BASINGSTOKE LOCAL GROUP MARCH 2010 NEWSLETTER http://www.rspb.org.uk/groups/basingstoke Contents: From The Group Leader Notices A Muddy Pool In Venezuela What’s Happening? March’s Outdoor Meeting April’s Outdoor Meeting February’s Outdoor Meeting Local Wildlife News Quiz Page A million voices for nature Charity registered in England and Wales no. 207076 From The Group Leader Welcome to the March Indoor Meeting and Newsletter. The weather, what else would we start a conversation with, has remained particularly grim over the latter part of the winter, though becoming noticeably milder*. This gradual change has seen winter visitors moving away from gardens, a chance for us to get out and ready the garden for spring, and dramatically increased numbers of birds also readying themselves for spring. Evidence of this was first noted over a month ago, remains of hatched Collared Dove eggs being found. Since then song has increased exponentially and there is already a sturdy dawn chorus, at least for those of us (un) lucky enough to be up at that time! As noted previously, spring is both busy for the birds and the RSPB. With this in mind, the recent, poor, decision to allow the expansion of Lydd Airport ensures that many of the SERO staff will have an even larger workload on their hands over the coming months. Do your bit to help out, let the Regional Office / Sandy know how you feel about this and the effect it will have on the surrounding area, including Dungeness, and they will be able to advise then on steps that could be taken by yourself to help in the effort to revise this judgment. Every Member that spends a little time putting forward their views may just perhaps bring about the timely reversal of this environmentally and ecologically disastrous determination! The promised Big Garden Birdwatch article this month has been put back for at least a month, this as the national overview has yet to be published. Spring is here, enjoy! See you on the beach at Calshot. Peter E. Hutchins Garganey Anas querquedala My find of the month, so far * try telling that to those who participated in the February Outdoor Meeting! Notices Garden Party 2010 Following on from our successful Garden Parties in the past we are holding another one on Saturday 31st July 2010, again at 33 Archery Fields, Odiham, time 6p.m. As in previous years a dish of some description would be very much appreciated. A list will be on the table at April Indoor Meeting for people interested, to put their names down. We have always been lucky with the weather in the past, fingers crossed we will be this year. Once again the pool will be available for those wishing to swim. Maureen Brailey Evening Walks Even though these will not take place until May we still need your input! Would you be willing to lead a walk, do you have any ideas as to where we could walk and do you think that the Programme ought to extend into July? Other local groups are also being approached, just to see if they would like to join us in this venture and wander somewhere local to them. Currently the proposed dates for walks are as follows: May 4th, 12th, 18th and 26th, June 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. Let us know of your thoughts, these then to be taken account of as the Programme is prepared for the next Newsletter. Mid-week Walks The possibility of running walks away from our monthly Outdoor Meeting has been raised on a number of occasions previously. Would you be interested in attending such a thing? Recent discussion has shown that half a dozen people are willing to go ahead with this; therefore walks are now being planned for the latter part of April and into May. Further information on this / these will appear in the April Newsletter, in time for all showing an interest to be able to hopefully attend. However, if you wish to find out more before this, please contact John Cahill on 07719 – 923844. Newsletter Submissions As spring approaches with the excitement of firsts for the year to look out for I am pleased to say thank you to several Members for their recent submissions, one in this issue and another already prepared for the April Newsletter; my firsts for the year. However, there‟s room for plenty more, so don‟t feel shy! You don‟t have to be a literary giant, write page after page, or even be able to spell properly! As has been noted previously, every input increases the variety and texture of the Newsletter. Bird Food We are happy to supply any bird food to you at any time, just call on 01256 – 770831, 07895 – 388378 or mail us on [email protected] and we will arrange delivery to