a North West Local Group million voices for nature newsletter

Web site: www.nwsurreyrspb.org.uk Spring 2011

Group Leaders: Dave and Mary Braddock Newsletter Editor: Peter Hambrook (For contact details please see the back page of this newsletter)

Leaders’ Spot

Hello All,

Although concerned about the world, I am fed up with all the doom and gloom going round at the moment. Summer is only a few weeks away so we are going to start this newsletter, upbeat, with a good old bit of North West Surrey drum banging.

Our group membership is stable and we have our first junior member of the group, so a very warm welcome to JO1, or Jasper as he is better known. Hope you get as much out of the group as I do... having just come back from two fantastic trips to Norfolk and Spain. Our website is doing very well with many “hits” each month and the electronic newsletter is going from strength to strength, just shy of half of the group receive it this way. Please consider having yours delivered electronically. Collectively a considerable saving for the group finances and best of all it's in colour! Just drop me a line.

We are a small, friendly local group. We don't raise vast amounts of money but we have a big heart. Last year despite the economic downturn we managed to raise a staggering equivalent of £71 per group member. This sum does not include the amount raised by pin badges or RSPB memberships - more about these inside.

Sadly, I am a bit of a closet statistics gatherer. How many of you know that we have sold over £19,000 worth of pin badges in the last six years? Or how many of you know that we have made a profit of over £3,600 on selling plants, £3,000 from street collections, £1,200 from giving talks to others and £385 from selling bird boxes in the same timescale. Did you know that we have also recruited 145 members to the RSPB in that time? I could go on and bury you in figures but I won't. To be honest, I must admit that I knew we did very well but not the actual totals achieved. The point I want to make is that by and large we let our achievements go unnoticed. I hope to change this and will unashamedly blow our trumpet when necessary. Where do we go from here...... ? Any suggestions? Dave Braddock.

Leaders’ Email Addresses

Please note that Dave and Mary’s email addresses were inadvertently reverted to their old ones in the current programme. Their correct email addresses are shown on the back page in this and the previous two newsletters.

WELCOME!

A very warm welcome to the following new group members:

Jasper Worrallo (Sunbury); Elaine Brindley (Thorpe)

We look forward to meeting you at our indoor and outdoor events.

Editor Required

After editing this newsletter since Reg Leutchford stood down in 2000, I have decided that it is time to hand the baton on to someone with new ideas.

I have therefore advised the Committee that I wish to relinquish the post of Editor following production of the spring 2012 issue, or earlier if possible. I have given a year‟s notice in order to enable my replacement to get up to speed and ensure a smooth hand over.

If you are interested in taking on this job please contact Dave, Mary or myself and we will arrange to give you a briefing on what the job entails.

I will put some thought into a formal job description once this newsletter has been put to bed. Peter Hambrook

Local Group News

GROUP ACHIEVEMENTS Recent Events Quiz Nite January 2011 Nine teams of six turned up on the 15th January for the annual North West Surrey RSPB Quiz Nite at New Haw Community Hall. New Haw has been the home of this quiz since it started 10 years ago and over those years the teams have pitted their wits against question writer and “Ref” Dave Braddock! Some have fared better than others with a sense of competition and friendly rivalry amongst the various teams in the war to win!

Led by Question Master Craig Watson, who has done well not to be tongue tied by some of the far reaching questions, there has been opportunity for laughter and banter between both him and the tables. At the very first quiz Craig had brought along girlfriend, Louise. They are now happily married and living in South Wales, making the trip especially for the Quiz Nite to share our company once a year.

The reason for reviewing the last ten years is that Dave has decided to stand down as question writer and “Ref”. So thanks to everyone who has made the Quiz the great success it has been – a great team effort, raising approximately £3,000 over the ten year period with all proceeds course going to the RSPB.

Each year a team of helpers have made sure that tables are out ready and put away. Another team in the kitchen ensures the Ploughman‟s supper is ready for the break - and cleared away afterwards. Simon and his sister Karen have been round each year getting in the money for the raffle. People have been really generous over the years donating raffle prizes, and for a couple of years the winning team even gave back their winnings!

This year was no different to the others (except for 2010, the odd year out, having been postponed to March because of snow!). There were seven rounds of different subjects, namely: films; songs; natural history; Royalty; „It‟s all Greek to me‟ (these last two being new ones for this year); „Pot Luck‟ and, as usual, a picture round to hand in after the break. Some teams kept their original names such as the „Little Bustards‟, „Resplendent Quetzels‟, „Jolly Robins‟ and „The Twitchwells‟ while other chose new ones such as „Spring Siskins‟, „Bar-tailed Halfwits‟, „Lovely Lapwings‟, „The Magpies‟ and the „F in Frigates‟.

Each year Dave has made a point of wearing a silly hat, as his wife I can‟t even remember where this idea came from! Sometimes “The Hat” would be planned many weeks before the event, another time it would be a matter of sorting it out on the day. David Shenton, a regular attendee of the Quiz, would make a bee-line on the night to see what the hat looked like! He was disappointed in 2011 - Dave went overboard in a different direction! Having been given a Billy “Man” bag for Christmas, he decided to get in touch with his feminine side - see the picture of my man wearing stripey tights with shorts. It raised a laugh on the night and he now knows how girls get on with wearing tights! RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 2 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654

Anyway, the winners on the night once again were the Little Bustards, 10 points ahead of their nearest rivals, “F” in Frigates, and third were a new team The Magpies. Enjoying the bags of Jelly Tots as losers were the Spring Siskins.

We made a £236 profit on the night.

If there is anyone out there who would like to take up the gauntlet and the challenge, this position now lies vacant.

Mary Braddock

National Nest Box Week – RHS Wisley Sat 12th February 2011 With spring very much in the air we set up our information display at RHS Wisley gardens to help promote National Nestbox Week.

Hannah, Mick, Alan, Chris, Simon and Paul were on hand at various times during the day and were kept busy dispensing information and being called upon for all sorts of advice „avian‟. It is quite evident that the Great British Public is very fond of their garden birds - and rather less fond of cats, grey squirrels, foxes and magpies.

Three new RSPB memberships were taken out during the day, several interested people took away details of our local group and Mick did a sterling job keeping the Wisley tills ticking over with his advice and considerable sales skills in birdseed merchandising.

We were given a prominent position in the garden shop to set out our display and were well looked after by the RHS staff so for all of us it was an enjoyable, worthwhile and successful day. Paul Brindley

Pin Badges. Simon has been running our pin badge monitoring scheme for several years now and you saw the magnificent running total on the front page. Simon and his team have raised over £1600.00 this year and Simon is asking for more people who would be willing to help by being a collector. He would also like some ideas or suggestions of sites we could approach to take a box. I think thanks and congratulations should go to Simon and his team for all their hard work and efforts. Either drop Simon a line for information or I can pass on to him. Dave Braddock

Memberships. Mary and the events team have recruited a creditable 17 RSPB memberships this year. With people thinking of their finances more it has been much harder recruiting this year but Mary and the gang have managed to keep up their sterling work. Many thanks to them all. Dave Braddock

CAMPAIGN CORNER Would you plant seedlings in an endangered habitat? Gardeners in the UK are using peat at an alarming rate of 3 billion litres per year. Some people may not be aware that peat is extracted from lowland peat bogs – an irreplaceable habitat for birds (e.g. snipe and curlew), certain butterflies, dragonflies and specialised plants.

Ahead of the recent budget in March, the RSPB campaigned for a levy on peat-based compost to encourage consumers to buy peat-free alternatives. Volunteer letter writers were called to lobby their MPs about this. I wrote to the Esher and Walton MP, Mr Dominic Raab, but was disappointed to not even get a reply from him. This is in contrast to my previous MP, Ian Taylor, who always responded to my letters. I will now turn my personal efforts to you. If you RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 3 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 don‟t have enough of your own compost, I would urge you purchase peat-free compost and help to save this rare habitat.

Letter to the future – what is happening? A massive 355,773 signatures were handed in to David Cameron on March 9th. This was the RSPB‟s most supported campaign ever. It has certainly shown the government that many people care about nature. As a result cutbacks in nature funding weren‟t as great as expected. And there‟s still time to sign if you haven‟t already done so at www.rspb.org.uk/lettertothefuture/.

A new RSPB campaign, “Stepping up for nature”, starts in June. The campaign is designed to ensure politicians reach their ambitious target of halting the loss of biodiversity and begin to restore it by 2020. Sadly, this is the same target that they were supposed to achieve by 2010. As this new campaign will run for nine years, there will be plenty of opportunity to tell you about how you can get involved in this campaign later in the year.

