RSPB SOUTH DORSET LOCAL GROUP NEWSLETTER No 58 January 2011 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654 The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environ- ment. Nature is amazing - help us keep it that way We belong to BirdLife International, the global partnership of bird conservation organizations . GROUP LEADERS COLUMN By the time this newsletter reaches you we will have had our last meeting in the town hall and returned to St Georges Church hall Fordington. This venue has free parking but this is limited to 20-30 vehicles. Please share cars wherever possible. After the first two meetings at St Georges in 2010 there were complaints of speaker inaudibility. The group has now bought a loudspeaker system to eliminate this problem in future. The speaker at the first 2011 meeting will be John Wyatt who will talk on ‘Pharaohs Birds’ I am pleased to announce an additional indoor meeting in a new venue and at a new time. The committee have been conscious for some time that many group members in Weymouth no longer attend indoor meetings. We have therefore arranged a meeting in the village hall at Preston at 2.30 pm on Friday March 4 th . Group member Don Cotton will talk on ‘Garden Birds’. If this meeting is successful we would hope to have several additional meetings in the Weymouth area in future years. I hope many of you will come along and support this innovation. Full details are on page 12 The Field Trips programme this year has, mostly, run to plan but unfortunately the 5 th December meeting at Studland was cancelled. The trip leader, Phil Standfield, felt that road conditions were likely to be treacherous. The decision to cancel was taken during the evening of Friday 3 rd December. Stan managed to inform most of likely participants whose E-mail addresses he had but some members turned up to find no trip leader. If you participate in our field trips and have E-mail please let Phil Standfield or Mary Robins have your E-mail address. If you wish contact Phil (for weekend trips) or Mary (for midweek trips) their telephone numbers are on page 13. If they are unavailable try the group leader. The 2011 Group Holiday will take place in Kent based in New Romney 25 th -29 th September. Details are on page 14 At the 2011 Annual General Meeting on April 14 th I will ask if any one wishes to join the committee. Two members will leave the committee at the this AGM You do not have to be an expert birder to join the committee the chief requirements are, a broad agreement with the aims of the RSPB, ability to work harmoniously with others and to attend 6 committee meetings (First Thursday of the odd months in Preston, Wyke Regis, Portesham or Dorchester) and the Annual General Meeting (usually third Thursday in April at St Georges Hall). Committee members must be members of the RSPB and the group. Anyone interested let me or any member of the committee know preferably before the March 3 rd committee meeting or volunteer at the Annual General Meeting. New Years Day. I spent the first part of the morning traipsing round the ASDA car park in Weymouth looking for some Waxwings which had been seen there the day before. I had no luck and went on to assist at the Radipole Lake visitor centre where, every New Year’s day, they compile a list of the birds seen in Dorset that day. By closing time the list stood at 94. While out birding I heard Woodpigeons singing and saw early courtship behaviour from Mallard, Teal, Little Grebe and Herring Gull. Winter has come, this time with a vengeance, but Spring is not far behind! I hope to see many of you at the meetings in 2011 Andrew Parsons 1 FIELD TRIP REPORTS KEYHAVEN 26 th September 2010 Our first meeting of the 2010/2011 programme saw nine members including one new member Neil, meet up at Keyhaven on a windy but sunny Sunday morning. This was the first time we had visited here in September but we have decided to visit certain places at different times than normal to try to see a wide range of birds. As we were getting ready to set off we had Turnstones on the harbour wall just in front of us. We set off along the seawall and the Knot tide was starting to come in although there was not too much mud anyway. We stopped and scanned the mud and grass opposite us where we saw Redshank, Knot, Black-Tailed Godwits and Grey Plover. Some of the Grey Plover were still in their summer plumage which was nice to see. As we made our way along the seawall we saw Rock and Meadow Pipits we also had a distant fly over from a Glossy Ibis. There were good numbers of Wheatear’s around. Grey Plover As we sat on the seawall for dinner which meant we were out of the wind and in the warm sun, we were able to scan the Solent for ducks but there weren’t any, then some Dunlin and Ringed Plover landed just in front of us on the shingle, Kate then found a Curlew Sandpiper in amongst them. Whilst having dinner some other birders (there were two coaches of birders) found a Kingfisher. We were told by some of the birders that along the seawall at Pennington Marsh were Black Tern, Ruff, and Whinchat, so we walked along to where a lot of birds were standing and were shown where the Black Tern was sat on the mud . We saw the Ruff but not the Whinchat, the Tern took off and flew above us. Black Tern We then made our way back to the Pier and then walked back along the normal path back towards the cars. We also saw a Green woodpecker . A very good day was had by all with about fifty species seen. A Report by Stan BLASHFORD LAKES 22 nd October 2010 Thirteen members met at the visitor centre for the second visit of 2010. We decided to visit at the end Nuthatch of October to try to find a different range of birds than we had seen in January. On the feeders in front of the centre we had various tits and a Nuthatch. We then slowly made our way along the path towards Ivy lake north hide, along the way we had Goldfinches, Greenfinches what turned out to be the first of many Jay’s and also lots of Meadow Pipits. The view from the hide was awkward due to the light reflecting on to the water but we had sightings of amongst others. Gadwall, Pochard, Great Crested Grebe, lots of Coot A Kingfisher was then found on a piece of reed right in front of us, we were then able to watch it move a short distance away and have very close views. We then made our way to the Woodland hide where in the winter there are lots of birds on the feeders, but as it was still early in the year there was hardly any birds around the feeders. So we made our way to ivy lake south hide where the sun was out and the view was very nicely lit up by the sun. There were quite a few Little Grebes and Great Crested Grebes from the hide along with Tufted Duck, Shoveler and many Cormorants. We then made our way along the path back to the visitor centre and over to the Tern hide where we had our dinner looking over Ibsley Water. As we had our dinner we had a very heavy storm move through with thunder, lightning and hailstones. By the time we had finished dinner the storm had passed through and had been replaced by sun and blue skies. From the Tern hide we could see Goosander, Wigeon, and we had a Buzzard with prey on the ground which somehow at first was thought to be a Peregrine. Some people had a Common Sandpiper. We then made our way back over the road and along the woodland path to Rockford Lake, Anne found a distant Green Sandpiper we also had the usual ducks. We then crossed the road to follow the path round to the farthest hide the Lapwing Hide, from the hide we had the same birds as from the Tern hide as well as a Peregrine we then made our way back to the Goosander Hide. Apart from Goosanders there was not much else to be seen. So we made our way back to the cars. It was interesting to see the difference in bird species and numbers compared with our January visit. Although not as good as January we still had a good day at a reserve that is worth a visit at any time Goosander of the year. We had around 47 species. Report by Stan 2 RADIPOLE LAKE AND LODMOOR 10th Nov 2010 Six members met at the Radipole lake Visitor Centre for a trip around the Weymouth Wetlands Reserves. From the bridge we had good views of the numerous Snipe which were feeding in the bottom of the reeds close to many roosting Teal. There were two Black-tailed Godwits feeding behind the island. There were many Black Headed Gulls vigorously bathing in the fresher water plus a few roosting Common Gulls and a single Mediterranean Gull.