CHELMSFORD & CENTRAL ESSEX GROUP NEWS Winter 2018/19 The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654 VOLUNTEERING IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH TOO – OFFICIAL! More good news following our headline in the last issue that birdwatching is good for your health – volunteering is good for you too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of our readers weren’t volunteers in some capacity or another, or have been in the past, even if it isn’t bird-related. A recent study of volunteering and its impact on mental health carried out by the Green Exercise Team at the University of Essex found that over a 12-week period, volunteers experienced a range of benefits, such as increased feelings of positivity, higher levels of physical activity, and improved mental health. The researchers studied volunteers on Essex Wildlife Trust programmes, and found that attendance was associated with health and well-being improvements, particularly for people with low levels of well-being. The results of the study are quite detailed and you can read more here: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018- 05/r3_the_health_and_wellbeing_impacts_of_volunteering_with_the_wildlife_trusts_- _university_of_essex_report_3_0.pdf If we needed any more reasons to volunteer, this would be a good one. Louise Fuller VOLUNTEERS TREE PLANTING NEW THOUGHTS ABOUT THE WREN Mike Logan Wood The other day I was speaking to my sister in Canada who happened to mention that all the wrens in Canada had migrated southwards into America as usual. I mused upon this for a while, mainly because we in England have, to me, seemed so far north compared with places we know in Canada. Some investigation was needed. My map tells me that London is on the same latitude as the northern tip of Newfoundland. New York – with Madrid, and Ottawa – with Bordeaux. My American bird book shows me that there is a winter wren – Troglodytes troglodytes – the same as our wren, with the following note “Range – boreal Canada extending northwards into Alaska, southwards along the Pacific coast. Movements – Canadian birds migrate southwards to winter in southern and 1 eastern states”. That seems to confirm the situation, that Canada has a very much colder winter than we do. My book also tells me that there are eight Canadian birds called wrens, only two of which are members of the Troglodytes family but all look very similar and all of which migrate. Some description of the Canadian wrens may not go amiss:- House wren – Troglodytes aedon – a widespread and common small wren with short cocked tail and faintly barred pale plumage Bewick’s wren – Thryomanes bewickii – commonest in the west but declining. Sideways jerking of white fringed tail Carolina wren – Thryoyhorus ludovicianus – commonest in south-east except after severe frost. Broad white eyestripe Cactus wren – Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus – giant wren of the deserts; flies low; brown spotted, white striped eye Rock wren – Salpinctes obsoletus . No other wren has light streaking on breast. Bobs as it walks Canyon wren – Catherpes mexicanus . Clear white throat and breast Marsh wren – Cistothorus palustris . Brown cap with white stripe. Always close to or in marshes Sedge wren – Cistothorus platensis . Scarce. An irregular migrant. Song soft and insect-like Having sorted out the Canadian wrens, we should not forget the fact that there are six wrens here in the British Isles which are as follows: - Wren or winter wren – Troglodytes troglodytes – our common wren Brown wren – T. T. indigenus . The continental bird, more marked on its breast with a little fatter bill. Seen in great numbers mixing with the common bird St Kilda wren – T. T. hertensis . Restricted to the island with about 200-230 pairs mixing with fulmars and puffins, conserved by the Wild Birds Protection (St Kilda) Act 1904 Fair Isle wren – T. T. fridariensis . Restricted to the island and numbering 10 to 52 pairs. Darker pIumaged than the others. Shetland wren – T. T. zetlandicus . Rufus and strongly barbed plumage Hebridean wren – T. T. hebridensis . Lives in the Outer Hebrides and migrates to Ireland SHETLAND WREN It also introduces me into methods our wrens use to overcome particularly cold winters. They may gather at dusk in communal roosts, which are the more impressive given the wren’s otherwise solitary anti-social lifestyle. Squirrel dreys (there is a record of at least 17 in one) and old birds’ nests including those of swallow, song thrush (12 birds) and house martin (30+) have been recorded. 