The Lydd Airport Public Inquiry Thanks to all of you who wrote letters objecting to the expansion of Lydd airport. This inquiry aimed at preserving the internationally important wildlife areas around Dungeness is still in progress. I will update you at one of the indoor meetings when I get any news on this. Sarah Young, North West Surrey Group Campaigns Champion.

RECENT OUTINGS Mid-week Walk at Moor Green Lakes Wednesday 8th December 2010 Weather: Very cold, grey and overcast but dry. 1C Moor Green Lakes reserve is based on a restored area of flooded former gravel pits between the Lower Sandhurst Road and the River Blackwater, just to the west of Sandhurst. It is an interesting reserve at any time of the year and during the winter is home to a good variety of wildfowl, with goosander a speciality (and the reserve logo).

An easy run on dry roads meant that arriving to find the car park like a skating rink was a bit of a shock. Fortunately that was the worst hazard that we had to negotiate and we managed to avoid going base over apex by using the better grip available around the fringes of the parking area. It was, nevertheless, distinctly parky and uninviting at first sight.

A few blackbirds and a lapwing were the sole occupants of the first paddock, while a nuthatch was calling and brief glimpses were had of green and great spotted woodpeckers as we quickly moved on to view the nearest lake, Colebrook North. This was partly frozen but a large open area around Tern Island was busy with a variety of ducks,

including lots of gadwall and smaller numbers of wigeon, tufted, teal, mallard, pochard and, probably most interesting, a couple of male goldeneye. A trio of Egyptian geese and a few mute swans, lapwings, great crested grebes and cormorants completed the line-up. We moved on to view the feeders but, although these had just been topped up, they were not attracting anything of note, just great and blue tits, chaffinches, a dunnock, three quarrelling robins, a moorhen and a trio of mallards.

After passing Colebrook Lake South and adding nothing except for a few coots, we reached the River Blackwater and turned east (left), keeping an eye on the unfrozen muddy banks for any snipe but only finding a few mallard and a female teal. Then, while watching the teal, a kingfisher suddenly shot out from a hidden branch and headed out of sight round a bend in the river. Next we spotted a wren looking for food around the roots of a tree and this was soon joined by a grey wagtail.

Moving on, we came to Grove Lake, which proved to be just as frozen up as the previous two but still with quite a good sized open area. Here we found the first of the day‟s goosanders – a couple of males and around four females, the former standing out like cream beacons against the grey water. Apart from a grey heron on the island there was nothing else new, so we continued on towards the eastern edge of the reserve, noting a flock of some 15 feral barnacle geese landing in a distant field en route. These breed locally so were not that unusual, nor were the flocks of Canada geese also feeding in the fields. As you reach the hide in the south-eastern corner of Grove Lake you can get a restricted view across the adjacent Horseshoe Lake, which is used for sailing in warmer conditions but at first glance this appeared to be frozen solid. However, on closer inspection, we noticed a good number of wildfowl in some open water in the north-western corner, so headed up the footpath between the two lakes to get a better look. Eventually we were able to get quite good views of this area and it proved interesting. Here were further goosanders, somewhere in the region of six males and eight females as well as a mass of shovelers, mainly males, which appeared to be RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 4 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 finding a good supply of food in the open water. While checking through what was present we were surprised by a snipe which flew up from quite close to us and another flew up from the nearby water‟s edge a few minutes later.

Heading back towards the cars we kept our eyes peeled for any finches as there are quite a few alders and silver birches along the river, however we didn‟t manage any positive identification, despite a couple of flocks flying over. From the footpath partial views can be had of further flooded pits on the other side of the river. These are usually only inhabited by tufties, mallards and coots but there were more goosanders here, around three males and four females. Eventually we came across a group of tits feeding in silver birches and identified long-tailed amongst them before our attention was drawn to a small bird that flew out and landed on the side of the upper branch of a tree close to us. Several of us realised at the same time that it was a lesser spotted woodpecker - well worth getting out of a warm bed for! The woodpecker proceeded to probe the branches above us only some 15-20 feet away for a minute or two, giving everyone excellent views - even very briefly in the „scope, until a jogger came along and attempted to negotiate the forest of tripod legs, causing the woodpecker to fly off.

Before returning to the cars we took a look at the new workings but the water here was totally frozen and apart from a distant stonechat there was little sign of bird life, although we thought we could see the barn owl in its box in the distance (well it was a sort of white shape with what appeared to be two white feather-covered legs!). On the rough ground beyond the iced-up water were an adult and an immature roe deer and a healthy-looking dog fox being harassed by a couple of magpies. Passing the feeding station again, we added a reed bunting to the day‟s log before arriving back at the cars at 13:00 after a three-hour visit that seemed to have passed in no time at all.

My thanks to the six hardy souls who joined Geoff and myself for the walk. Hopefully you enjoyed the very rewarding morning‟s sightings. A possible sortie to look for the Bracknell waxwing flock was called off as there had been no sightings of them for a couple of days. Peter Hambrook

Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits Sunday 12th December 2010 To the south-east of St. Albans lie a series of gravel pits, some of which are still being used for gravel extraction. Where the extraction is complete, a number of the disused pits have been landscaped and now form part of a well- managed fishing complex. Surrounded by farm land and some well matured woodland and hedgerows, this was the destination for our half day pre-Christmas walk. Having visited this site several times, I was hoping to see a good mix of waterfowl, woodland birds and with luck both species of partridge and the increasingly rare tree sparrow. As parking at the site is very limited we met on a very crisp, bright morning at the car park at Ottershaw. I planned to arrange a car share from here and in the end, 2 cars set off for the venue with 6 hardy members on board. Arriving at the fisherman‟s car park at about 09.30, which was surprisingly deserted, my heart sank as I realised why - the main lake was completely frozen. It appears that UK fisherman have yet to master the art of ice fishing!

Scopes assembled and all wrapped up, we set off on the short walk to the deep water lake. The hedges that shouldered the path to the lake contained the usual suspects including robin, blue & great tit and several members of the thrush family – blackbird, song thrush and redwing. Reaching the Deep Water Lake, it was frozen too!! Well actually, it had managed to retain a tiny patch of ice free water by the reeds, where 20 or so coots and a trio of mallard squabbled and paddled around – brrr!!. On the far bank a lone moorhen pecked the solid ground, a grey heron stood studying the frozen surface, wondering where his next meal would come from and a male pheasant slowly patrolled the short grass, his feet covered in a heavy frost.

Moving back towards the main lake, I scanned the pit on the far side of the river Colne and although this was frozen to, I could see a good number of birds standing on the ice. Crossing the bridge and moving closer to the pit, a small patch of free water held a number of tufted duck and teal, whilst on the ice stood lapwing, more teal, a lone pochard, another grey heron, several mute swan, Canada geese and a medium sized flock of gulls – black- headed, common and lesser black-backed. As we crossed the gate to go up towards Tyttenhanger Farm, a single bird exploded noisily from the grassy reeds in front of us. As it whizzed off into the distance, zig-zagging as it went, my first thought was jack snipe.

However, on reflection, this was almost certainly a common snipe. The very noisy take off, long extended flight and the bird was a little high in the air were the factors that clinched the identification - jack snipe are almost always quiet, tend to drop out of sight very quickly and generally try to stay as close to the ground as possible. Shortly afterwards, a second bird crashed out from another patch of reeds. With only Dennis and I getting onto the bird, RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 5 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 this could only have been a water rail. Several meadow pipits stood along the fence line and a single skylark fluttered off as we moved to the end of this pit. Scanning the duck flock, we added wigeon to our list, as well as a lone sparrowhawk that was spotted behind us.

At this point a shout from Geoff changed the rest of our planned morning. A quick discussion took place and instead of carrying on to the farm we returned to the cars and headed off to West Sussex, via Ottershaw car park to pick up a sat nav. What changed our plans so drastically? Geoff‟s pager had just told him that the juvenile white-tailed eagle had been relocated in West Sussex and was sitting in a tree at Amberley Wildbrooks

Did we see it? Unfortunately not, as 20 minutes before we got to Amberley it flew off towards Arundel, before proceeding south to the coast and then west towards Hayling Island. We did spend a pleasant hour viewing the Wildbrooks from our watch point and although we did not see the eagle, raptors that were present at Amberley included several soaring buzzards, a male kestrel, a hunting female hen harrier and a fast flying female merlin.

