Chorleywood and District Local Group Newsletter No
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The RSPB is a registered charity in England and Wales-207076, in Scotland-SC037654. It is the country’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home. Chorleywood and District Local Group Newsletter No. 87 August 2018 www.rspb.org.uk/groups/chorleywood Group News We hope that you have all enjoyed the hot summer. It will be interesting to see what effect the dry spell and excessive heat has had on our breeding birds. Certain foods will have been hard to find, such as worms. Water sources will have dried out. Birds need water not only for drinking, but to cool down, because they do not sweat. Car Parking at the Russell School The playground at the rear of the School is breaking Swallowtail butterfly as seen at Sutton Fen up and sinking, such that the children are not able Photo: John Markham to play on the worst parts. Therefore, all groups that use the School can now only use the front car park. Some of us visited Tring in June, where Edward We can double-park there for the duration of our Meyer of Swift Conservation was speaking. He led meetings. The local streets are all residential, us on a walk at 9.30pm on a sunny evening to see though a little dark, and we suggest that a torch dozens of screaming swifts around a block of 1960s might be useful. The forthcoming programme of council flats. Again, they were very interested in Indoor Meetings, arranged by Mary Coulson, is swooping under the gutters and landing there. excellent and really not to be missed. Edward was of the opinion that they must have nests in this building. So do look each June, even in Outdoor Meetings the newer parts of town, and report your findings. Tony Wright has organised the Outdoor Meetings We aim to write to Three Rivers Council to ask for 10 years and we owe him a lot, because through them to do all they can to help swifts when these meetings we learn an enormous amount maintaining their buildings. One of us has about the natural world. ‘Thank you’, Tony. We are purchased two swift nesting boxes and we will keep glad to hear he is happy to continue! you all informed about the progress of this. The Committee Swifts Some of us have been looking for swifts in Rickmansworth and Croxley Green, with surprising CONTENTS results. The older buildings of the town are not Sutton Fen ................................................. 2 attracting swifts. We think a block of 1960s flats is Head Start for Black-tailed Godwits ........ 2 hosting a nest. The new housing estates near New Beetle Book ....................................... 3 William Penn Leisure Centre and the housing in Maple Lodge Latest News ........................ 4 Tudor Way seem to be very popular with screaming Scientific Study on Feeding Birds ........... 5 bands of swifts. They cling to the rough brickwork Your Photos …………………………………5 and look under gutters. Group’s Garden Birdwatch Results .......... 6 Outdoor Meetings Reports ....................... 7 1 A ‘Thank-you Event’ for RSPB areas where damselflies, dragonflies - hawkers and Volunteers at Sutton Fen chasers - were in abundance. Swallowtail butterflies were everywhere. This is one of the feature insects of this area of the Norfolk Broads This Reserve on the Norfolk Broads is not open and it was almost a relief to see two brimstone to the public. Volunteers were invited for the butterflies and a few meadow browns. Whilst rare opportunity of a guided walk. wending our way back to the car park, a cuckoo was briefly seen, also a hobby and a few swifts. Sutton We arrived back at the cars at 1pm and thanked the Fen volunteers and Richard for a very interesting Photo: morning on this exclusive reserve. Ben Hall Fen orchid at Sutton Fen About 20 members from various RSPB groups in Photo: Thomas the Eastern region met at Sutton Fen RSPB Hanahoe Reserve for an event to thank volunteers from Local Groups. This Reserve is not usually open, so it was a real treat! Several local experts, each having special knowledge of butterflies, moths, dragonflies, bugs and birds, were on hand. Richard Mason, the Reserve Warden, specialised in plant life. But we didn’t need to have a barn owl, which was hawking across the meadow, identified for us! Irene Oulsnam June 2018 A swallowtail butterfly pupa had been found the previous day and was being monitored and kept in an enclosure until it metamorphosed. We walked across a meadow to the boggy area. Here the ‘Headstarting’ Black-tailed Godwits vegetation, consisting of peat, sphagnum moss and WWT Welney the plants growing on it, rested as a blanket on deep water, which was fed by a flowing river deep