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. 84 February 2017 www.rspb.org.uk/groups/chorleywood Group News This year marks our 40th Anniversary. We propose that we celebrate in September, at the start of the next season, with a lunch in a local pub, most probably The Cock, in Sarratt. This will be preceded by a walk in the Chess Valley to see what wildlife and flora are around then. Or members can just come for the lunch! You will hear more about this idea later in the year. Happily, we now have filled one crucial vacancy and are very pleased to report that Mary Coulson will be organising the Indoor Programme in the future. Also, Evelyn Fox has agreed to join the Green sandpiper. Birds were tracked to Norway in Committee. So thanks are due to both of these ground-breaking local research project. members. Photo: Luke Massey courtesy of Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust - see page 4 At the last Committee meeting in January 2017, we decided that we can now afford to donate £500 to The forthcoming programme contains some very RSPB funds. We chose to allocate this to interesting topics. How did birdwatching in WW11 calcareous grasslands and blanket bog, both rare prisoner of war camps lead to influence in the habitats. Please do try to attend meetings when you RSPB and BTO? Why have we never seen a can, for the RSPB needs our help as never before. goshawk? All will be revealed at our talks in Once again, the latest State of Nature Report February and April. Our coach outing will be to shows deteriorating numbers of many bird species. Rutland Water where we should see ospreys on But there have been successes - in the their nests and much more besides. Save the date conservation of bitterns, cirl buntings, cranes, of 13 May in your diary. Thank you for your bearded tits and lapwings on RSPB reserves. Read continuing support. about this on page 2. The Committee We have sad news for those who knew Harold CONTENTS Price, one of the founder members of Chorleywood RSPB Group, who died in December 2016. In 1977, Little Egret Research .......................... Page 2 Harold was one of the first committee members at a Good News Stories from RSPB ...................2 time when work was done by handwriting and Local and National Events ..........................3 telephone. He was Group Leader from 1980 for Book Launched on Herts. Butterflies .........3 8 years and steered the Group to its heyday. The Research in Herts. on Green Sandpipers ...4 current shape of the Group is largely due to Lemsford Springs Reserve .........................5 Harold’s work. Several of our members attended his News from Local Reserves .........................6 funeral in January. Your Photos .................................................7 Outdoor Meetings ........................................8 1 Little Egret Research Help needed to spot colour-ringed little egrets Have you ever wanted to help with a bird research project, but worried that you don’t have the identification skills or the opportunity to visit far flung places? Here is a project that may be suitable for all of us. Everyone can identify a little egret! There are lots in our area, for example, along the Little egret Chess Valley, at Stockers Lake, at the Aquadrome Artwork, Mike and on the River Colne. Some of them are used to Langman humans and stay close to river banks. rspb-images.com There is a national scheme for colour-ringed little egrets. Help is needed to identify the colours of the leg rings and, if possible, the numbers on the rings. All observations would be of considerable value. It is always a good idea to carry with you a small note book because we must accurately report the Good News from RSPB following points:- Crane chicks fledged successfully in the Note the colour and position of each ring, West Country including which colour is on which leg This was a milestone moment for the Great Crane Project when four chicks successfully fledged in Note the digit which is engraved on the 2015. This is the first time in 400 years that cranes colour rings have successfully bred. Nine pairs bred initially, with four of these pairs going on to hatch and rear Note the location and time and date of chicks. Four survived to fledge! observation 50 pairs of cirl buntings are now in Cornwall If you see any orange rings on the left tibia, the bird After reintroductions, there are now 50 pairs of cirl has been ringed in SE England and they are very buntings. This is the first passerine reintroduction in likely to be local birds, including ones ringed in Europe and confidence is growing that the numbers Hertfordshire at Lemsford Springs, Stanborough will continue to increase. It demonstrates that Reed Marsh and Verulamium. wildlife friendly farmers can change the fate of declining