By the way, we also missed the waxwings that were sitting in a bush until 2 minutes before we arrived!! Thanks to those that attended this outing on such a cold winter‟s day. Frank Clark

Mid-week Walk at Thorpe Park Thursday 13th January 2011 Weather: Mainly overcast with occasional drizzle but very mild at 12C This was a joint field trip with the Cerely Bird Club from Woking, so gave the two groups a chance to get to know each other. The weather forecast had been threatening in the days before the walk but in the end we had a virtually dry morning. A week earlier Manor Lake, in front of the farm buildings, had been almost totally frozen over but the mild weather over the weekend had caused it to thaw. As a result of the freeze-up wildfowl numbers were down on what could be expected on a normal winter‟s day as virtually everything had been forced to move to the rivers during the freeze but we ended up with a good selection of what is normally present, if not the volume.

On arrival, David Hill, Thorpe Park‟s Landscape and Conservation Manager, gave the group a brief overview of the work that has been done, and continues to be done, to improve the wildlife value of the site. Since the farm closed to visitors some years ago it has become the base for the Landscape and Conservation team but has remained otherwise largely unchanged with swallows still nesting in good numbers in the farm buildings and the young being ringed by a local qualified bird ringer. Work has taken place over the last few years to improve the area surrounding the farm for birds and other wildlife and it now has a shingle area that was used last summer by nesting ringed and little ringed plovers, a marshy area where we have found snipe, teal and green sandpiper amongst others and a just completed scrape which will be a wildflower area and provide shallow muddy margins to encourage waders to drop in. Changes have also taken place in other parts of the Thorpe Park site to enhance their wildlife interest and improve the ability to act as a flood defence for nearby Chertsey. Two fairly basic hides have been created and a purpose built hide had just been delivered and awaited erection.

After David‟s short talk we headed out to find some birds and immediately in front of us were a goodly number of wigeon interspersed by cormorants, shovelers, mallards and the odd gadwall. A party of four red-head smew were noted, one of which appeared to be an immature male. Having covered the area in front of the farm we moved on along the service road that links it with the main area and gives access to the lake shore. The first birds encountered here were a large group of pochard and tufted ducks that moved away once they saw us but fortunately didn‟t take flight. Also seen in this first area were pied wagtails, a great spotted woodpecker and a few long-tailed tits. Moving on down the lake we scanned the water and found a couple of female goldeneyes, black-headed gulls, a common gull and several great crested grebes. At one point along this shore you can look through to get distant views of St. Ann‟s Lake, which lies next to the M3, and we could see several lapwings resting on the pontoons in the water skiing area, several mute swans and four little grebes.

Heading back, some small birds were noted including a couple of goldcrests and further long-tailed tits while a teal was found lurking amongst the pochard and wigeon. Further lapwings were seen distantly when a small flock took to the air over the main area of the park and a final farewell flypast was given by four grey herons, probably from the nearby heronry.

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 6 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 My thanks to David Hill for his interesting introduction and giving up his time to accommodate our group, also to the 15 Group members and eight Cerely club members for braving a rather uncertain forecast to support the visit. I recorded total of 34 species seen or heard although, sadly, the recently reported bittern was not amongst them. If anyone is interested in joining the Cerely Bird Club, details can be found here: http://www.windowonwoking.org.uk/sites/cerelybirdclub - or contact me. Peter Hambrook

Norfolk Weekend Friday January 21st to Monday 24th 2011. The idea for this weekend was to witness the wader spectacular at Snettisham and then simply enjoy the stunning birdlife of the north Norfolk coast in winter. Seventeen members took the plunge and the idea worked beautifully with the odd NWS RSPB twist! On Friday and Monday, the various participants made their individual ways to Norfolk so I will concentrate on the two central days. A full version of this trip report is available on our website.

Saturday Simon and I joined the Braddock‟s in Mary‟s spacious vehicle for the day, beginning the day at Holkham (abandoning the somewhat Scrooge like Braddock plan of creeping up and down the drive to avoid paying for car parking when Simon offered to pay the £2). Getting out of the car and looking west gave me one of the birding sights of my life; thousands upon thousands of pink footed geese as far back as I could see and spanning every blade of grass across all the fields I could see. We took a stab at maybe 15,000 geese (probably more). I took the time to study individual geese through the scope and they really are rather delicate, beautiful creatures; small dark heads and necks, small pink band on the bill and a rather understated call. The group also saw grey partridge and barn owl here along with small numbers of wigeon and shelduck. More particularly, Dave B picked out a raptor, a rather pale looking buzzard, sitting on a bush behind all the geese. We spent some time looking at this bird hoping for a clear view of the tail. The buzzard eventually stretched a bit, revealing a white sided rump and then flew, further revealing a white rump/upper tail and confirming rough legged buzzard; a rare if regular visitor to eastern England in the winter. Things got exciting and a touch embarrassing now as we dropped in at various north coast hotspots. First of all, we drove into the Wells Woods car park, found two red headed smew on the caravan park lake, watched them for about a minute and drove off! I suspect more money saving from the Braddocks as a longer stay would have meant paying for the car park. Next was Cley although not the reserve (entry fee!), but the famous east bank, for American wigeon. This we found, with excellent views, thanks to a Yorkshire couple who also told us about shorelark at the far end of the east bank so now we set off, passing the majority of the group on the east bank as we were separated at this point. So, end of the path, look right and there, some 15 feet away, were two shorelark. These are truly stunning little visitors from the north, small larks with bright yellow faces shot through with black around the throat, eyes and cheeks. We stuck our heads over the shingle bank, spent a short time sea watching and were rewarded with all three species of diver, gannet, guillemot flying past, a single kittiwake and, on the way back down the east bank, one of many barn owls we saw over the weekend. A quick stop at the Salthouse beach car park gave us brief but close views of snow bunting; another exquisite visitor from higher latitudes mixing at one point with a small flock of turnstone. We finished at Stubb Mill, essentially a raised bank at the end of a lane deep in the Broads next to Hickling Broad nature reserve which looks out over a mix of wild pasture, scrub and reeds. Driving into the car park was temporarily halted as Frank chose to block the entrance with a wheelie bin (an idea that was reprised the following day in memorable fashion). However, we battled our way in and set off down the lane finding ourselves stood on the raised bank an hour and half before dusk. Marsh harriers were in plentiful supply with smaller birds represented by fieldfares, redwings, starlings, stonechat and a single siskin. Bigger birds were represented in some style by three common crane, a family party who, having landed somewhat to our right, then treated us to a flypast; a brilliant sight and what we had mainly come to Stubb Mill to see. We then started to see a few ringtail hen harriers at some distance but towards the end of our vigil, a beautiful, silvery-grey male flew in front of us; the first time Frank for one had seen a male hen harrier in the UK and the first I had seen for a long time. A bit of debate occurred at one point with a very low flying, fast raptor bringing shouts of „merlin!‟ However, the bird pounced on something and did a sharp turn revealing the rounded wings of a sparrowhawk. The group was also entertained by a field mouse, seemingly unafraid of the twenty or so tall looking birdwatchers as it scampered around (do all mice scamper?) behind the group. The evening finished with a couple of woodcock flying over the car park. A brilliant day. Sunday Sunday morning was all about Snettisham. We arrived at the reserve car park, still well before dawn, checked out the torches and then stumbled along muddy, slippery paths until we reached the shingle bank overlooking the Wash. After that, it‟s another stiff walk to the point at the southern end of the reserve where the greatest concentration of waders should be. None of that sounds too attractive so far? However, it was now beginning to get a lighter and looking out over the mud, we could see that the darker patches on the mud were in fact waders, thousands of them lined up across our line of vision; knot, oystercatchers and bar tailed godwits being in the majority with smaller numbers of RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 7 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 dunlin and redshank. As the morning grew lighter still, we expected pink footed geese and got them, big numbers coming in over our heads and heading out into The Wash to roost. A little longer and then the waders were visibly being pushed further towards the land as the tide came in at incredible speed. This caused the waders to fly and flock together, wheeling around, exposing light and dark colours alternately until they began to stream over the headland and onto the gravel pits behind us to roost. An amazing sight (and sound) and one that finished all too soon and we headed back to the car park and the hotel for a well-earned breakfast.

