The Wildfowl Trust 1961-62
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THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WILDFOWL TRUST 1961-62 edited by HUGH BOYD illustrated by PETER SCOTT Price Seventeen Shillings and Sixpence Net PRINTED FOR THE WILDFOWL TRUST BY F . BAILEY & SON, LTD. DURSLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 1963 THE WILDFOWL TRUST Patron : Her Majesty The Queen President : H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke o f Edinburgh, k .g ., k .t . Vice-Presidents : Captain R. G. W. Berkeley The Rt. Hon. the Lord Howick of Glendale, g .c .m .g ., K.C.V.O. General Sir Gerald Lathbury, g .c .b ., d .s .o ., m .b .e . Sir Percy Lister Trustees : His Grace the Duke of Beaufort, k .g ., p .c ., g .c .v .o . The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Mansfield Hun. Treasurer : Guy Benson Hon. Director : Peter Scott, c .b .e ., d .s .c . Council : John Berkeley K. Miller Jones ( f ) Dr. Bruce Campbell (s) Dr. J. Robertson Justice Michael Crichton ( f ) R. E. M. Pilcher (s) H. H. Davis Dr. G. W. Storey (s) J. O. Death ( f ) Miss P. Talbot- ( f ) Harold C. Drayton ( f ) Ponsonby Captain J. A. Fergusson- Sir Landsborough Cuninghame Thom son, c .b ., o .b .e . {Chairman of S.A.C.) A. G. Hurrell (M inistry of Education Assessor) Major General C. B. Wainwright, c .b . ( s ) J. Jamieson ( f ) G. M. Jolliffe (f ) Member of Finance Committee; (s) Member of Scientific Advisory Committee. Scientific Advisory Dr. A. J. Cain Dr. R. A. Hinde Com m ittee : Dr. H. D. Crofton Dr. E. Hindle, f .r .s . Dr. F. Fraser Darling, R. C. Homes F.R .S.E . Sir Julian Huxley, f .r .s . Prof. K. R. L. Hall A. R. Jennings Prof. J. E. Harris,F.R.s. Dr. L. Harrison Dr. J. G. Harrison M atthews, f .r .s . Prof. H. R. Hewer Dr. W. H. Thorpe, f .r .s . CONTENTS Page S e c t io n I Annual Report, 1961-62 General 5 Administration 7 15th Annual General Meeting 8 Accounts for the year ended 31st December, 1961 10 Balance Sheet, 31st December, 1961 12 The Collections 13 The Research Unit 19 S e c t io n II Year-book for 1962 Conservation The World Wildlife Fund 28 Wildfowling in northern Iran. Christopher Savage 30 Basic data on the protection and utilisation of wild animals in the U.S.S.R. V. S. Pokrovsky 47 Investigation and protection of waterfowl in Czechoslovakia. Karel Hudec 50 Final Report of the Council on the Recreational Use of Waterworks. A review. 53 The history of potato-eating by wildfowl in Britain. Janet Kear 54 The protection of crops from damage by wildfowl. Janet Kear 66 The agricultural importance of wild goose droppings. Janet Kear 72 Wetland wastage. P. J. S. Olney 78 Wildfowl Research Buldir Island, site of a remnant breeding population of Aleutian Canada Geese. Robert D. Jones, Jr. 80 Brent Goose population studies, 1961-62. P. J. K. Burton 84 The numbers of wild geese in Great Britain. Hugh Boyd 87 Goose observations from Scoresby Land, 1962. A . B. Hall 94 The ringing of Barnacle Geese in Spitsbergen in 1962. T. Larsen & M. Norderhaug 98 Barnacle Geese in Ireland. David Cabot 104 Ringing W hooper Swans in Iceland, 1962. Leo Kinlen 107 Measurements of White-fronted Geese wintering at Slimbridge. J. V. Beer & H . B oyd 114 Corrections to the Thirteenth Annual Report 119 Initial direction tendencies in the European Green-winged Teal. G. V. T. Matthews, J. A. Eygenraam & L. Hoffmann 120 Three-bird flights in the Mallard. John H ori 124 Wild ducks and swans at the New Grounds. M. A. Ogilvie 132 Additional voice recordings of the Anatidae. Jeffery Boswall 137 Investigations on other birds The migrations of European Redshank and Dunlin. M . A . Ogilvie 141 Birds at Borough Fen Decoy in 1960-62. W. A . Cook 150 continuation of CONTENTS Page Entertainments At Slimbridge. Rev. P. B. Clayton, C.H. 153 Some notes on a pseudo-ornithological World Tour by a Member of the Administrative Staff 154 Shorter Contributions Shooting of wild geese in cold weather. John L. Roxburgh 157 Waterfowl drowning accidentally under ice. James & Jeffery Harrison 158 Drowning in wildfowl. J. V. Beer 159 The rapid sexing of downy Anatidae by the structure of the syrinx. J. V. Beer 160 The production of offensive excreta by nesting wildfowl. Janet Kear 162 Heavy mortality of Mute Swans from electrocution. Jeffery Harrison 164 Aspergillosis in an immature Bewick’s Swan. James M. Harrison 165 The wedge-shaped yellow area on the bill of a Bewick’s Swan. Bernard King 165 An Eastern Greylag Goose in Somerset. Bernard King 166 Canada Goose and Great Crested Grebe sharing a nesting raft. James & Jeffery Harrison 167 