10 wrens in a coconut shell was more unusual, whilst the biggest ever was a gathering of many dozens between January and March in 1979 in the roof eves of a cottage at Lydney, in Gloucester. They arrived 25 to 40 minutes from dusk to dark and at the same time they were lining up to enter. Perhaps the most remarkable of all, given the confined nature of the space, was a gathering at High Kelling, Norfolk of over 60 birds in a nest box measuring 5.5” x 4.5” x 0.5” (14cm x 11.5cm x 4.5cm). This worked out at 2.5 cubic inches (38 c.cm) per bird. Now perhaps we can consider the origins of our wrens. There has been a tremendous amount of time and energy spent on looking at our history and trying to find the origins of our way of life. What have we got to use to time the arrival of a bird into our lives? Well, funnily enough, we have something called “The Wren Cult”. You may remember that some time ago I wrote a piece about the event at Christmas when men and boys would dress up and leave the village to walk its boundaries and shake trees to disturb a wren. If they found one they would stone it and kill it and hang it from a cross they had made and carry it back to the village. There they would take it from door to door and ask for alms. 2 This has been found to be a very ancient custom as it was tied in with the action between the eagle and the wren. You may remember the time in religious history when the birds were trying to find a king. It was going to be who could fly the highest. The golden eagle made it and was going to be awarded the prize when the wren popped out of the eagle’s feathers and won the day. This was the creation of the Wren Cult which has been found to have arrived in Great Britain in the Bronze Age and was carried by megalith builders whose cultural inspiration came from either the Mediterranean region or from southern America. Probably these folk cherished mainly solar religious beliefs. The Wren Hunt represents New Year ceremonial, having as its purpose the defeat of the dark earth powers and identification with the hoped-for triumph of light and life. In Canada it was the wren itself that carried the message by following the expansion of plant growth northwards as the temperature rose as the earth warmed. The wrens followed this spread north and then east via Greenland and Iceland before turning south to join the expansion in Great Britain in the Bronze age. 26 December 2018 If you would like to find out more try: “Folklore of Birds” by Edward A Armstrong, part of the New Naturalist Series by Collins OUR COMMON WREN RSPB GOODS FROM THE RSPB CATALOGUE AND WEBSITE FREE DELIVERY TO YOUR DOOR POSTAGE FREE FOR FULL DETAILS CALL JEAN WILCOX 01245 262452 AND SUPPORT THE CHELMSFORD GROUP OUR LOCAL GROUP WALK IN DECEMBER TO WALLASEA ISLAND RSPB RESERVE Report by Stuart Anderson We were pleased that Jeff Delve, local expert on the reserve, was able to guide our walk. He was a mine of information on the history and background of the reserve, in addition to his ability to spot and identify the many birds we saw. Fifteen of us met in the morning, greeted by a brisk, cold, north-westerly wind. From the car park we had good views of a corn bunting before we climbed the steps onto the river wall and headed east with the River Crouch on our left. Allfleets Marsh lies between the footpath and the old river wall. This was created by DEFRA as part of a habitat compensation scheme following the loss of habitats in Felixstowe and Harwich Docks area. Silts were pumped between the river walls before the old wall was breached in 2006 creating this new marsh which has now developed a wide range of plants. The tide was coming in and there was a good variety of waders and ducks albeit at some distance. 3 To our right was Pool Marsh where again we saw a variety of waders and ducks, including wigeons and grey plovers, and several thousand golden plovers and lapwings taking to the sky beyond. It is hoped that in the long term spoonbills will be attracted to this area. We continued on the seawall, passing over the conveyor system which was used to transfer some three million tonnes of clay tunnelled from the London Crossrail project. They were shipped onto Wallasea, representing the largest coastal reserve restoration project in Europe. The jetty and conveyor system will be removed in 2019. We then turned south on a raised track from where we saw a hen harrier hunting over Acresfleet Lagoons; a superb sight. The bird was a “ringtail”, which means it has a white ring round its rump. It could have been a juvenile or a female; they are hard to tell apart. In the end Jeff thought it was probably a female.