A leisurely morning at Titchwell RSPB followed and, for me, it was straight down to the beach. A Slavonian grebe close into shore was the main reward for that policy and as we walked back (it was VERY cold standing on the beach) we found a twite flock mixed up with meadow pipits, skylark and a single water pipit. We took the opportunity to walk down the path to the new terminal building (as Alan S calls the new hide) and spent a pleasant half hour checking through the waders, wildfowl and gulls on display; pochard, tufted dick, gadwall, avocet, redshank, golden plover and good numbers of ruff. Checking back on the brackish area from this vantage point, our water pipit had become two and was joined by a rock pipit for comparison. I was always think water pipits are much cleaner looking birds with strong face markings; the rock pipit is much duller and as Dave put it, always look likes it has been dipped in soot. The last end of the day saw us at Warham Greens, a wide open expanse of salt marsh reached down a difficult muddy track, having parked near the coast road. Alan S chose to take the BMW halfway down the track before strolling the rest of the way. Gathering at the end of the track, beyond one other car that had driven the whole track, we immediately had peregrine, little egret and hen harrier. We then saw a very curious harrier and mindful of the northern harrier reported from the Thornham area, studied this bird closely. As much as anything, it was behaviour which attracted the interest. A harrier normally flies in relatively leisurely fashion; this was flying low and hard and doing its best to imitate the earlier peregrine. We never resolved this bird but with the posties reporting northern harrier from Titchwell at about the same time, this was either a second bird or simply a „funny‟ hen harrier. However, the light was closing in so time to head back, passing the parked BMW and chuckling at the thought of Alan perhaps getting stuck. Once back where we had parked however, we soon saw a pair of headlights heading slowly towards us. Angela then had the bright idea of blocking the track (and the even brighter idea of not actually taking part). I watched from the sidelines as Frank, Mary, Simon and Dave strung themselves out across the track, turning away from the oncoming headlights and presenting their better (rear) ends to the closing car and choosing to stick those rear ends out a bit and sort of wiggle them about. In the meantime, I am watching the car with the nagging feeling that something is not quite right. At this point, I said “it‟s not Alan!” Our four pranksters break up rapidly and Dave attempts to apologise to the total stranger who has had to witness all this; goodness knows what he thought but Alan, appearing a couple of minutes later, was highly delighted. Monday Today, we went our different ways; Alan and his passengers headed off to Cley to find shorelark (which they did). Dave, Mary, Simon and I meanwhile had left early and headed back to Snettisham for another viewing of the wader spectacular which was even more spectacular than the previous day. The weekend had finished on a high for all of us in different ways; the waders for us, shorelarks for some and hawfinch for others. But wherever we had finished up, it had been another brilliant weekend with great birds and a few laughs on the way. Neil Bew Mid-week Walk, London Wetland Centre, Barnes Tuesday 8th February Weather: Clear blue skies nearly all day. Frosty at first but warm in the sun. 12C What should have been a great day out all went horribly wrong for those attempting to get to Barnes via the A316 as there was a serious accident close to Sunbury Cross. As a result traffic came to a halt – eventually tailing back to Lightwater on the M3 and trapping two thirds of those hoping to attend. In contrast, those of us who had chosen the southern route via the A3 and Roehampton sailed through in very light traffic. Severely depleted in numbers, we headed for the Peacock Tower where Geoff, Mick and Dennis eventually joined us around midday. Chris and Kath also battled through after a coffee break in Bushy Park, meeting up in the café at lunchtime – a determined effort by those involved.

Although there was a good selection of the usual species present there was little to excite, best of these being lots of very active shovelers, a pair of pintail, several little grebes and about 10 common snipe. We didn‟t manage to find RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 8 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 either the water pipit or the female scaup that had been reported in recent days. What did come up trumps was a bittern, or possibly two. First seen from the Peacock Tower, this was patrolling the edge of the reed bed behind the large northern lake in typical bittern fashion, occasionally freezing in „skypoint‟ mode or slipping out of sight behind the edges of the reed bed. After lunch we had superb but distant scope views of it, or another, slightly further east, when it decided to climb up a bundle of reed stems and pose in full view for all to admire – it was still there when we had to leave!

For those who made it through it was a rare chance to enjoy the sunshine in pleasant surroundings and company. Commiserations to those who were forced to abandon their journey and go elsewhere, or return home. Thanks for trying. Peter Hambrook

West Wittering Sunday 27th February 2011 The village of West Wittering lies in a beautiful part of West Sussex, at the mouth of Chichester Harbour. Surrounded by the South Downs on one side and the Solent on the other it is a wonderful area to visit. In the birding calendar, this area is best visited in the winter, when large numbers of Brent geese and waders are present and the natural sheltered tidal lagoon often contains good numbers of wintering grebes, divers and diving ducks. The beach and land out to East Head has been under threat on a number of occasions by developers but a group of locals purchased the area in 1952 and have since guaranteed its future. There is a charge for the car park but at £1 a day during the winter, it is good value. Please note that the price does increase in the summer, when the area gets extremely busy.

Driving to the far end of the car park, nearest East Head – we arrived an hour early (we being the ex-posties, Dennis and myself). We chose to spend some time looking over the south end of Snowhill Marsh. There were not the normal numbers of birds present but we were able to pick out little egret, teal, redshank, curlew, snipe and black-tailed godwit. Brent geese flew noisily, back and forward between the marsh and the creek whilst oystercatcher chased each other in twos around the grassy fields. Returning to the car park at 09.15, the group had begun to assemble and by 09.40 we set off towards East Head with 15 members in total.

Walking along the beach towards the Head, we picked up the first of the expected sanderling – silvery grey waders that are constantly on the move, racing back and forward on the edge of the water. On the Solent we could see great crested grebe and red-breasted merganser along with a selection of the more common species of gulls. In what was to turn out to be a theme for the day, we did not find any divers or indeed a single diving duck, as the lagoon area was practically deserted. Several species of wader were present along the lagoon shores but most were on the far side. However, we were able to identify grey plover, dunlin, ringed plover, oystercatcher and curlew. As we approached the creek area a good flock of Brent geese were feeding on the newly exposed mud. Amongst the more common dark-bellied birds, there were a small number of pale-bellied birds (approximately nine) and unexpectedly, a ruddy shelduck. Un-ringed and fully winged, was this the wild bird that had been tracked through the autumn / winter, as it travelled across Europe from Asia??

We returned to the cars just after 11.00, a reflection on the shortage of birds, which could be directly attributed to the very large number of dog walkers present – particularly the bearded collie brigade that numbered over 30 dogs!!. An early lunch was followed by a walk to the grounds of St. Peter and St. Paul‟s Parish Church. Again this proved to be a disappointment as it was devoid of the usual myriad of small birds. Coastguard Lane produced a few great and blue Tit and a single great spotted woodpecker but it was not until we got to the north side of Snowhill Marsh that we found birds in any number. A single avocet was present on the marsh, along with a few black-tailed godwit, oystercatcher and curlew.

It is also worth noting that the fields in this area generally hold large numbers of wintering lapwing and golden plover but these birds were completely absent and the only three lapwing that we were to see, were on the edge of the marsh amongst the feeding wigeon (12) and mallard (3). Have the dogs disturbed this area to the extent that the birds have moved elsewhere? Scanning the last part of the creek we added a lone turnstone. By 13.00, just as the heavens opened, we were back at the cars and ready to return home. Not quite the full days birding that we expected, as the bird numbers and variety were just not there. However, the company as always was first class. Thanks to all those that made the journey to West Wittering and to Geoff who stopped at Thursley Common to provide me with a great grey shrike! Frank Clark

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 9 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 Mid-week Walk Wednesday 9th March 2011 Weather: Dry with sunny periods and fairly warm. 12C Seven of us gathered at Bell Weir Close, the service road close to the M25 at junction 13 (A30) for this walk, with early arrivals being treated to a passing sparrowhawk, spotted by Les. Crossing the road, we accessed the area via the stile next to the bridge on the M25 side of the river Colne where a large map of the site can be found. The paths here can get very muddy but fortunately it had been dry for the previous couple of weeks so mud proved only a minor problem during the morning. The first birds seen were three dunnocks, calling and moving around in a tree next to the river. As we moved on we found various places from which to view the large expanse of Hythe Lake. This proved to be very productive and we recorded around 20 goldeneyes, mainly females, here along with the more common ducks such as pochard, tufted, gadwall and great crested grebe, plus several cormorants and two goosanders – a female on the lake and a male flying away and, unfortunately, rather distant. Amongst the passerines, only a long-tailed tit and several wrens were of particular note. A mute swan was so busy dabbling that it got a bit of a shock when it eventually raised its head above the water and found a group of people watching it!

Crossing the river by the footbridge we headed towards the BA Silverwing sailing lake across the scrubby area and came across a party of about ten redwings, together with a smaller number of fieldfares and a greenfinch, while two buzzards passed overhead flying west. The sailing lake was fairly quiet but two further female goosanders were present along with a few wigeons, mute swans and grey herons. Passing behind the sailing club area we climbed the stile and followed the road back to our starting point after a fairly brief, but rewarding, two hour visit.