Observations on nesting Shelduck. John Hori 168 Congenital malformation of the feet in Mallard ducklings. Anthony Napier 170 Mallard at sea off the west coast of Ireland. Stephen E. Chapman 171 Feeding association between Shovelers and Little Grebes. Bernard King 172 Winter feeding behaviour of Red-crested Pochards. Bernard King & Robin Prytherch 172 Communal diving in turbid water by Red-breasted Mergansers. Paul Hending, Bernard King & Robin Prytherch 172 Gulls “ parasitising ” ducks and other birds. Bryan L. Sage 173 The calls and displays of African and Indian Pygmy Geese. L. P. Alder 174 Pigmentation of the bones of certain Eiders. Robert D. Jones, Jr. 175 Field Marshal the Rt. Hon. The Viscount Alanbrooke, k .g ., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., D.S.O. 176 The taxonomy of Bean Geese. Dennis Harle 178 S e c t io n III Photographs ANNUAL REPORT 1961-62 The Officers and Council of the Trust, as at 31st December, 1962, arc, shown on p. 2. Council Meetings were held in 1962 on 10th January, 10th April, 10th May, and 25th October. The Finance Committee met on 10th January, 3rd May and 27th September. The annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee was held on 10th April. The Fifteenth Annual General Meeting was held at The Royal Society of Arts on 10th May, 1962. The Trust Dinner was held afterwards at the Park Lane Hotel. The Rt. Hon. the Lord Howick of Glendale, g .c .m .g ., K .C.V .O., was in the chair and the speakers were Sir Thomas Lund, c .b . e . Mr. Peter Scott, c .b .e ., d .s .c ., Mr. Evelyn Talbot Ponsonby and Mr. Stanley Unwin. The annual Gosling Party was held in the new restaurant at Slimbridge on 29th December, 1962. A hundred Goslings attended and saw films shown by the Hon. Director. A Wildfowl Identification competition was held at the New Grounds on 24th March, 1962. It was attended by 76 boys and girls from 19 schools and was won by the Leighton Park ‘ A ’ team with teams from Bristol Grammar School and Winchester College second and third. Membership During the period under review membership continued to increase as shown by the following figures:— Class of Membership 1 Jan. 60 1 Jan. 61 1 Jan. 62 1 Jan. 63 Life 184 229 298 299 Full ............................. 3024 2813 3360 3423 Associate & Parish .. 1505 1590 1704 1764 Junior Compounded .. 3 3 6 9 Gosling 331 254 296 285 Corporate 169 112 88 107 Contributors 28 28 34 32 T o t a l 5244 5029 5786 5919 Visitors In spite of the cold summer the number of visitors to Slimbridge was a record and the following figures for the last five years show that the Trust's collections are not losing their appeal:— 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 Slimbridge 120,191 129,092 102,555 151,533 162,030 Peakirk 23,495 31,135 26,531 33,203 30,982 T o t a l 143,686 160,227 129,086 184,736 193,012 In March the total number of visitors to the New Grounds (excluding members) since the first opening in 1947 passed the million mark. Building A cedar-wood restaurant designed by Messrs. Hughes and Bicknell was constructed at Slimbridge in the O rchard Pen in 1962 and opened to the public- on 15th December. This establishment accommodates 100 people and has been granted a restaurant licence. New lavatories, completed in July 1962, have also been provided. 6 The Wildfowl Trust Finance The accounts for the year ending 31st December, 1961 are at page 10. They show a small surplus of income over expenditure, which enabled the Trust to make a modest start on repayment of loans. Unfortunately several items on the revenue side were non-recurrent and income dropped in 1962, while expenditure was increased by continued inflation and by essential expen diture on such items as renewing fences, reprinting Trust literature, providing new lavatories and augmenting the water supply. As a result the accounts for 1962 will show a serious excess of expenditure over income and in view of this the Council decided to increase the charges for admission from 1st January, 1963 to:— Adults Children under 16 Slimbridge ... 5/- 3/- Peakirk ... 3/6d. l/ 6 d. In March 1962 the Trust received from The Wolfson Foundation a hand some donation of £10,000 towards the cost of its planned Research Centre. This sum was specifically intended to provide a lecture room and to enable the Trust to make a start on the project, which it is hoped to do in 1963. Obituary T h e Council has learned with regret of the death of the following Members and Associates, notified since the last issue of the Report: Mrs. E. C. Adam Mrs. H. Lees-Milne Colonel G. H. S. Balmain J. Spedan Lewis R.