The West Midland Bird Report
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THE WEST MIDLAND BIRD REPORT No. 18 BEING THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BIRMINGHAM AND WEST MIDLAND BIRD CLUB FOR 1951 ON THE BIRDS OF WARWICKSHIRE, WORCESTERSHIRE AND STAFFORDSHIRE. PRICE SIX SHILLINGS PUBLISHED JANUARY 1953 CONTENTS OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE 1 SECRETARY'S AND EDITOR'S REPORT I TREASURER'S REPORT 4 FIELD MEETINGS REPORT 5 SOME NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS 6 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF BELLFIELDS RESERVOIR 9 RECENT CHANGES IN BIRD LIFE OF THE LENCHES 10 THE BIRDS OF KINVER AND ENVILLE 11 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE REPORT 14 CLASSIFIED NOTES 15 FINANCIAL STATEMENT 43 THE BRITISH TRUST FOR ORNITHOLOGY 44 THE WEST MIDLAND BIRD REPORT No. 18 The Annual Report of the Birmingham and West Midland Bird Club for 1951, on the Birds of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire. OFFICERS & COMMITTEE, 1952 President: H. G. ALEXANDER, M.B.O.U., 144 Oak Tree Lane, Selly Oak, Birmingham. Vice-President: W. E. GROVES, 4 Lyttelton Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Chairman : W. E. KENRICK, M.a., Metchley Abbey, Harborne, Birmingham. Hon. Secretary : C. A. NORRIS, M.B.O.U., Sycamore Cottage, Clent, Worcestershire. Joint Editors : C. A. NORRIS and J. LORD, "Orduna," 369 Chester Road, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield. Hon. Treasurer : G. C. LAMBOURNE, Cottage Farm, Ipsley, Near Redditch. Field Meetings Secretary : A. T. CLAY, 93 Hamstead Hill, Handsworth Wood, Birmingham. Branch Representatives : KIDDERMINSTER BRANCH : C. R. MILLETT, 8 Manor Avenue, Kidderminster. STUDLEY BRANCH: Miss D. M. GARSTANG, Studley College, Studley, Warwickshire. EAST WARWICKSHIRE BRANCH: R. W. M. LEE, 9 Grasmere Avenue, Green Lane, Coventry. SOUTH WARWICKSHIRE BRANCH : Miss M. HAWKES, 54 Hathaway Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon. Committee : A. R. Blake, F. Fincher, G. B. Hindle, J. R. Rawsthorne, G. W. Rayner, M.B.O.U., W. B. Yapp, Mrs. Thursfield. SECRETARY'S REPORT The year 1951 will be remembered by Members as the year in which two Annual Reports appeared, those for 1949 and 1950 coming out in quick succession. It is hard that the 1951 Report should have been held up, until its publication, even in 1952, became impossible. For this I must take complete responsibility, for whilst the first proofs were sent to me in the first week in October, it proved impossible to get the complete report into shape until January of 1953. I can only say that the delay has been occasioned almost entirely by ornithological activity in many other directions, not least the handling of between twenty and thirty letters a week coming on top of a National Breeding Season Distribution Survey. 1 The year has again seen a useful rise in membership, bringing the figure to 464. Perhaps the best feature of this has been steady increase in members resident in the rural areas, resulting in a better cover of the three counties than ever before, a fact that is reflected in the Classified Notes. The flourishing branches at Stratford and Kidderminster have been particularly useful in this respect. As always additional members are welcomed, and we do emphasise that a high level of ornithological knowledge is not required as a condition of membership. The Club must continue to welcome everyone who is interested in birds, and we aim to help the learner and expert alike. One of the main features of the year was the publication of our West Midland Bird Distribution Survey, an inquiry in which many members took part in 1950. This Survey has certainly acted as a stimulus to this type of work, and I hope it has been found helpful by members in their general bird watching. During the closing months of the year work was done on a Winter Distribution Survey, and the results have proved of considerable interest, but are as yet not available for publication. As in previous years several ringing expeditions have been carried out, and it is satisfactory to report that an increasing number of members are becoming registered on their own account. Starling catching expeditions provide perhaps the most sporting aspect of a bird-watcher's year. Working with 16-ft. high nets in complete darkness in the middle of a really dense, evil-smelling bramble and hawthorn thicket has to be experienced to be appre- ciated ! Less energetic activities have included the annual counts of Herons' nests and of Great Crested Grebes. The regular counts of wildfowl have been continued, with Mrs. Moore doing valuable work in organising them. The Club's Heligoland Trap has been used by a number of members but has not proved the great success that had been hoped. Only