you. If you have any requirements that are not listed, please do let us know and we will ensure that they are available when you, or your birds, need them. Bird Food Pricelist: The below being examples of just a few of the items that we can supply. Please do enquire after anything else and we will provide you with a cost, time of delivery etc. Wild bird Mix 30p/lb or 66p/kg Niger £1/lb or £2.20/kg Peanuts 65p/lb or £1.43/kg Fat Squares £1 each Black Sunflowers £1/lb or £2.20/kg Fat Pecker Balls 25p each Sunflower Hearts £1.10/lb or £2.42/kg Also available are birdboxes, at £6.50, or two for £10, and a range of feeders. Peter & Alison A Muddy Pool In Venezuela It had been a long and, at times, seemingly interminable journey but here we were, at last, in the middle of one of the world‟s most exciting birding destinations; tropical Venezuela. We were parked on a dusty track and had left the vehicle to scan a muddy pool, one of many such, scattered around the savannah-like countryside. This was in the extensive ranch-lands of Hato Pinero (I couldn’t figure-out how to type-in the two dots over the n).”Hato” is the Venezuelan equivalent of a ranch. During the rains, this pool would have been invisible, just part of the general inundation which would have transformed most of the scene in front of us into a large, shallow lake, punctuated with scattered, low, wooded islands. At that time, the creatures now concentrated in and around the pool would have spread out to exploit the wider realms of watery habitat or have gone elsewhere, perhaps as far as Alaska or northern Canada. Now, though, the heat of the dry season had reduced the floods to many pastures, marshes and pools, some of them, like this one, dug out by the cattle ranchers to provide drink for their stock. The shore-mud exposed by this shrinking, green pool had been mangled into a jumble of craters and puddles by the heavy hooves of thirsty cattle. Bobbing its tail, wagtail-like, from footprint to footprint as it picked out small invertebrates, a Northern Waterthrush was the same hue as the mud, sometimes only revealed by the pale stripe over the eye. A few metres away a small clod transformed itself into a solitary Sandpiper, ran forward a few paces and snapped-up a morsel from the water‟s edge. Solitary Sandpiper Northern Waterthrush Tringa solitaria Seiurus novoboracensis These two birds and the Spotted Sandpiper, equally difficult to see against the muddy background on the far side of the pool were feeding hard to fuel for the 5 coming migration which might take them from here, February in the Venezuelan Llanos (say “Yanosh”) to the Arctic regions of North America in the northern summer where, theoretically, they could all find themselves breeding as neighbours. They wouldn‟t face quite the same problems, though, I thought, as I watched the Spotted Sandpiper make a slight detour around the tail-end of a two and a half metre Spectacled Cayman, basking, nose towards the water, on the dried mud. It was one of around thirty on shore and I could see nearly as many in the water, some sculling slowly through the slimy green algae covering most of the surface, others visible mostly as protruding eyes and snouts. Not quite the bulk of the crocodiles of Africa, perhaps, but sporting impressive dentition . Spectacled Cayman Caiman crocdilus The green on the skin is algae from the pond A sudden watery commotion illustrated that these top predators have their own problems; a large Cayman had a struggling juvenile of its own kind in its jaws and crunched it several times before sinking with it under the surface slime. I suppose that, in times of plentiful water, the youngsters would not normally be forced into such close proximity with the adults. Side-necked Terrapins which had been encrusting half-sunken logs like so many limpet-mines, catching some morning sunlight, began to climb back onto the perches from which they had been startled as the scene became peaceful once more. Side-necked Terrapin Pleurodira sp. 6 A russet and grey bird, about the same size as a slim Coot picked its way cautiously out of some waterside scrub, down to the pool. A Grey-necked Wood Rail taking careful, elegant strides with lengthy, red legs, occasionally flicking its black tail upwards, made its way towards a tangle of driftwood. Grey-necked Wood Rail Aramides cajaner From the other end of the heap of dead branches another, even more elegant shape solidified from a mess of twigs and dead leaves as it emerged into the sunshine and became a Sunbittern, one of the charismatic “target” birds for our Naturetrek Tour group.