No.495 Winter 2019 Black Necked Grebe - Belvide Reservoir Photographer - Kevin Wardlaw This front page is sponsored by The Birders Store, Worcester WMBC News Is published in March, June, September and December each Membership Matters year to link members with each other, what’s been happening, current issues and forthcoming We are pleased to welcome the following new members of the club events on the birding scene in our area and further afield together with a selection of your who have joined since the last newsletter. Please note the names articles and a comprehensive summary of the recorded bird sightings in our area. shown are as on the membership form but that all family members It has been a somewhat quiet Autumn here in the Midlands, although it would seem lots of at each address are included in this welcome. Due to publication members have been providing me with excellent articles for me to publish. Please keep all your deadlines, applications up to 17th October are included in this list. wonderful articles and photographs coming in. Applications made after this date will be included in the Spring WMBC Newsletter. The Autumn has not been without some memorable birds. The Bonxie at Bartley Reservoir has now departed after 32 days in residence. I’m sure the local gull population have let out a sigh of relief. Mr L. Allcock of MANSFIELD, Ms C. Baker of BREWOOD, Miss H. Ball of CRADLEY HEATH, There have been some other nice local birds, including the Black-Necked Grebe at Belvide which Mr A. Bennett of NEWPORT, Mrs S. Binks & Mr T. Binks of CRADLEY HEATH, Mr P. did elude me for quite a while, however it was nice to catch up recently now in Winter Plumage- so Bolton of TAMWORTH, Mr A. Butler of ATHERSTONE, Dr D. Cashmore of BIRMINGHAM, much so, that I felt it had to grace the front cover. Mr D. Clarke of CURDWORTH, Mr K. Dance of STOKE ON TRENT, Mr M. Dickinson of BIRMINGHAM, Dr B. Gara of BIRMINGHAM, Mr D. Hall & Mrs G. Hall of SUTTON Now that the nights are drawing in, its a good opportunity to join in with your local branch meetings, details of which are on Page 33. There are plenty of opportunities arising to get involved COLDFIELD, Mr C. Higgins of WALSALL, Mr J. Hurdley of BIRMINGHAM, Mr D. Johnson & with reserves and the club. These are detailed throughout this edition along with who to contact. To Mr P. Johnson of HALESOWEN, Mr D. Lee of BURNTWOOD, Mr S. Maskery of TELFORD, those that already volunteer, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for all your efforts in this Mr P. Mason of SUTTON COLDFIELD, Mr S. Moore of BIRMINGHAM, Ms M. Morgan of last year and I hope you will continue with your hard work this coming year. TELFORD, Mr M. Moseley of STOURBRIDGE, Mr M. Page of STAFFORD, Mr D. Pickerell & Mr S. Pickerell of STAFFORD, Ms A. Powell of TAMWORTH, Mr L. Scott of TELFORD, Ms Finally, although it is only the beginning of December, I would like to wish everyone a lovely A Simms of HUDDERSFIELD, Mr A. Smith & Mrs H. Smith of WOLVERHAMPTON, Mrs L. Christmas and a bird filled New Year. I’m sure I will see some of you out and about on January 1st. Spelman of WOLVERHAMPTON, Mrs J. Teall of COLESHILL, Mr A. Von Heide of OLDBURY, Liz Mr G. Walker of REDDITCH, Mrs B. Waters of SOLIHULL, Mr K. Whitehouse of WALSALL and Mr R. Witcutt of BURNTWOOD. In This Issue Membership Renewal 2020 3 Membership Matters - Michael Bevan This year, as last, renewal forms will only have been included with this Newsletter if you are a 4 Ladywalk: Request for Assistance - Richard King cheque or one-off direct bank transfer payer. If you pay by standing order you will not receive 4 From the Postbag: Ladywalk Reserve Flickr - Stephen Bottrill a renewal form, as they are not required, and this has caused some confusion in the past. 5 Broadly Speaking - A Message from the Chair - Roger Broadbent Next year, in addition to the current methods, we are looking to provide on-line access to 7 A Curlew Sandpiper, a Nature Network and a New Vision for Urban Birdwatching! membership application, renewal and one-off or recurrent payment by debit or credit card. Chris Millward 8 Our Swift Story Part 1 - Ken Garrett Membership subscription payments are due on 01/01/2020, unless you joined on or 9 From the Postbag: “A Flash in the Pan”.... - Update and More Unusual blackbird Behaviour after 01/10/2019 and paid by standing order, in which case you should receive your new Clive and Sheila Williamson and Graham and Janet Harrison membership card and car pass automatically during January with everyone else who has paid 10 Autumn 2019 West Midlands All Dayer - The Results by cheque. The remaining standing order payers should receive their cards and passes by the 11 Listing: A Personal Perspective on some of the Complexities - Richard Rafe third or fourth week in February, once I have received and checked the Club’s January bank 14 Opportunity: B.T.O Bird Camp - Nick Moran statement. 