farmland species. This is a useful job that we can do and please report your sightings to one of the following:- Booming bitterns increase again Throughout the UK in 2015, the number of booming Mike Reed ([email protected]) or bitterns increased to a minimum of 155 recorded at 70 sites. This represents the highest number in Barry Trevis ([email protected]) living memory. Churring nightjars also reached their highest ever level on RSPB reserves. And on RSPB Or let any member of our Committee know and we lowland wet grassland reserves, breeding lapwings will pass on your findings. and redshanks also reached their highest ever level! Only 132 little egrets were ringed in 2015 in the whole of Britain and Northern Ireland, so do not Keep buzzing expect to see many. But only by ringing can survival Short-haired bumblebee releases have continued at rates and movements be monitored. Dungeness. Worker bees have been seen there this year for the fourth year running. 2 Local and National Events Date Herts Bird Club/BTO Conference. Affinity Water, Hatfield. Saturday, 11 March 2017 2-5pm. Cost £5. Programme of speakers to be announced nearer the date. See website www.hnhs.org/birds Thursday, 6 April 2017 Friends of Stockers Lake AGM. Rickmansworth School, 7.30pm. Speaker: Lesley Davis, Director of Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust. The Work of the Trust and its Five-Year Plan. 21 to 23 April 2017 RSPB Weekend. A great programme of talks, seminars and workshops, plus excursions on the Friday. RSPB shop and exhibition. Huge choice of talks and seminars. East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham University grounds. Booking opens in January 2017. Go to www.rspb.org.uk. Sunday, 7 May 2017 Stockers Lake Spring Chorus and Warbler Walk. 8.30am. Meet on the Causeway between Bury and Stockers Lake. 1.5 miles, duration 2.5 hours. 18 to 20 August 2017 Bird Fair at Rutland Water. The event of the year for wildlife enthusiasts with 100s of sales stands, a fantastic variety of lectures, wildlife art, optics, quizzes and question and answer sessions. Tickets available from March 2017. www.birdfair.org.uk trends over almost 40 years. More than 4,800 local Butterflies of Hertfordshire and enthusiasts contributed to the latest survey, which Middlesex covers changes up to 2015. The secrets of Hertfordshire’s shifting butterfly populations and their place in our changing countryside and towns are revealed by a new book published in November 2016. Butterflies of Hertfordshire and Middlesex by Andrew Wood, Hertfordshire’s official butterfly recorder, provides a comprehensive guide to every species currently found in the two counties – and considers the reasons why some are increasing, while others have declined or disappeared altogether. Climate and landscape changes, together with lessons drawn from the hits and misses of conservation measures, feature in the 272-page book, which is lavishly illustrated with locally-taken photographs and population maps that illustrate 3 Among the success stories is an account of Three Butterfly Hotspots in Hertfordshire Hertfordshire’s ‘flagship’ butterfly, the Purple Emperor (whose trademark sheen is only revealed Aldbury Nowers near Tring: this has more in males when their wings catch the light.) From just species recorded than any other site in our one record near Hitchin in the 1980s, the species is county. The rare Green Hairstreak, Dingy being reported from a growing number of locations, and Grizzled Skippers, Dark Green Fritillary including Whippendell Woods in Watford. and Small and Chalkhill Blues are all found here. The book also describes how one of Britain’s rarer Bricket Wood Common between butterflies, the Chalkhill Blue, has been restored to St. Albans and Watford: this is a good relative abundance on Therfield Heath near place to find spectacular woodland Royston after a worrying decline a decade ago. It butterflies such as the Purple Emperor, also explains how its relative, the Small Blue, White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary. which was thought to have disappeared from Heartwood Forest north of Hertfordshire, has established thriving colonies St. Albans: here the White-letter and Purple outside St. Albans at the site of the now-closed Hairstreak butterflies have been found as ‘Butterfly World’ venture – and on the edge of well as grassland species. Letchworth. Green Sandpiper Tracked on Non-stop Flight from Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve to Norway Barry Trevis, Volunteer Warden from Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, tells us about their exciting discovery this summer. A cutting-edge bird-tagging project using GPS tags has tracked a green sandpiper, a small wading bird, from Hertfordshire all the way to Norway and back.