RSPB Wokingham and Bracknell Local Group Spring newsletter The RSPB is the country’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home. February 2018

Chairman’s Message – WHAT PRICE NATURE? The winter edition of BTO News, which birds in a coffee estimated plantation at is a quarterly news update from the $310 per hectare, (£223). Great tits predating British Trust for Ornithology, had an caterpillars in a Dutch orchard were found to article written by Tony Juniper which improve the apple harvest by 50%. The value caught my eye, writes Patrick Crowley. provided by animals such as bees, doing the pollination work that underpins a trillion He wrote that ‘the loss of natural habitats dollars’ worth of agricultural sales has been and species are generally regarded as valued at $190 billion per year, (£137.46 regrettable’, and is the ‘price of progress’ or billion). The GDP value derived from fish a ‘necessary cost of achieving economic stocks and associated industries are about growth’. But this presupposes that we $274 billion per year, (£196.79 billion). cannot (or should not?) put a price on our The wider value of the marine and coastal environment. However, there are an systems from storms, taking carbon dioxide increasing number of specialist studies that from the atmosphere and replenishing its reveal the huge economic value being oxygen levels has been put at $21 trillion, destroyed by policies geared to promoting (£15.08 trillion)! 2017 photographic winner economic activity. Those watching Blue Planet 2 recently on Our UK Wildlife competition winner For example, the cost of losing India’s BBC1, will have been horrified by the was select this year from eight vultures has been estimated at $34 billion amount of plastic that is going into our entrants, and again as previous (£24.42 billion), due to the public health costs oceans, and by the destruction of coral reefs years the standard of images were and controlling rabies infections. The annual due to warming of our seas. of an exceptionally high quality. pest-control value provided insectivorous All of this suggests that conservationists (all The first three places were very close of us?) may have to grasp the nettle of trying indeed, but the eventual winner was Raptor persecution to put a monetary value on our wildlife, as Steve Day with his excellent, sharp Every year, the RSPB publishes part of the struggle to change government image of a great crested grebe. Birdcrime – the only centralised source policy decisions the world over. Interestingly We would like to thank all those who of incident data for wild bird crime in some companies such as Unilever and participated and we look forward to the UK. Despite full legal protection, Nestle are beginning to realise that healthy holding again next year's photographic ecosystems will underpin future profit and birds of prey are still being relentlessly competition at our Christmas Social. are changing strategies as a result. Indeed, persecuted throughout our country. some countries, such as Costa Rica and Image taken at Dinton Pastures in Birdcrime 2016 was published on Guyana have worked out that their natural September using Nikon D7100 and 1st November 2017, revealing an insight into systems are the basis of their wealth and are 300mm lens. the reality of problems in the UK. acting to protect them. Alan Moore The latest figures show 81 confirmed incidents of birds of prey persecution in Birdwatching Courses 2016, including trapping, poisoning and starting in April 2018 shooting. See website for further details The highest incidents rates taking place in or contact Patrick Crowley our uplands, over land managed for driven grouse shooting. We know from population Changes to our speaker programme studies, and from data collected by satellite- 8th March 2018: Kerrie Porteous on tagging birds, that raptors are ‘disappearing’ ‘Birding in Madagascar‘ – Kerrie takes and failing to breed on grouse moors – and us on a photographic foray into the © Marianne Eagles 2018 that illegal persecution is largely behind this. rainforests, deserts and coasts of Birdcrime 2016 also highlights North It’s getting warmer? Madagascar seeking out its unique birds Yorkshire with the highest number of these On the 4th November WeBS count I found and exciting wildlife. kinds of crimes. In the last five years, North this little grebe incubating 4 eggs, both 12th April 2018: Lt Col (ret’d) Roger Yorkshire has seen double the number of parents still in full plumage. The pair were Dickey from the Army Ornithological confirmed incidents than the second- still sitting on the 10th December for the Society describing the work with highest county. low-tide count. Unfortunately later windy Ascension Island’s Sooty Tern colony More details can be viewed here on www. weather in the month caused waves to and the research undertaken in the rspb.org.uk/birdcrime wash-over the nest. South Atlantic.