14 Call for Submissions 15 Blithfield Habitat Management - Richard Whiting 16 Conservation Matters - Dave Jackson If you have paid before or during January and have not received your new membership cards 19 The National Memorial Arboretum (The NMA) - Alrewas Birdwatching Walks - Tony Slater by the end of February then please let me know, preferably by email and I will investigate. If 20 French Pyrenees Birding Trip 26th April ‘19 - 4th May ‘19 - Rob Swift your Standing Order or Direct Bank Transfer is scheduled later than January, then I will not be 30 Bird Therapy Prize Draw- Chance to Win - Glen Kirby able to send out your card until I have received the WMBC bank statement for the month it is 31 From The Postbag: Marsh and Willow Tit - Identification by Behaviour - Humphrey Miller paid in. This usually arrives in the second week of the following month. 32 WMBC Trip Reports - Frampton Marsh RSPB and Burton Mere RSPB + Parkgate - Liz Palmer If you are aware this is the case, then I would ask you to reschedule your standing order 33 Club and Branch - Indoor Meetings and Field Trips for 01/01/2020 to ensure you receive your membership card before the 2019 card and 35 Bird Notes - August - October - Compiled by Humphrey Miller access codes expire on 1st March. If you do this, please quote a reference in the format 39 WMBC Officers WMBCSurnameMembership No. (e.g. WMBCBEVAN1234). This enables me to accurately identify your subscription payment on the Club’s standing order. Thank you. 2 3 New Edition of WMBC Regional Bird Broadly Speaking - A Message from the Chair The Management Committee are in the process of producing a long term Development plan Checklist for the Club. The Fourth Edition of the excellent WMBC “A Checklist of the birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire. Worcestershire and the West Midlands The Plan will include future organisation, education, conservation, membership and reserve and Guide to Status and Record Submission” has been produced by development, publicity, the futures of the Annual Bird report and WMBC News, as well as WMBC Annual Report Editor Dave Emley and WMBC Vice President Jim governance matters. One thing, though, is abundantly clear. The Club will not achieve anything Winsper. We are very grateful to Focus Optics (www.focusopticsltd. without the involvement of its members. co.uk) for sponsoring this publication once again. A copy of this will be mailed out with the 2020 membership card and There are, however, many examples of great practice where members voluntarily give time and car pass as part of the renewal process. energy to make the Club’s activities successful. The production of this Newsletter is a wonderful Kind Regards example of that. The Plan is to consider major works and expenditure at Ladywalk, Harborne Michael Bevan, Membership Secretary and Belvide. The effort of our work parties at Belvide and Ladywalk are great examples of great 64 Brookfields Road, Ipstones, work of our work parties. It was as a result of their wonderful efforts that teams at Belvide and Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire ST10 2LY Ladywalk have both managed to see a century of bird species in a single day. Email: [email protected] We especially need more participation from members at both Harborne and Blithfield where more helpers are required to help with the B.T.O monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey). If you Ladywalk: Request for Assistance are able to help at either reserve please contact either Peter Betts via email on The Ladywalk open day on 21st September was a great success with about 150 visitors, [email protected] from which ten new members were recruited to the Bird Club. Part of the day’s success was or as stated elsewhere in this edition Richard Whiting on attributed to it being a warm and sunny day – the last one we had before all that rain day after [email protected] day. Thank you to all the volunteers that assisted on the day, as well as Sainbury’s for providing car Paul Bateman, our Reserve manager at Harborne, is available via email on parking space. Without them the day could not have taken place. [email protected] Our reserves rely on volunteers in many areas of activity. At Ladywalk with a likely reduction I heard from the Blythe Valley, Solihull that the Club was still requiring a Nestbox Monitoring of volunteers from HS2 we would love to have more volunteers assisting us on our working Organiser.