As we finished a bit early, four of us went on to the nearby Staines where we managed to see the reported two great northern divers, a male scaup and a summer-plumaged black-necked grebe, as well as several shelducks and a few shovelers. Peter Hambrook

RECENT INDOOR MEETINGS Not everyone can make all our indoor meetings so these brief summaries will give you a feel for those that you missed. Reports are by Brian Shreeve unless otherwise stated.

Birds Behaving Badly by Dominic Couzens Wednesday 26th January 2011 Fascinating and informative is how I would describe Dominic‟s presentation. A professional ornithologist with several popular bird books to his credit, he brought to our attention some of those traits of bird behaviour that we tend to overlook in our sanitised view of their way of life. Take bullying for a start. Who could not feel sorry for the downtrodden coal tit who has to zoom in and out of bird feeders at speed and store his takings in a tree for eating later to escape the unwarranted attention of blue and great tits. I sympathise too with the poor old coot who regularly loses his hard-earned meal of waterweed gathered during a dive to the thieving gadwall. And dominant woodpigeons, we were told, occupy the centre of the flock in the field and being protected from predators are able to spend more time feeding, thereby improving their chances of survival compared with those on the edge.

Dominic also told us a little about how birds cope with seasonal weather changes. Blackbirds are great survivors at all times because they have adapted to eat almost anything, but green woodpeckers are hamstrung by the fact that 95% of their diet consists of ants and so they suffer greatly when the ground is icy hard. Rooks, on the other hand, mate early and are able to find earthworms for their young before the ground hardens under the summer sun, whilst the early hatching of young grey herons ensures that they will be able to see through the water for their fishy prey before it is obscured by masses of vegetation.

And so to the sexual behaviour of our feathered friends. Sexual impropriety is common in the dunnock whose multiple matings involving both sexes are the norm– a feat echoed by its relative, the alpine accentor. The dotterel practises role reversal, male birds taking responsibility for incubating the eggs and bringing up the family. Red-legged partridges have perhaps a fairer answer to conjugal life; the female lays two clutches, one of which is incubated by the male and one by the female. Such double clutching is also practised by the little stint. There is still a degree of monogamy in the avian world however; albatrosses and Bewick‟s swans both behave in this way. With regard to factors which influence pairing, we heard that male blue tits have an ultraviolet radiance which is reflected from their heads and can be detected by the female; the more intense the light, the more attractive the male becomes. The varying intensity of the yellow breasts of the males is also a source of attraction to female blue tits. Because the yellow colouration is caused by carotenoids found in caterpillars and other insects, it is thought that the female is therefore able to pick out a good caterpillar finder and hence a good mate for bringing up the family.

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 10 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 Finally, Dominic provided us with an astounding statistic about house martins. These birds are said to use 1500 mud pellets with straw to build their nests. The mud may well come from a mile away, so in making one nest a house martin may travel 3000 miles. One can only marvel at such devotion to conjugal life.

Wildlife of the North Downs by Robert Canis Wednesday 23rd February 2011 Robert‟s presentation was based on the flora and fauna to be found around the North Downs Way, a long-distance footpath of approximately 150 miles which runs from Farnham to Dover. In describing the wildlife of this area, he brought out the relationships between the local plants and animals and illustrated his findings with excellent slides, some of which were quite stunning and really captured the character of the subject. I recall in particular lovely images of a young rabbit and a starling; two species hardly worth a second glance, you might say, but through Robert‟s camera lens they appeared absolutely magnificent. I began to understand why the Royal Photographic Society had awarded him a gold medal for some of his work.

A thriving rabbit population has undoubtedly contributed to an increase in the number of buzzards now estimated at 200 – 300 pairs in Kent alone. If fields can be left fallow, Robert said that plants such as lady‟s smock (the cuckoo flower) and kingcup (marsh marigold) will soon appear. These and other wild flower in turn will attract insects and hence birds. Grazed land too can attract wildlife: lapwings will breed on the short grass left by sheep whilst skylarks and meadow pipits will nest in the longer grass associated with grazing cattle.

What else did we see? Lovely slides of the pyramidal orchid, vipers bugloss, bog asphodel, sundew, wood anemone and a field full of primroses spring to mind. Also marbled white, peacock and common blue butterflies and a beautiful red admiral together with a silver “Y” moth, a speckled bush cricket and a blue-tailed damselfly. There was even a glow-worm. Then there were frogs and newts, water voles, hares, fallow deer and badgers with young. Regarding birds, pictures of little grebes, reed warblers, green and greater spotted woodpeckers, a tree creeper, hawfinches and bramblings on twigs dotted with snow were some of the highlights. And I must not forget the final arresting images of a little owl.

An almost unbelievable variety of life, then, can be found in this attractive area. But, as Robert emphasised, if you want to observe the best of it, you have to get up early.

Birds of the Atlantic Forest by Andy Swash Wednesday 23rd March 2011 This was an outstanding lecture. An enthralling and amusing presentation coupled with a digital display of some of the most dazzling and beautiful photographs I have ever seen in an ornithological slide show. As the title suggests, forest birds were there in abundance; more than 70 different species on my count, from the coastal area just south of Sao Paulo to Salvador, namely the Intervales State Park, Ubatuba, the Itatiaia National Park and Usina Frei Caneca. It was sad to learn, however, that only about two per cent of the original forest in this area now remains. A picture of the amorphous fields of sugar cane now grown there for biofuel said it all. But some effort is being made to conserve what remains, and for that we should be thankful because the variety of avian species left in this small patch of untouched habitat is almost unbelievable. And it was particularly pleasing to hear that Andy is donating his fee to Birdlife International which is playing a pivotal role in the conservation of the lovely birds still surviving in this part of the world.

I find it hard to do justice to the birds themselves some of which, Andy said, had been photographed for the first time. Tyrants, trogons, piculets, cotingas, toucans and toucanets, motmot and bellbird plus the more familiar parrots and hummingbirds; they were all there. Some of my favourites included the lovely vermilion flycatcher, the streamer-tailed tyrant (42cm long in total), the tame black-throated trogon, the least pygmy owl (smaller than a house sparrow), the slaty bristlefront, the blue-bellied parrot, the long-trained nightjar (its tail is 60cm long), the splendid pair of black jacobins, the stunning Brazilian and red-necked tanagers, the festive and frilled coquettes (so small you could almost fit two in a matchbox) and the gorgeous black-throated mango with which Andy ended his talk. An evening to remember, no doubt about that.

FORTHCOMING OUTDOOR MEETINGS REMINDER FRI 10/6 Evening walk on Horsell Common for nightjars, meeting at the Sandy Track car park at 20:30. WED 15/6 MWW Thursley Common, meeting at the Moat car park at 10:00. SUN 26/6 Rutland Water,meeting at the Lyndon Reserve car park at 09:30. THU 7/7 MWW Harmondsworth,meeting at the second car park past the BA entrance at 10:00. SUN 17/7 Minsmere, meeting in the car park at 09:30. SUN 21/8 Shellness/RSPB Elmley. Meet Shellness, car park at far end of dirt track at 09:00 or RSPB Elmley at 12:30. TUE 23/8 MWW WWT London, Barnes Meeting 10:00 in car park (10:10 at reception if coming by public transport). WED 14/9 MWW Frensham Little Pond, meeting at the car park nearest the pond at 10:30. SUN 25/9 Arne RSPB Reserve, meeting in the reserve car park at 09:30.

See programme or web site for full details or contact leader (see back page). RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 11 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 FORTHCOMING INDOOR EVENTS REMINDER WED 22/6 AGM/Social at Sir William Perkins‟s School, Chertsey 19:45. SAT 2/7 Barbeque, Simon & Sue Lumsden‟s garden in Horsell 19:30. WED 28/9 Corsica – Mountains in the Mediterranean by Mike Read. Sir William Perkins‟s School, Chertsey 19:45.

See programme or web site for more details.