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales No: 207076, Scotland No: SC037654 Mrs R’s A to Z of birding in Britain New membership secretary required As you know from the winter ‘D’ is for dipper newsletter, Lynn Mann will be taking over the treasurers role from Tony in the I had a real tussle with my heartstrings trying to summer. She will be going on a days decide whether ‘D’ would be for dipper or for training at RSPB Headquarters, Sandy, to learn more about the role. Dartford warbler. Both qualify for the accolade of As a result we need a replacement Mrs R’s favourite bird, both in equal measure, so membership secretary – whose main role will be to process new members joining the how to decide? Toss a coin –‘D’ is for dipper. group, renewals, keeping the membership spreadsheet and the email contact list up to date. Most indoor meetings we also need Don’t let that stop you finding out more about the Dartford warbler though. someone to look after the membership If you haven’t seen one at all and you’re able to get out and about, have a desk, which doesn’t necessarily have to be look on any of our nearby heaths. Wildmoor Heath at is probably the same person. If you would like to know the closest, but Yateley Common is also a great place to see them too. more please see Lynn at the indoor Unfortunately you have to go a lot further afield to see Dipper. They favour fast- meetings, without any obligation! flowing rocky bottomed rivers, mainly in upland areas but also some parts of SW England. I used to see them regularly when I lived in my caravan in Scotland. Quote from Michael Gove... The River Ericht tumbles downstream to join the River Tay but as it runs through Blairgowrie there are several places where you can watch dippers bobbing up “Ultimately we must ensure that we think and down on the rocks. You could even see them from Tesco’s car park, which about the long term health of our always answered the domestic question, Tesco’s or Co-op? No contest – this is environment, because unless we take steps urban birding at its best! now to arrest environmental damage we will all be the losers. We only have one earth and At a bob rate of up to 60 dips per minute it isn’t hard to see how the bird got the it is our responsibility to hand it on to the name, but what makes the dipper so very special? Also known affectionately as next generation in a better state”. water ouzel, a dipper is a truly amazing bird. Crowned National Bird of Norway in 2000, it is a marvel of biological design and engineering. Able to walk on the river bed to forage for small fish and Lesson to learn invertebrates, a dipper can stay underwater for around 30 seconds at a time. It doesn’t have webbed feet but it does have some remarkable physiological from Harvey adaptations to help it master its environment. Tropical storm Harvey devastated Houston The dipper counteracts the force of the river currents by stretching out its wings Texas in August, flooding large areas of the to push itself forward and remain submerged. Specialised flaps close the nostrils city and causing millions of dollars damage. and they also have an extra eye membrane to protect their eyes yet still enable The increasing frequency of these storms them to see while underwater. They are able to store oxygen in their muscles so could indicate the rise in the earth’s that it’s available to them when they dive and have to stop breathing, and also temperature climate. when they need greater muscular control to counteract the force of the current. But the real culprit for this destruction has Receptors in their blood vessels detect increased levels of carbon dioxide as the been the increase in human urbanisation, bird stops breathing. This triggers a response from the brain to slow the heart through an excessive building programme. rate and cause different blood vessels to constrict or dilate as necessary: Houston’s population is growing by a record- breaking 1 million every ten years. • Peripheral blood vessels will constrict to reduce heat loss, and the digestive system also temporarily shuts down to conserve energy. Land that would traditionally soak up floodwater is being used for housing and • Blood vessels around the heart and the brain dilate so that they can take the urban development. extra oxygen that has been set aside to co-ordinate feeding, walking and functioning underwater. Lessons must be learnt that we need to balance our requirements in harmony with Simply amazing. Which is why ‘D’ has to be for dipper. natures, because they are interrelated.

