Hampshire Bird Report 2014
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Hampshire Bird Report 2014 Hampshire Ornithological Society Published December 2015 Published December 2015 by the Hampshire Ornithological Society Hampshire Registered Charity no. 1042309 www.hos.org.uk Bird Report 2014 ISBN 978-0-9567712-7-8 Price £10 Text, photographs and artwork copyright © the Hampshire Ornithological Society and named authors and contributors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers. The views expressed in this report are not necessarily those held by the Hampshire Ornithological Society. Printed by Henry Ling Ltd., Dorchester. Front cover: Short-toed Eagle, Frame Wood, New Forest, June 30th by Alan Lewis. Frontispiece: Wryneck by Dan Powell. Additional artwork by Dan Powell (www.powellwildlifeart.com). Editor: John Clark AIMS OF THE SOCIETY [email protected] The Hampshire Ornithological Society has three broad aims: • To promote the recording and study of bird life in Hampshire and to publish the results in its Production Editor: John Norton annual Bird Report. • To use these results to encourage and support the conservation of wild birds and their habitats in the County. County Recorder: Keith Betton • To foster a wider interest in the recording and preservation of Hampshire bird life by organising HOS Records Panel: Keith Betton, Bob Chapman, Andy Johnson, Nigel a programme of indoor and outdoor meetings, by publishing a quarterly magazine and other Jones, Dave Unsworth, Marcus Ward and Simon Woolley forms of publicity. MEMBERSHIP Hampshire Ornithological Society The annual subscription is £12 for Ordinary, Joint or Family membership; £5 for Junior membership (under 18s). Full membership information is given on p.216 and on the HOS web site: http://www.hos.org.uk. LIFE MEMBERS (date awarded) Ralph Cook (1989), Michael Bryant (1990), Peter Puckering (1992), Rosemary Billett (1998), Eddie Wiseman (2000), John Wood (2001), Norman Pratt (2005), John Clark (2011), Margaret Boswell, John Eyre and Nigel Peace (2012), Alan Cox (2013), Glynne Evans (2015). Published December 2015 Contents Chairman’s Report 2014 Chairman’s Report 2014 Alan Snook 3 This is my third annual report to the Society as Chairman taking us up to the 2015 AGM. By the time you read this report our new atlas should have been published. It shows the state Editorial and Acknowledgements John Clark 4 of Hampshire’s birdlife and features photographs galore the huge majority of which were Obituary: David Frederick Billett (1932-2014) John Bowers, Graham Rees & Ed Wiseman 6 taken in the county by local photographers. It is a monumental work that the editor John Eyre deserves huge credit for, although many others played no small part either, but more Review of Birds in Hampshire 2014 Richard Carpenter 10 on this next year. A quiet unassuming giant of a man (not literally) stood down at the AGM in March, Systematic List of Species someone who played a huge part on the ornithological scene, not just for HOS but also for Keith Betton, Mike Chandler, John Clark, Rob Clements, Mark Edgeller, Philip Fawkes, the British Trust for Ornithology. A work colleague, who badgered me to get involved in John Jones, William Legge, Graham Osborne, John Shillitoe, Barry Stalker, Dave Unsworth, surveys, first introduced me to Glynne Evans many years ago and I haven’t looked back since, Andrew Walmsley, Marcus Ward, Keith Wills and Simon Woolley 17 but back to Glynne. He has served us so well in various capacities including a very long stint as chairman of the Scientific sub-committee and through the BTO has organised countless Escapes and others 157 county surveys. It was gratifying therefore to bestow upon him Life Membership, something Table 1: Results of Thames Basin and Wealden Heaths breeding bird surveys 159 so well deserved, along with our thanks for jobs well done. Table 2: Results of BTO Garden BirdWatch Survey in Hampshire 160 Peter Thompson stood down as Conservation Liaison Officer at the AGM. Our thanks Table 3: Results of BTO Breeding Bird Survey in Hampshire 162 go to him for all his efforts on behalf of the Society over many years. It is heart-warming to report that we have new young blood for the post and welcome Simon Boswell to the role. Table 4: Results of New Forest Wintering Bird Survey 164 Table 5: Summary of WeBS count coverage in Hampshire 165 I sometimes get frustrated by all the taxonomic changes that take place. I am still living in the days of Voous and cannot comprehend how in the modern order, falcons are no longer Table 6: Departure and arrival dates of winter visitors 167 with the other birds of prey. It must be a nightmare for those involved with the bird report Table 7: Arrival and departure dates of