IN THE SOUTH EAST

Dungeness Bird Highlights. December A high count of 146 Bewick‟s swans was recorded on 18/12, along with 226 white-fronted geese and 7,500 wigeon. A woodcock was seen early in the month, a penduline tit briefly and 34 waxwings flew over on 17/12. High count for bitterns was 11 just before Christmas. January A glossy ibis visited 10/1-19/1 and a black-necked grebe 8/1-15/2, while brief visitors were a Slavonian grebe, a female hen harrier (21/1), an immature glaucous gull (23/1) and a Dartford warbler (19/1). February A red-necked grebe was present 6/2-16/2 while brief visits were made by a merlin, up to three peregrines, a yellow- legged gull (11/1), up to five firecrests (3/2), a water pipit mid-month with two rock pipits and the penduline tit reappeared on 17/2. March Three scaup were present (6/3-7/3),and a red-throated diver (8/3-10/3), seven garganeys were noted on 22/3, a little ringed plover on 24/1, spoonbills were seen occasionally around 22/3 when a great white egret flew over. Raptors included merlin, marsh and hen harriers, sparrowhawk, kestrel, merlin, eight common buzzards over (22/3), a red kite 20/3-23/3 and an osprey 30/3. Others of note included an Iceland gull on 12/3 and Dartford warblers and a penduline tit. April Of note so far have been a pallid swift on 5/4, a bee-eater heard twice on 22/4 and, raising hopes of breeding again, a purple heron on 29/4. Other wildlife and management news A small mammal survey recorded good numbers of all the known residents, these being: harvest mouse, wood mouse, common shrew, pygmy shrew, water shrew, bank vole and field vole. At Dungeness the harvest mice nest in bramble and rush thickets rather than in crops (there aren‟t any). Other work has included replacing fencing, repairing hides, maintenance of trails and the ongoing willow control. The flock of a dozen Hebridean sheep have now left the reserve. Events As you would expect at a major reserve, there are lots of events and latest details can be found here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/d/dungeness/events.aspx

Pulborough Brooks Bird News Lesser spotted woodpeckers have been seen fairly regularly from the „lookout‟ above the heathland (close to the car park) during late March/early April but have now vanished behind the new leaves. The first nightingale arrived very early (4/4) and as I write this at the end of April they can be found at the bottom of the zig-zag at Fattengates, and above Nettley‟s hide. One has even set up territory next to the overflow car park! Other warblers around the reserve include common and lesser whitethroats, garden warbler, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers. A few swallows, house martins and swifts can be seen if you keep vigilant and, unusually, a redstart was seen briefly on the zig-zag. A little ringed plover is out on the scrape but wigeon linger on in small numbers together with teal and shovelers. Dragonflies on the wing already are hairy, four-spotted chaser and broad-bodied chaser plus large red and azure damselflies. Butterflies include speckled woods, brimstones, red admirals and orange-tipped. Adders can sometimes be found sunning themselves between the Hanger Viewpoint and Winpenny hide. Maintenance This has included coppicing the sweet chestnut on the heathland and repairing fences, while the seven Highland cattle have been doing a great job keeping the heathland undergrowth under control. Events Lots of events here – details can be found at: www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/p/pulboroughbrooks/events.aspx RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 12 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 Farnham Heath Wildlife News Four tree pipits have turned up already so hopefully there will be as many as last year. Lots of other signs of spring - green tiger beetles scuttling along paths, grass snakes and slow worms as well as adders basking, and up to four buzzards circling at any one time. Stonechats appear to have come through the winter unscathed, with five pairs this year, up from only three last year. Management News Heathland restoration work on the publicly accessible parts of the reserve is now complete, another 12 hectares (30 acres) having been cleared. This year on part of the clear fell a "mulcher" was used to dispose of the brash etc. This monster machine reduced the un-saleable branches and stumps to mulch which was then scraped up, along with the pine litter that had built up over the years, and removed to the edge of the clear fell. This should result in a good amount of young heather coming through over the next year.

Three New Forest Ponies, called Bracken, Willow and Erica, have been borrowed to give greater variety in grazing management. The ponies, nicknamed the "ladies who munch" seem very happy out on the reserve, and not even slightly bothered about people or dogs. They have proved very popular with the visiting public and have generated lots of good publicity for the reserve. More importantly they appear to be doing exactly what is required in terms of grazing and browsing. Events There is a two-hour nightjar walk on 11 June starting as 20:00.

The above items are courtesy of the reserve newsletters and web sites, which you can access via www.rspb.org.uk.

Would you like to help? There is conservation activity involving all sites, so if you are interested in getting involved, please check their web sites (see above) or, if you are not online, give them a call: Pulborough 01798 875851 and Farnham 01252 795632. Dungeness is probably a bit too far for most people to consider but if interested their number is 01797 320588.

FROM THE QUILL

The Large Blue Butterfly in Somerset – Collard Hill By Mary Braddock In 2009 Dave and I spent a few fruitless hours wandering around Collard Hill, the National Trust site in Somerset, looking for the large blue butterfly. We were pretty sure that we were going to be unsuccessful as the poster said that none had been reported for three days! We were too late. So being organized we put 18th June 2010 on the calendar as being a good day for these butterflies.

Great! As those of you who travel west will know, Stonehenge sits just beside the A303 and, of course the 18th June is around the time of the summer solstice….. Oh well, we could always travel down the M4 … aah then there were England footie fans all rushing home to see the match!! Oh …and then there is the Glastonbury festival as well…. OK. Good job we have a lovely friend who kept dinner hot and welcomed us with loving arms on the Friday evening!

Saturday was cool with cloud and some glimpses of sun as we made our way to the hill at about 10.15 am. The car park was already half full and we joined the steady flow of people following the blue-topped poles on our way hoping to see one of these enigmatic butterflies.

We stopped to talk to a National Trust warden and whilst doing so realized that less than a yard away was a fresh female large blue butterfly! She was sitting quietly, with her wings closed, waiting for the sun to come out and so easily could have been missed. How many others were lurking like this we wondered? Probably about 20 – 30 six-belted clearwing moths, never normally seen, which was another first for us both, but our target ,the large blues, were being kept down by the lack of sun. We then heard a shout and another large blue was found and we eventually got some fantastic photographs of this specimen with its wings opened looking absolutely pristine and obviously freshly emerged. We spent about 90 minutes wandering around the hill and saw about eight large blues, a couple of marbled whites and one common blue.

We also saw hundreds of common spotted orchids, hundreds of pyramidal orchid and many greater butterfly orchids. What a fantastic morning.

The following information is taken from the website of the National Trust:

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 13 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-countryside_environment/w-nature/w-nature-wildlife/w-nature-wildlife- butterflies_moths/w-nature-wildlife-butterflies_moths-large_blue.htm#season

 Large blue butterflies as a whole can be ranked amongst the most vulnerable species in the world.  In Europe, the large blue 'Maculinea arion' still occurs in 37 countries but it has declined by some 50-80% in recent decades overall and is deemed stable in only seven countries. This decline is particularly severe in Northern Europe.  A massive amount of effort is being made to save all the European species of large blues, led by scientists from a number of countries. The Large Blue season  In the UK, the large blue adult season lasts for some three or four weeks during June and July.  The timing of the flight season varies from site to site, region to region and from year to year, with much depending on seasonal weather.  Individual large blue butterflies live for four to five days, on average, but they do not all emerge at once; individuals tend to emerge over a period of 10 to 20 days. Young Large Blues  The female large blue lays her eggs in the buds of thyme, before the flowers open. This necessitates full synchrony between the bud stage of the thyme and the butterfly‟s flight season; this synchrony is assisted by appropriate grazing.  The eggs hatch after some seven to 14 days, depending on the weather. Young larvae feed on thyme flowers for about two weeks during late July and early August. Then, they fall to the ground and are adopted by red ants and taken off to the underground ant nests where they feed on ant grubs.  Any species of red ant may pick up the caterpillars, which secrete a sticky sugary substance that ants love, but in the UK the caterpillars survive only in the nests of a single ant species, 'Myrmica sabuleti'.  Frequent and large nests of this single species of ant are essential to the large blue.  The larva spends 10 months as a predator in the ant nests and then pupates there.

Collard Hill was set up as an open access site for the large blue. Twelve females and three males were released there in late June 2000, and 267 larvae were introduced in late July. It was not possible to open in 2001 due to foot and mouth disease, but it has been open ever since.

Running the open access site is quite challenging, and requires a dedicated team of wardens, led by senior warden Rob Holden, a seasonal large blue warden who is employed for some six weeks, annually, and a team of volunteers from Butterfly Conservation.

Collard Hill is the only place in Britain where people are freely able to visit to see this incredibly rare and special butterfly. The Trust has dedicated this hillside to the conservation of the large blue and people‟s engagement with this most curious of insects.

World Wanderers

We travelled to Hortobagyi, a nature reserve in the north east corner of Hungary situated on the flat plains of the river Tisza, staying in a town called Tiszafured and then spent three days on the plains and one day travelling north to the hills for woodland and mountain species.

As usual we had booked our trip through Speyside Wildlife International http://www.speysidewildlife.co.uk/ and they were using Ecotours, http://www. Ecotours.hu a Hungarian company specializing in birdwatching and wildlife holidays to lead us for the week, Balazs and Stephen, our local guides, were joined by Roy from Speyside and all three kept us informed on the wildlife, natural and local history of the area as well as being entertaining.