Rebecca Reynolds wildlife to benefit from Reading’s John Lewis customers Wildlife on Shepperlands Farm, a nature reserve in countryside between Reading and Bracknell, will benefit from a £1,000 donation from the John Lewis Reading Community Matters scheme. During December 2016, John Lewis customers visiting the restaurant in Reading’s Broad Street store placed tokens in the Community Matters box to support the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust. who asked in broken English, what we Birdwatchers – portrayed in fact and fiction were looking at. So we handed over our At the time of writing we are looking forward to the binoculars. They were captivated by the many dramas taking place within a first talk of the New Year by Peter Holden, who is to heronry. Sticks being presented to and being chucked away by squawking mates. speak about how birds have inspired art and Adjoining nesting material being pinched literature through the ages. I wonder if he will touch and fought over. Extremely ugly offspring being fed. thanks, hugs, and warm fuzzy on contemporary sources, such as works of fiction? feelings all round. Or TV drama? Writes Eve Chilton. To conclude then. Birdwatchers – a bit odd? I think the programmes and their The popularity of factual program- listing, particularly a rarity. Since then I’ve presenters, mentioned above, are doing a read the full explanation of the term and mes such as Countryfile and Spring great job in correcting this misapprehen- much more besides in Bill Oddie’s Little Watch, have helped to raise sion certainly with the viewing public. Black Bird Book. I thought both books in awareness with viewers about our There is a wider appreciation of the value their own way, were a rattling good read. native birds. This is reflected of years of meticulous observation, positively in the ever growing I came across a whole subspecies of recording, and environmental monitoring numbers of households who take puffin in a work of romantic fiction I read that bird watchers do. Murderous? Nah, part in the Big Garden Birdwatch recently. They are to be seen, I under- but don’t push it, like eating crisps in a stand, nesting on the cliff ledges at a each year and who now have bird hide when a rarity is flitting just outside, North Cornish sanctuary run by the tables, feeders and nesting boxes. for instance, or going for that spontaneous National Trust. Found pufflings can become group photo…. from the front. Whilst the presenters of these program- quite tame. They’re happy to puddle in the mes enjoy a wholesome, worthy, eco- sink, and can be fed on tinned tuna and guardian status, birdwatchers, on the bread. They have orange claws, will sit on Price on wellbeing other hand, and particularly in fiction, still your shoulder like a parrot, and reappear seem to have the ‘slightly barmy-army’ like homing pigeons no matter how many We take for granted the role that image. For instance, recently a non- times you return them to the sanctuary. the natural world contributes to birdwatching friend asked me about At the risk of being thought ‘a stringer’ -– the everyday wellbeing of people's birders; are they like they’re portrayed on honest, I read it in a book. lives, undervaluing the importance the telly, and not to put too fine a point on It’s easy to find yourself inadvertently that nature has on all of us. it – a bit odd? perpetuating the stereotype. Do you find, Here in the UK there is a conservation What had she been watching, I enquired. when you’re out and about, woolly hat at finance shortfall of over £275 million a Midsomer Murders. I asked her along to a suitably unflattering angle, you are often year. We must change our approach in one of our trips or meetings to find out for approached by non birders. They are eager pursuit of economic development herself. She declined. It was from a to find out what you are looking at, only to balancing our environmental heritage in murderous work of fiction by Ann Cleeves be bemused and disappointed when it order to deliver sustainable prosperity entitled Blue Lightning and set amongst turns out to be a coot, or a woodpigeon. over the long-term. the birding fraternity at a fictitious field Last summer we got a chance to redeem Without greening our economy we study centre on Fair Isle that I learned the ourselves on a visit to the Amwell reserve can’t hope to conserve the natural term ‘stringer’. It refers to someone who on the Lee valley. We were approached by world in worthwhile lasting state. has exaggerated or fabricated a bird a family of foreign tourists on hired bikes, Mystery of seabirds’ General licence system Little egrets movements at sea used as cover for criminal breeding success destruction of birds of prey solved at Thorney Deeps RSPB Scotland has expressed New research has revealed where Once a rare bird that would British seabirds go when they’re not concern at Scottish Natural Heritage’s response to their recent get the pulse racing for on land. The five years project GPS- many a twitcher and bird tracked over 1,300 breeding seabirds consultation on the ‘general licences’ that permit the killing of some watchers alike, little egrets and used computer models to are now slowly colonising predict where they go to find food. species of protected birds under certain circumstances. the south of England, successfully Results reveal the majority of ‘hotspots’, nesting at Thorney Deeps, Sussex General licences are issued annually to where seabirds gather to feed, are for the first time this year. concentrated in the coastal waters of allow land managers (and certain others) They were seen displaying on 25th May Scotland. During the project, lightweight to kill a range of protected species such and started incubating on 30th May, GPS tags were fitted to over 1,300 adult as some species of gulls, magpies and birds from 29 different colonies. The crows in situations where they are unfortunately they failed due to a severe tracking data was then used to create a causing serious damage to crops or storm on 5th June. A second attempt computer model for each species, so that livestock; are a threat to public health or was started with incubating commencing all of the important areas at sea could be safety; or to the conservation of wild on 18th July, – a very late date for this predicted. birds. These licences effectively allow species to breed. Overall, the selected four species use at unrestricted and unmonitored killing of In August the first youngsters were seen least 1.5 million square km of sea around listed species. in their nests. Britain and Ireland – an area three times This decision has made the illegal killing The final total of young hatched from 4 the size of Spain. of birds of prey even easier. pairs was 11 and 9 fledged successfully. A ramble around the home patch with binoculars – Barossa, Old Dean Common & Poors Allotments You may not be familiar with the Surrey areas of Barossa, Old Dean Common & Poors Allotments, to the East of Wishmoor Bottom, writes Eve Chilton.

