Cooke)

This year we saw a staggering nine species of birds – I don’t think we were really looking very hard – but an amazing 17 species of butterflies during our three hour stroll. Butterflies seen were: purple emperor, white-letter and purple hairstreaks, red admirals, silver-washed fritillaries, gatekeeper, meadow browns, commas, small and large skippers, small copper, small and large whites, ringlets, marbled white, green-veined white and speckled woods. If you’ve never been I would recommend it, but just watch where you are treading...

Butterfly heaven (Jan Murphy)

Autumnal walk at Fowlmere By Margaret Bailey Robin welcome sweetly warbling, crimson patch ‘midst yellow tinted leaves falling Close by spindle tree, fruit glowing pink. Trilling wrens piercing the still air Flitting secretly thro’ bough and reed Blackbird swooping low, surprising, urgent. An eruption of pigeon from majestic ash boughs Sparrowhawk streaking, targeting, dropping Into green wood, a fluttering fate sealed. Dark legs thro’ leafy shrub; tree or muntjac? Black coat glistening, brown eyes in stripy face Delicately cropping wet green blades. Halcyon darts, iridescent, sapphire shimmer Deep orange glowing o’er rippling water Whistling, alighting, disappearing. Teal dabbling, flashing emerald shapes Yellow rudders ‘gainst dark water Suddenly airborne, white stripes in rushing wings. Misty grey sky, clear grey heron etched in black Stalking, probing ‘mongst mud and pale reed Stripes of brown and gold hiding secret snipe. Owl face glimpsed, framed inside bespoke abode Little white moon face, keeping dry, waiting As grey sky darkens gathering rain. Water rail squeeling, teasing, unseen Elusive otter, glossy black emerging, eluding Caught on camera for hungry eyes.

Water rail (Mike Richards rspb-images.com)

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My new local patch - Thursley Common National Nature Reserve By Robert Chapman Despite finding fewer opportunities to go birdwatching and pick up the camera since moving to university, I have made the most of my local patch, going there with my parents when they've visited me. I've finished the first year of my Mathematics course at the University of Surrey in Guildford and will shortly be returning for my second year. I had hoped to join a photography society but being captain of the table tennis team (and playing three times a week) leaves little time for much else beyond studying and partying! Thursley Common NNR is one of the largest remaining fragments of Surrey heath and includes areas of lowland heath and woodland. It's a lovely walk around the reserve and offers a great range of birds and other wildlife. There are good numbers of heathland birds, such as stonechats (definitely one of the most obliging birds to photograph!), linnets and skylarks, as well as the stunning Dartford warbler, a bird I can only remember seeing on Dunwich Heath previously.

Dartford warbler (Robert Chapman)

The best birds we've seen have been in spring - five redstarts (one of my favourite birds) in close proximity, woodlarks and a tree pipit. The tree pipit, which was a lifer for us, displayed very peculiar behaviour, flying upwards from its perch in great tune, and then parachuting down to the same perch before repeating the process again and again. We've also had great views of hunting hobbies.

The woodland provides fantastic views of great spotted woodpecker as well as a good range of warblers including garden warbler, willow warbler, whitethroat and chiffchaff. During one visit we could hear a cuckoo throughout the walk and eventually saw it fly out of a tree.

Stonechat (Robert Chapman)

Perhaps one of the most interesting encounters on the reserve was seeing about thirty common lizards along a boardwalk. Most would let you get very close before scarpering, allowing me to get some good photos, then there was another one waiting just a few steps away!

Common lizard (Robert Chapman)

It was great to see some of you at Stodmarsh recently. Enjoy your trips this year and hopefully I'll see you next summer.

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Wild West - Australian Style By Jill Shayler The vastness, distances, remoteness, quiet stillness, sunsets, night skies, desert, sand dunes, river and lake systems and miles of dried up lakes. How does anything survive in this landscape? Somehow it does. The tour I joined was designed to showcase Outback South Australia, the border country of New South Wales and South West Queensland. It is here that wonderful natural history and outback legends meet. Iconic places like Menindee Lakes and Innamincka, together with the story of Burke and Wills, bring Australia's outback history to life. This was my first experience of the Australian Outback on a 12-day camping tour in their winter. It was cold at night, but during the day could reach 20-25 C in the desert and sun. We travelled 350km most days and on two days it was 500km, making a total of around 3000km.

Menindee Lakes (Google Images)

We meandered through the Bookmark Biosphere Reserve, marvelling at the engineering feats of the Menindee Lakes, with some time to do some bird watching at the world renowned inland lakes of Currawinya and Coongie. These lakes are havens for birdlife in an ever-changing desert environment. They are listed under the Ramsar Convention as a world listed heritage Site of Special Scientific Interest. From the mallee of Danggali Conservation Park to the quiet banks of Cooper Creek, we crossed the Strzelecki Desert with spectacular views of the rugged northern Flanders Ranges - seeing this country in all its contrasts. Mallee is the growth habit of certain eucalypt species that grow with multiple stems springing from an underground lignotuber, usually to a height of no more than 33 feet.