The weather when we arrived was clear blue skies with no cloud or wind and this was how it stayed for the next five days. The only change was the temperature which went down below freezing overnight and that took a little time during the morning to warm up. We were so lucky, as Hungary had been subject to some very heavy rain with localized flooding in the few weeks before our trip, including the toxic waste flood of the “red earth” in the south west of

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 14 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 the country. Fortunately, most of the roads and fields were passable by the time we arrived although a bit muddy in places.

Our first morning found us at Lake Tisza having a “lesson” on the difference between Caspian and yellow-legged gulls! Great, as the two were in front of us and we had good opportunity to study them closely. Great white egrets were here in numbers but we also found them dotted all over the landscape as were common buzzard. Amazingly, another really common bird was hen harriers. These graceful flyers were seen regularly over the fields, both ring-tails and also plenty of males in their ghostly white plumage. The ring- tails were so common we even began to tell the difference between the females and the juveniles, the latter being more rufous in colour on the chest.

Hortobagyi is an area that is well known for its over wintering geese flocks and cranes and we were not to be disappointed. Visiting an area of wetland, thousands of white- fronted geese were to be seen mixing with lesser numbers of greylags. Three barnacle geese were found and four or five red-breasted geese. Sadly no lesser white-fronts though. We returned to this spot a couple of times for the geese spectacle. It was also the site for a regular white-tailed sea eagle and peregrine which put the geese up on more than one occasion, especially when the eagle harassed the peregrine into letting go of its supper…the eagle then catching it in mid-flight and going off with it! Trying to re-locate the red-breasted geese in the flock became quite a game with us, especially when they were in flight, a good exercise for identification points. It was also here that a juvenile Imperial eagle flew right over our heads, what a magnificent bird, showing the markings that the adult bird does not have! With male and female hen harriers floating past us here and a sparrowhawk passing overhead, it really was a great place, only marred by the occasional vehicle that went past us as we stood on the roadside.

Another raptor that we saw on three occasions was the Saker falcon. This powerful bird really makes the peregrine look small. We watched it in flight, powering its way through the air and we saw another preening by its nest box site. In Hungary, Sakers are given these nest boxes and it seems to help their numbers. Turning our backs on this last bird we found ourselves being watched by an Imperial eagle that was perched on a post in a field! What an impressive bird this is!

Sometimes there are birding days that just stick in the memory forever, and we had one of these days on this trip. We drove to the fields behind the fishponds, Tibi, our driver just managing to negotiate the muddy track. As we watched a small flock of sheep being driven towards us we noticed a greater spotted eagle being mobbed by a rook. We saw this bird coming toward us and had enough time to get out of the bus to get an incredible view as it flew low over our heads and then banked round to sit in a tree. It then made its way off across the fields as we watched a bullfinch and fieldfare together and spirals of buzzards caught the thermals on migration, as many as 16 birds together.

We then went to a small village which had up to 300 long-eared owls roosting in the trees along the streets, just feet from where we stood. We ended up in the garden of this little old lady who didn‟t mind us walking over her less than well-tended ground, finding 16 of these owls sitting in just one tree. It was here that we also saw a goshawk mobbing a white-tailed sea eagle above our heads, amazing to see the difference in the size of the two birds – all this before moving onto another part of the Hortobagyi where we had a fly-past of the white headed long-tailed tits. These birds are beautiful and more common in Scandinavia, but looked great here in the bright sunshine. The end of this day was to be a walk to the end of the fishponds. The air was still, the sun dropping over the calm water was reflected in gold and red and in the distance the only sound to be heard was that of the cranes as they made their journey towards us and their nightly roosting place. As we stood there the air was filled with the vision and sound of up to 20,000 Cranes, it will be a memory that will live with me.

We had noticed that the ground was covered in fine cobwebs, Balasz called it “oxen drool”, a great description, but with no wind or rain, these cobwebs started to float, it was a very strange phenomenon. The spiders were obviously a source of food for some birds as huge flocks gathered and were obviously feeding on these creatures as they floated in the air.

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 15 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 Constantly checking out the buzzards meant that we eventually found a long-legged buzzard and enjoyed a very clear view of this rufous marked bird with the white base to its tail and also of rough-legged buzzard, which has a clear dark band at the end of the tail. Great bustards were eventually found on the steppe with help from Gabor Kovacs, a fantastic Hungarian guide and photographer, and we then had a little time left for a quick stop at the rare breeds farm for the mangolita (or frizzlie) pig, frizzlie goose and a close up view of the Hungarian grey cattle with their long straight horns that we had seen grazing in the fields.

The day spent travelling to the hills at Belko and ancient beech forest at Tamas-kutja gave us views of four species of woodpecker - great, middle and lesser spotted and white backed (we were also to get green on our journey back to the airport) as well as treecreeper and nuthatch.

It was over all too soon and the trip ended with a couple of hour‟s bird watching the wetlands 30 km. from Budapest airport. Here we saw more great bustards as well as enjoying good views of waders and ducks, including pintail, which was another new bird for the trip, making my total 94, with some quality birds in that number.

Birder’s Column

What’s been about locally? These reports are mostly taken from the Surrey Bird Club‟s excellent web site www.sbclub.ukonline.co.uk/sightings.html which is updated daily with the latest sightings in Surrey. Others come from personal sightings, reports on other web sites and the Birdguides email notifications.

January – early April Sightings

Waxwings have been present and widespread in good numbers in our area (even at the end of my road very briefly) from November right through to early April as I write this. The peak count was of 778 leaving a roost at North Camp station, Ash. Nearer home, Homewood Park by St. Peter‟s hospital had a maximum of 170. Hopefully you have all managed to see some. Bitterns have also been fairly abundant at places like Barnes (up to six), Dorney Wetlands (3) and Dinton Pastures (2) following the cold start to the winter, although they proved to be a bit trickier to see than the waxwings. They had largely departed by the second half of March. Goosanders have their favourite spots too and could be found in good numbers at Moor Green Lakes, Lower Sandhurst and at Wraysbury pits as well as on the at Leatherhead and at Walton . A group of around thirty also took to roosting on the lake at Cutt Mill, Puttenham. Hawfinches were again on offer at Bookham common, favouring the area behind the station, with up to six being seen between 15 January and 20 March. Great grey shrikes have also been available to those prepared to make the effort this winter, with two long-stayers in the Thursley/Ockley commons area, another on Chobham common between 16 January and 23 March and singles also at Ash Ranges and Crooksbury common during January. Ravens, lesser/common redpolls (in winter), red kites and common buzzards are now fairly common in our area and will therefore not appear in this section in future. With regard to the first named, check out any large crow making a „kronk, kronk‟ call! Smew have been regulars on the lakes in and around the Thorpe Park complex this winter, as well as at Wraysbury, Hersham gravel pits and on Staines and Island Barn reservoirs. Great northern divers have also followed the trend set in recent winters, being reported on the West London reservoirs at Staines, Queen Mary, Walton, Island Barn and King George VI. Scaup were at London Wetland Centre, Dorney Wetlands and at Staines and Walton reservoirs. Addlestone, Wey Manor Farm A little egret dropped by on 12/3. Ash Ranges Hosted a ringtail hen harrier on 23/1. Banstead, Canon’s Farm Although not that close to us, this site is getting quite a reputation for a good spread of less common birds such as woodcocks, yellowhammers, black redstarts, common redstarts, all three woodpeckers, little, barn and short-eared owls and recently hosted both male and female ring ouzels over several days. It is fairly easily reached via the M25 and A217. More information, including extensive sighting reports, can be found here: http://cfbwbirds.blogspot.com/. Banstead Downs Golf Club The firecrest here was last reported on 27/1. RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 16 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 Bramblings were present in a private garden on 22/2 and 19/3 and a peregrine was seen on 19/2. Chilworth Eleven little egrets were on the water meadows (14/1). Chobham Common A great grey shrike, three bramblings and two crossbills were seen on 2/1. Cobham, Bridge Street Up to 18 Bewick‟s swans took up temporary residence on the floods west of here between 9-23 January. One of the birds carried a Slimbridge yellow Darvik ring and all had been reported earlier at Walton reservoir. A number of Egyptian geese were also present. Crooksbury Common Held four bramblings on 9/1. Cutt Mill Pond, Puttenham Apart from the roosting goosanders, a firecrest and yellow-legged gull were present in late January/early February. Dinton Pastures - Black Swan Lake Nightingales came in from mid-April with several singing by the end of the month, also lesser whitethroat from 17/4 at Black Swan viewpoint and 150 sand martins on 14/4. - Lavell’s Lake A pair of lesser spotted woodpeckers was seen from the end of March and a great white egret passed through briefly on 15/4. Dorney Wetlands/Jubilee River Golden plover numbers here reached 239 on 26 January and a ring ouzel passed through on 21 April. A female/immature marsh harrier flew east on 2/4, while the Great Pond held a little egret by the feeder stream (1/1), a drake common scoter (5/3), two adult Mediterranean gulls (10/3), a ring-tail hen harrier flew north (14/3) and a house martin and 10 sand martins were present on 18/3. Godalming A firecrest was at Sainsbury‟s car park (25/3 and 2/4) Headley Heath Two wheatears were noted on 28/3. A varied selection here with Iceland gull (21/1), red-breasted merganser (23/1 – 29/1), Caspian gull (27/1), two adult Mediterranean gulls (2/2), kittiwake and peregrine (both 20/2), short-eared owl, pintail and sand martins (all 9/3), little gulls (25/3 – 29/3), black redstart and wheatear (29/3), a common tern (31/3) and a Slavonian grebe (3/1). King George VI Reservoir A velvet scoter, a red-necked grebe and a Slavonian grebe were present from 6/1 until 20/2. Leith Hill Two singing willow warblers had arrived by 17/3 and a common redpoll was with 60 lesser crossbills and two bramblings on 23/3. 40 crossbills on 11/3. London Wetland Centre Barnes Apart from the bitterns and scaup mentioned earlier, other regulars here have been Cetti‟s warblers (up to four), water pipits, jack snipe, dunlins, yellow-legged, Caspian and Mediterranean gulls, pintails (up to 10), shelduck, golden plovers and firecrest. With migration getting under way little ringed plover, avocet, wheatear, common tern, redstart, ring ouzel, curlew, little gulls, bramblings and yellow wagtail have all featured in late March/early April. Moor Green Lakes