in severe weather, with snow on the ground, can really worth-while catches be made, for it is then that strangers to the site feed near the trap's mouth, and fly into the trap when disturbed. The local resident birds know well that the area should carry a formidable "one-way traffic" sign and, when disturbed, they avoid like the plague the wide stretched arms of the trap. For this reason trapping is naturally restricted to the winter months, and the repairs following the summer season were heavier than usual. A cow had at one stage got itself beyond "the point of no return" and broken its way through the netting, much to the detriment of the trap. Working parties carried out the repairs, but as I have said, the results were not as good as in 1950. Of the many activities during the year the indoor meetings concern the largest number of members. This year the average attendance passed the hundred mark for the first time, due largely to the excellent co-operation I have had from ornithologists of note, 2 who have been kind enough to come and speak to us. Our joint meetings with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology proved as popular as ever, and we must thank these organisations for providing speakers. The speakers during the year were Miss Davies, R.S.P.B., James Fisher, R. S. R. Fitter, Peter Scott, Rev. Stone, our President H. G. Alexander, H. N. Southern and W. W. Power. Also we must thank the Director of the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for the continued use of their delightful Ethnological Gallery. A more pleasant setting for our meetings could not be found in Birmingham, and our debt in this direction is indeed heavy. Finally I must thank Mr. Lord, who has done practically the whole of the preliminary work on this report ; Mr. Clay, who has again relieved me of several of the duties of Secretary, besides organising the year's Field Meetings with his customary skill; and to Mr. Lambourne, our Hon. Treasurer. As in 1950, Mr. Lambourne has handled all questions relating to membership, and has helped me in a host of other ways. In my last Annual Report, I referred to the steps that were taken by the Club through the R.S.P.B. to safeguard Alvecote Pools, where the threat of opencast coal mining was severe indeed. As a result of our action the Ministry of Fuel and Power gave an undertaking that disturbance would be reduced to a minimum. It is now most satisfactory to report that the whole paraphernalia of modern mining has been removed, and the pools and the birds that frequent them have been left in peace, apparently none the worse for the monstrous upheaval that went on so close at hand. Birds in 1951. The first species in the Classified Notes is the Raven, and under the Staffordshire section is the sorry account of the first recorded attempt at breeding in the county for the best part of a hundred years. It is, however, another milestone in the spread back to the Midlands of these fine birds which, some two hundred or more years ago, must have been quite common. The intro- duction of sporting guns and extensive game preservation drove the Raven, Kite and Buzzard and several other birds from much of England, but today the high rate of taxation and incidence of death duties has broken up most of the big estates, reduced the number of gamekeepers to a very small percentage of their previous total and, to the benefit of ornithologists, enabled at least the Raven and Buzzard to increase in numbers once again. The change in this direction is not, however, all to the good for keepers are not only bitter enemies of the larger birds, which we should like to see, but also of Stoats, Weasels, Magpies, Jays and Carrion Crows. In the last twenty years I suspect that the increase in the thieving Magpie population has been immense and the effect of this on the smaller birds is quite incalculable. What will be the final result 3 of this increase in what the game preservers call vermin can only be imagined, but the change is one that is taking place before our eyes, and is well worth further study. One of the unusual episodes of the year concerned a bird which came to be known as the Kidderminster Warbler. This individual proved to be nothing more unusual than a Garden-Warbler, but a Garden-Warbler with a song quite unlike anything on the British list. As perhaps the most characteristic feature of this species is the complete absence of anything characteristic, the possession by this individual of a remarkably distinctive and unusual song succeeded in perplexing even the most experienced observers. It was several weeks, during which it sang continually in quite a small territory, before its identification became reasonably certain. The fact that this individual was heard again in the spring of 1952 for a few days is interesting.