Following in the footsteps of the Burke and Wills expedition, to map Central Northern Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1860, took us to the Dig Tree area of Cooper Creek - now in Innaminka Regional Reserve. In 1861, after a tremendous endeavour of four months to map the country, they died after missing the rest of the expedition party by nine hours. The base camp party buried some provisions and instructions to dig were carved into the trunk of the tree. The carvings have now been covered to help preserve the tree, which is one of Australia’s national icons.

The Dig Tree (Google Images)

Along the Cooper Creek are many Aboriginal sites of historic interest. At one site we walked along the creek over rocks to find a sacred area of carved and engraved rocks, some painted. Our leader had special permission to take us on to private land; it was not on any tourist map and was miles from the nearest township. Some of the birds seen were parrots, budgerigars, honeyeaters, fairy wrens, brolga, spoonbill, kites, falcons and emu. Many kangaroos were seen, especially in Queensland. Feral cats, goats and pigs roamed the mallee, with Merino sheep and cattle stations in the desert.

Brolga (Google Images)

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News from local RSPB reserves

Fowlmere

Doug Radford – Warden

A pair of marsh harriers nested for only the second

time, although their status took some time to

confirm. They cunningly chose to nest in an

inaccessible part of the reed bed, so the early

stages of their season went largely unobserved. The

female adopted a very low profile, flying only a few

metres to come off her nest and receive food from

the male, and no aerial food passes were seen until

early June. The only previous breeding record was

in 2007, when a pair reared three young - this pair

has managed to raise four.

Two pairs of tufted ducks were unusual for here,

and starlings nesting in a woodpecker hole were the

first breeding record since 1992. We have also had

a spotted flycatcher after an absence of eight years,

although we don’t know if he had a mate. The barn

owls seemed to be successfully rearing some chicks

but the lapwings lost theirs at a young age.

Fowlmere continues to be one of the best places in

Britain to see turtle doves, with at least four and

possibly five or six singing birds. Three could often

be heard simultaneously on most days, sometimes

singing through the day. This may mean they were

unpaired, but at least two pairs were seen mating,

and the first juvenile of the year was seen on 4 July.

Still on the breeding theme, a female and two young

otters have been seen several times.

A great white egret at the mere on 9 May, and a

red-footed falcon flying past the office on 5 June

were unexpected!

Great white egret Fowlmere (Richard Harvey)

The Lodge Reserve

Peter Bradley – Site Manager

At the bottom of the old heath, the finishing touch

was made to the new Galley Hill toad pond.

Natterjacks have had an excellent year so far, with

60 strings laid in four ponds including two of the

ponds in front of the hide, though again the old

heath pond remains their favoured location.

More great news is that we have a new warden.

Lizzie Bruce started on 15 July. She has lots of

experience, coming from heathland sites which she

helped manage for Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

Perhaps the most exciting news is the return of

lesser spotted woodpecker as a (we think) breeding

species. There were many weeks of drumming and

calling, all in the old birch woodland to the east of

the old heath. Photos were taken of one bird and

there were a couple of reports of two together.

Lesser spotted woodpecker, The Lodge (Mark Brandon)

Again, we had a singing woodlark in March but they

did not stay to breed, which is disappointing as the

site looks great for birds.

During this year’s Big Wild Sleepout in August, the

moth traps were set and an amazing 124 species

were identified, including a stunning pine hawk-

moth.

The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654

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Bird Brain Corner

Can you identify the bird in the picture below? No

prizes, but you could get your name in the next

edition of the newsletter.

Bird Search

Can you find the 32 birds hidden in the grid?

C A N A R Y H K L T G W C

O D O D Q A E L C O P A U

R C R O W U U E S U D C R

S H H K Q G A P G C D A L

T E C O V A S I P A K M E

O R N T G M W N L N F N W

R O I M A I I S O K A R R

K N F G K H F T O R A O N

Q T P Q K N T O C V B E N

R I O W M R R U E I R D D

E H X O C E B N N W O L U

E T I K C T E R E V O L P

C O N D O R Q M E R L I N

AVOCET FINCH NUTHATCH TOUCAN

CANARY GULL PLOVER WREN

CONDOR HAWK QUAIL

COOT HERON RAVEN

CRANE KITE ROBIN

CROW KIWI ROOK

CURLEW KNOT SNIPE

DODO MACAW STORK

DOVE MAGPIE SWIFT

DUCK MERLIN TERN

The answers to the previous edition’s quiz are as follows;

1. A honey bee collects nectar from flowers to make honey

2. Water is collected by the bees through their proboscis

3. If their food supply is short honey bees will travel 12km to find food

4. Young bees feed on pollen 5. Wax is produced from the glands of young bees 6. The British native bee is known as the British

Black bee by beekeepers 7. A colony of bees in Britain produces an average

of 40lb of surplus honey a year 8. Karl von Frisch studied bee dances 9. The first job of a newly hatched bee is to clean

the cells 10. The shape of cells in a hive is hexagonal

My favourite things

Chosen by Holly Cobb

Favourite bird: Spoonbill Birding spot: Titchwell Favourite pastime: Jumping on my trampoline Favourite book: My new RSPB sticker book Special place: Hunstanton, for fish and chips and an ice cream after a day’s birding with Dad at Titchwell

Spoonbill at Titchwell (Martin Johnson)