Before HCS started 1995 After HCS started 2013 warblers, woodlark, and whitethroat, though to date the great grey shrike has eluded us. There is an immensely heartening Good News story to this area. Well we remember it in the All are within the area of Wishmoor early nineties, when it was littered with and Swinley Forest which is an area fly-tipping and burnt out cars. The area comprising a substantial part of the was so badly eroded mainly by the Thames basin Heaths in the county, activity of motorbike scramblers, that it with compartments of richly-mixed resembled a moonscape. deciduous and coniferous woodland In 1995 two friends who were local Barossa information signage board residents decided to do something about interspersed with open heath and The following stats for the 2017 breeding it. They invested time and money into birch-encroached gorse-land, with Season are by the Surrey Wildlife Trust forming an action group, which is now mires and bogs. The group has Site Manager Ben Habgood: regularly visited the SW Surrey area incorporated into the Heathland Conservation Society. Volunteers over the Nightjar, 28 territories, Dartford warbler of Wishmoor Bottom in June to intervening years have put in countless territories increase from 15 to 27, enjoy good sightings of nightjar, hours of practical heathland management, woodlark territories up from 8 in 2016 to woodcock and glow-worm and will litter removal, and day to day monitoring 24 in 2017. also visit on March 11th this year. of the site for antisocial or illegal activity, Very Good News Indeed This is my home patch, Peter and I have working closely in partnership with Surrey been ranging over the area for many Wildlife Trust. Fire risk decades, access points near to our home These photographs above from the This summer’s weather could be in Bagshot, take us directly into the area Heathland Conservation Website speak regarded as a damp squib, but of Poors Allotments, Old Dean and for themselves. An incredible trans- conservationists are concerned Barossa Common, where we see a good formation, we are indebted to the efforts about the impact a major forest fire range of species, including Dartford and dedication of these volunteers. in Berkshire will have of on the Nightjars return to A response to the wildlife and plants. Swinley Forest for instance, near Ascot, outcome of the Ribble is part of a Special Protection Area (SPA) The nightjar has returned to gull cull appeal for three of our rarest birds: Dartford Snelsmore Common in West warblers, woodlarks and nightjars. In 2011 Berkshire, after an absence of two It is rare for the RSPB to mount legal uncontrollable fires devastated the challenges and even rarer to go to the years, reports the Berks, Bucks & Swinley Forest Court of Appeal. A panel of Judges Oxon Wildlife Trust. The 2600-acre (1052-hectare) forest concluded that the former Environment contains conifer pine trees that are Nightjars are prone to being disturbed by Secretary, Owen Paterson, was wrong to managed as timber crop. people walking too close, and by dogs decide that culling a quarter of the bird Areas of open ground contain heather, running through the common because populations listed within a protected site grasses and bracken. In hot dry conditions they nest on the ground. in north-west England wouldn’t affect the these elements combine to make a This spring and summer the Wildlife Trust site’s conservation value of the Ribble and tinderbox for any forest fire. had a small group of wardens working Alt Estuaries Special Protection. Adult birds are able to escape the fires, with visitors to Snelsmore Common to BAE Systems had sought permission to but the flames will destroy any eggs and meet and greet walkers explaining the cull part of the breeding gull population in chicks if they are in the fires path importance of the area for wildlife, and the Ribble and Alt Special Protection Area how they can help rare birds such as the to reduce that risk to a safe level. Habitats take a long time to recover because the fires travel underground nightjars. In May 2013, the Secretary of State through peat, dry leaf litter and bracken. BBOWT, the Wildlife Trust that looks after agreed to the request and consented Snelsmore Common, the 96-hectare site Natural England a licence to cull 552 pairs More on heaths in the summer newsletter north of Newbury on behalf of the owner of breeding lesser black-backed gulls. Welcome to new member Council since 2013, has This was in addition to existing cull of been working hard to ensure the best 500 pairs of herring gulls and 200 pairs of Geoff Wilde. conditions for the nightjar. lesser black-backed gulls at the same site.

All illustrations by Dan Powell, Mike Langman and Mike Busby. All photographs © RSPB Wokingham & Bracknell group members 2018 Unless otherwise credited – all articles written by Thomas Bickerton