summer visitors 168 and yet John Clark and his team have once again come up trumps this year, with a fabulous report that we can all be proud of, so thanks to him, his writers, the photographers, artists Appendix 1: Records pending and not proven 169 and contributors all of whom have produced something marvellous once more. Observers and Contributors 2014 170 Kingfisher, your quarterly newsletter, continues to keep us in touch with the Hampshire birding scene, with excellent and often thought provoking articles and superb photographs Guidelines for the Submission of Records 175 in colour that brighten the pages. Phil Budd and all those who contribute to this excellent Photographs for inclusion in the Hampshire Bird Report 181 magazine deserve our thanks too. Hampshire Bird Ringing Report 2014 Tony Davis 182 Many other debts of gratitude are due, particularly to those members of the Management committee, the Scientific and Membership sub-committees and all those unsung heroes who Studying Hawfinch Roosts in the New Forest Marcus Ward 190 so ably lead our outdoor walks for the benefit of the membership. I would also like to thank all those involved in our stand at the New Forest Show and in particular Ray Morley who Birds of a Hampshire Garden Di Mitchell 202 did all the organizing. Firsts for Hampshire This brings me on neatly to Birdtrail 2014, held at Bolderwood in the New Forest and Short-toed Eagle in the New Forest Simon Colenutt 208 attended by 65 youngsters. They were given a great time and saw an iconic bird in the form of Firecrest, a species whose population is booming in the county; look it up in the forthcoming Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler at Titchfield Haven Barry Duffin 211 Atlas! Our thanks go to our friends at the National Park Authority, Forestry Commission, Hume’s Warbler at Pennington Bryan Pinchen 213 Wildlife Trust and RSPB, in particular Don Fuller who is standing down from the latter. It would be remiss of me if I didn’t thank Chris Packham our President for turning up to the Greenland White-fronted Geese at Farlington Marshes October 2014 T. Doran 214 delight of the children and also the many HOS representatives, particularly Paul, Jon, Ted, HOS Organisation and Membership 216 Ian and Ray. HOS Honorary Officers and Life Members 2014-15 217 Finally let me clamber onto my soap-box and bang on about conservation once more. It is perfectly correct that we have many successes in this field in terms of rescuing or helping List of Abbreviations 218 many individual species, however the crusade goes on. We need to look at the bigger picture and concentrate from the bottom upwards, after all none of us wants to leave our children Index to English Names 219 and grand-children a planet devoid of life, do we? There are so many ways to get involved and one of them is by belonging to Hampshire Ornithological Society. Alan Snook, September 2015 2 3 Editorial and Acknowledgements selection of pictures to choose from, and Keith Betton for his rapid responses when any queries about records have arisen. Keith has been highly successful in generating advertising Hopefully this new report will have hit your door mats just before the end of 2015, which revenue which has helped to offset production costs and he has also made available his means that there will have been two Hampshire Bird Reports published in the calendar year. invaluable electronic species files which contain the entries fromBirds of Hampshire and all the Having edited the last three reports and quite a few more in the last century, I have now bird reports since 1992. Thanks also to Bryan and Sandy Coates for organising distribution decided to hand over to some new blood! This year I have been ably assisted by Mike Chalmers, and sales, and Andrew Hunter of our printers Henry Ling Ltd. for ensuring the quality of the who not only acted as assistant editor but also stepped into the breach to write some final product and the efficient dispatch of members’ copies. species accounts that had been delayed. I’m delighted to announce that he will be assuming The Systematic List has been reviewed by Mike Chalmers, John Cloyne, Andy Collins, Tim the editor’s mantle for the 2015 report. Mike has fairly recently moved into Hampshire and Doran, Andy Johnson and Mark Painter. They have all made invaluable comments which have was previously resident for many years in Hong Kong where he was bird recorder and also been incorporated and also noticed many grammatical and typographic errors between them. a co-author of the acclaimed Avifauna of Hong Kong published in 2001. Hopefully not too many more have slipped through! Dan Powell has generously donated The format of the report is largely the same as the previous edition.