Recent sightings include an osprey (26/3), little ringed plover and sand martins (27/3), swallows (30/3 on), 20 bramblings (5/4), avocet (5/4), common tern (16/4), yellow wagtail (14/4), tawny owl (20/4 at 21.00) and whimbrel (22/4). Little owls reside in the obvious box on the near oak tree on the New Workings and barn owls use the distant box at the back of this area and can sometimes be seen with a „scope. Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir A fairly quiet winter, with a drake red-breasted merganser (24/1 – 2/2), occasional large parties (25-30) of goosanders roosting, a black-necked grebe (18/1), a female type eider (24/1), a Mediterranean gull (25/1 & 2/2) and two avocets (8/3). Richmond Park A „probable‟ Coues‟s Arctic redpoll was reported in the Pen Ponds area on 4 – 5/3. Riverside Park/Stoke Lake Two water pipits were noted on 5/1 and a very early nightingale was on Stoke Meadows on 2/4.

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 17 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 The usual small party of water pipits reached a maximum of eight with a backing cast of up to three little egrets, two goosanders and the resident little grebes. The first two wheatears passed through on 28 March. Black-necked grebes were present throughout the period, being joined by a red-necked grebe during February and a Slavonian grebe, briefly, in early March. Other visitors of note included a velvet scoter (12/1), a drake red-breasted merganser (25/1) and a female (26/3), white wagtails (6-8/3), a short-eared owl (9/3), a Mediterranean gull (19/2), 40 goldeneyes (22/2) and a dunlin (19/3). The first little gulls appeared on 25/3 and often featured thereafter, a Scandinavian rock pipit visited (26-28/3), six sand martins (17/3), an avocet (2/4), two oystercatchers and a common tern (4/4) and two water pipits (22/1). Thorpe Park Apart from the smew, highlights have been goldeneyes, a one-day bittern on 1 January, a pair of red-crested pochards, a whimbrel, a black redstart, two pairs of little ringed plovers and a pair of ringed plovers. Lapwing also appear to be likely to breed. Thursley Common Apart from the great grey shrikes, other visitors have been a ringtail hen harrier on 10/1, a jack snipe on 14/3, a little egret on 24/3 and the first wheatear two days later. The first redstart was reported on 27/3, with six by 3/4. Tice’s Meadow This well watched site near Farnham gets a good selection of birds and over the period these included golden plover, jack snipe (2), yellow-legged gull, little egret, Mediterranean gulls, little ringed plovers, dunlin, water pipit, willow warbler, goosander, little gull, wheatear, seven black-tailed godwits and all three common hirundines. Walton Reservoir A fairly quiet period with just two shelduck (2/1), the 18 Bewick‟s swans that ended up at Cobham (9/1), a Mediterranean gull (21/1), a red-breasted goose and 42 barnacle geese (30/1), a drake red-breasted merganser (5/2), a common scoter (13/3) and a firecrest (8/2). Wisley Airfield This is probably an under-watched site but 27 bramblings, 35 yellowhammers, three tree sparrows and a golden plover were reported on 3/1 and four swallows passed through on 20/3. Four brambling (3/1), a firecrest (10/1), an immature or female merlin was on Witley Common with three common redpolls on 28/2 and woodcock and two common redpolls were there on 6/3. Woking A first winter black-throated thrush was seen briefly with redwings on a playing field in Sheerwater on 9/1.

BOURC DECISIONS AND TAXONOMIC CHANGES There have been no changes to the British List since the last issue. The latest version of the British List can be found here: http://www.bou.org.uk/recbrlst1.html

Strange but true facts about bugs and insects (submitted by Dave Braddock). o A house fly "hums" in the key of F and beats it's wings over 20,000 times a minute. o A head-less cockroach can survive for nearly a week but dies of thirst because it can't drink water. o Beetles are one of the most popular pets in Japan. o Mosquitoes are attracted to the Carbon Dioxide in our breath. o The African Goliath beetle at 100 grams is the heaviest insect in the world. o A bee flies at an average of 15 miles per hour. o Crickets and grasshoppers ears are on their knees. o Believe it or not, ants stay awake all their lives. o Woodlice breath through organs by their backsides. o In an average lifetime a person will eat seventy insects and ten spiders while they sleep . o Each year insects eat about a third of the world's food crops. o An ant is capable of lifting fifty times its own weight. o A flea can jump about two hundred times its body length. This is equivalent to a six foot tall person jumping nine hundred feet. o Mosquitoes have forty-seven teeth. o The praying mantis is the only species in the world with one ear. o Aphids are born pregnant and can give birth when only ten days old.

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 18 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654

PRESS DATE FOR THE AUTUMN NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Please let me have items for the newsletter as soon as GROUP LEADERS Dave & Mary Braddock possible to avoid a last minute rush. Topical items should 20 Meadway Drive, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey. be with me by: KT15 2DT Saturday 30th July Tel. 01932-858692 email: Dave: [email protected] Items may be submitted on a CD/DVD, typed manuscript email: Mary: [email protected] or as an email attachment (preferred). You can also send short items to me directly by email as I can cut and paste MEMBERSHIPS Mick Cooper straight into my document. If you cannot provide any of 95, Station Crescent, Ashford, . TW15 3HN these, hand-written articles can be accepted but please Tel. 01784 251708 email: allow time for typing up. Do not bother formatting [email protected] documents, other than the basic paragraphs and headings, as they will need to be re-formatted to fit the page layout. NEWSLETTER EDITOR Peter Hambrook 20, Wendley Drive, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3TR Tel. 01932-346565 email: [email protected]

TREASURER Angela Pugh Tel. 01784 457714 email: [email protected]

INDOOR MEETINGS Brian Shreeve A million voices for nature Tel. 01932 341012 email: [email protected]

The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling OUTDOOR MEETINGS* Frank Clark Tel. 01784 421240 email: [email protected] the problems that threaten our environment. Nature is amazing – help us keep it that way. PUBLICITY & EVENTS DIARY Alan Sharps

Tel. 01784 244665 email: The RSPB is part of BirdLife International, the global partnership of bird conservation organisations. [email protected]

COMMITTEE MEMBER Alan Pugh

Tel. 01784 457714 email: [email protected] The North West Surrey RSPB Local Group SECRETARY Jan Bagley The group was established in 1974 and is run by volunteers. We hold regular indoor meetings RSPB SALES position vacant between September and June at the Sir William Perkins‟s School in Chertsey. Outdoor meetings are * For Mid-week Walks, contact Peter Hambrook above.

held throughout the year both locally and further afield, including holidays in Europe. Members of the public are welcome to attend both the indoor meetings and local and regional outdoor meetings. Longer trips are available to group members only.

If you would like more information, please contact our membership secretary at the address below or visit our web site:

www.nwsurreyrspb.org.uk

RSPB NW Surrey Local Group – Spring 2011 19 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654