Breeding success on the washes has been beneath. This was once a large lake, which increased by egg removal and hand rearing eventually became colonised with reeds and other plants. My visit to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Reserve at Welney was to hear about the ‘headstarting’ of The main plant of interest was the very rare Fen black-tailed godwits. These waders are in decline Orchid. It was thought to be extinct in the UK. But in as breeding birds in this country. So, to give the 2006, when the site was bought by RSPB, they population a boost, the Trust, together with other found 400. This year a small transect produced conservation bodies like RSPB, collect eggs from 4,000, and when Plantlife UK does a survey of the the nest and incubate them. The chicks are then rest of the bog, it is hoped the total count will be reared and kept in large enclosures until they are around 20,000. It is a very small orchid, standing old enough to go out and fend for themselves. only about 8” tall with very small greenish white flowers and it could easily be overlooked amongst The godwit lays on average four eggs and all the the taller grasses and flowers. eggs are collected early morning when the bird has left the nest to feed. Dummy eggs replace those A marsh harrier made an appearance and a bittern taken and she will return and continue to sit on the flew over much to our surprise. We walked back nest. Next day the volunteers go early whilst the through the meadow where early marsh and bird is still on the nest and gently lift her off, note southern marsh orchids were in profusion. The next any leg tags she has, or if she hasn’t, then tag her bit of the walk was along a path through watery so that a record is kept from which female the eggs 2 were taken. (Like the butcher knowing which animal Headstarting will dramatically increase the number of his meat source is from.) Because of the flooding young black-tailed godwits that fledge in the UK this of the Ouse Washes this year not so many nests summer. The surrogate human ‘parents’ have been survived. However, enough eggs were collected able to safely raise far more chicks than the godwits over a staggered period of time and the first ones to themselves, away from the dangers of predators and hatch have now been released. The next batch flooding. Crucially, by removing the eggs from their were in the holding enclosure ready to be released nests early, they have prompted each pair of godwits shortly. to lay a second clutch giving the parent birds a chance to raise a brood of their own. We were taken by vehicle to the far enclosure – still Irene Oulsnam a long way away – to try to see some of the earlier released birds which stay around the enclosure for a short while. It was difficult to see any as the reeds and vegetation were tall and one needed to be 6 ft. to see over the top. We were told that within the next few days, 15 chicks from the enclosure would be taken for release in the Nene Washes to spread the population. Black-tailed godwits from earlier releases have migrated safely and have been recorded back on the Washes. One pair produced chicks on their return a year later. A great success story after a lot of hard work! Black-tailed godwit Photo: Pete Coulson ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Beetles of Hertfordshire by Trevor James A New Herts Natural History Society (HNHS) Publication - June 2018 This is a ground-breaking new book - the first published account of a UK county’s recorded beetle species to be accompanied by detailed information on their occurrence, habitat needs and conservation status. In 496 pages, more than 600 colour photographs illustrate a group of insects whose intricacy and beauty are too easily overlooked. The book considers beetles in the context of conservation and their incidence as indicators of ecological health. So far, 2,483 species have been reliably recorded in Hertfordshire. The author, Trevor James, has been the County Recorder for beetles in Hertfordshire for 35 years. He is also the author of Flora of Hertfordshire 2009, also published by HNHS. 3 Maple Lodge Nature Reserve bittern, osprey, great white egret, kingfisher, great Supporter and work party volunteer, Evelyn crested grebe, barn owl, siskin and song thrush. Fox, keeps us up to date with this Also, we have a pair of sparrowhawks that have Rickmansworth haven been nesting on the reserve for three years. Here is one of Martin’s photos of the female. There is a small private Nature Reserve in the WD3 area and it is rather a gem. It is situated in a line of gravel pit lakes in the Colne Valley and is 40 acres of mixed habitat that includes two lakes.