No 491 Winter 2018 Photograph - Jay in December - Penn, Wolverhampton Photographer Ellis Partridge This front page is sponsored by The Birder’s Store, Worcester WMBC News Is published in March, June, September and December each year to link members with each other, what’s been happening, current issues and forthcoming events on the birding scene in our area and further afield together with a selection of your articles and a comprehensive summary of the recorded bird sightings in our area This issue of your Newsletter has, for me, been an “embarrassment of riches”, so much news, so many issues your Management Committee want to inform you about and so many fascinating articles on your birding exploits, thank you all so much. When compiling I have to limit myself to 44 pages as to include more would put us over the 100g limit for second class post (which when you are sending out 1700 copies is quite significant). Faced with this dilemma decisions had to be made about what to leave out. My decision was to include all the text, so you will find less photographs than usual this time, and my apologies therefore go to those whose shots I have had to leave out this time. There are two main reasons for the increase in copy. The first, of course, is the number of excellent articles being written by our members - please keep these coming, I am quite happy to face this problem again next issue and I am constantly being told by members I meet how much they enjoy your articles. The other reason for the extra copy is all the work members of your Management Committee and other non-executive officers of the Club are involved in both directly and in supporting others with conservation matters. Again long may this continue. Whilst I am delighted to receive all contributions I have been amazed by Gary, our Green Correspondent, who has sent me his copy faithfully direct from Peru for each issue from the start of his trip. His exploits have been fascinating and entertaining to read about so it is sad that the only disappointment for him about his trip is not to have raised more for his chosen charities. Gary is one of us and would really appreciate the support of his fellow Club members so if you would like to make his day you can find links to a Justgiving page on his blog (details at the end of his article). Sue In This Issue Page 3 Membership Renewal 2019 - Michael Bevan Page 3 Parking at Grimley Page 4 Membership Matters - Michael Bevan Page 5 Broadly Speaking - Roger Broadbent Page 6 Submitting your Bird Records - Jim Winsper Page 7 Our Annual Bird Report - An Update - Dave Emley Pages 8-10 Conservation Matters - Dave Jackson Page 10 WMBC Field Trip Organiser retirement - Ray Davies Pages 11-14 Plight of the Curlew Globally and Locally in Worcestershire - Ian Duncan Pages 15-19 The Biking Birder - Peru Trip - July Report - Gary Prescott Page 20 Parking Advice at Grimley, Worcestershire Page 20 Book Review Pages 21-27 Birding Western India - Brian Stretch Pages 28-30 West Midlands All Day Bird Race, Autumn 2018 - James Kenny Page 31 ‘All Dayer’ - Sandwell Valley - September 2018 - Dave Saunders Pages 32-34 Club and Branch Field Trips and Indoor Meetings Page 34 Our Ladywalk Reserve - Richard King Page 34 Belvide Work Party Dates Pages 35-38 Bird Notes August - October - Humprey Miller Pages 39-40 Field Trip Reports - Ray Davies and Liz Palmer Page 41 BTO - English Winter Bird Survey, Suggestions and Next issue - Cutoff date Page 42 WMBC Officers and their contact details 2 Membership Renewal 2019 This year a renewal form will only have been included with your Newsletter if you are a cheque or one-off direct bank transfer payer. If you pay by standing order you will not receive a renewal form, as they are not required, and this has caused some confusion in the past. As you are probably aware we are not currently able to support payment by Direct Debit. All membership subscription payments are due on 1st January, 2019 unless you joined on or after 1st October, 2018 and paid by standing order, in which case you should receive your new membership card and Blithfield car pass automatically during January with everyone else who has paid by cheque. The remaining standing order payers should receive their cards and passes by the third or fourth week in February, once I have received and checked the Club’s January bank statement. If you have paid before or during January and have not received your new membership card by the end of February please let me know, preferably by email, and I will investigate. If your Standing Order or Direct Bank Transfer is scheduled later than January, I will be unable to send out your 2019 membership card until I have received the WMBC bank statement for the month it is paid in. This usually arrives in the second week of the following month. If you are aware this is the case, I would ask you to reschedule your standing order for 1st January to ensure you receive your membership card before the reserve access codes expire on 1st March. If you amend your standing order please quote a reference using the format below WMBC Surname Membership No. (e.g. WMBCBEVAN1234). This will enable me to accurately identify your subscription payment on the Club’s bank statement. 2019 membership cards From 2019 all membership cards will only show one name, the name of the member. Joint members will receive their own separate membership card and in addition, if requested, their own Blithfield car sticker. No second Blithfield car stickers will be sent to individual members. Did you take out Joint Membership this year? If so those paying by cheque should simply ensure they pay the additional £5 membership fee. Those members who pay by Standing Order are reminded that they need to inform their bank and change the amount of their payment, if this hasn’t been done already. You can find the 2019 renewal form on the Join page of the Club website for this purpose, if you need it. No cards for Joint Members can be sent out until the correct payment has been received. Thank you Michael Bevan WMBC Membership Secretary 64 Brookfields Road, Ipstones, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire ST10 2LY Email: [email protected] 3 Membership Matters We are pleased to welcome the following new members of the club who have joined since the last newsletter. Please note the names shown are as on the membership form but that all family members at each address are included in this welcome. Mr G Babb & Mrs J Babb of NEWCASTLE UNDER LYME, Ms J Bell of TELFORD, Ms K Benzing of WOLVERHAMPTON, Mr S Brown of MALVERN, Mr V Bunn of TELFORD, Mrs A Butler of DERBY, Mr M Chapman of GLOUCESTER, Mr H Dempsey of STAFFORD, Mr P Durnall of HAGLEY, Ms L Dykes of BIRMINGHAM, Mrs S Emley of STAFFORD, Ms A Glaisher of WOLVERHAMPTON, Mr R Hodson & Mrs J Hodson of RUGELEY, Mr P Hopcroft of WORCESTER, Mr R Hunt of BIRMINGHAM, Mrs C Irwin of BIRMINGHAM, Ms G MacKinnon of COVENTRY, Mr A Male of BIRMINGHAM, Mr G Marlow of WILLENHALL, Mr S May of CANNOCK, Mr S May & Ms D Weston of WOLVERHAMPTON, Mr K McManus of LICHFIELD, Ms J Palmer & Mr R Palmer of CANNOCK, Mr P Poulson of WOLVERHAMPTON, Ms E Rawson of SUTTON COLDFIELD, Ms S Richards-Perry of WILLENHAL, Mr I Sansom & Ms R Hughes of STRAFFORD UPON AVON, Mr P Scofield & Ms S Scofield of BIRMINGHAM, Mr Y Song of BIRMINGHAM, Mr R Strong of BIRMINGHAM, Mr J Taylor of BURTON ON TRENT, Mrs S Tilt of REDDITCH and Mr D Viggars of BIRMINGHAM. Mr K Goodall & Ms S Goodall of SOLIHULL, Mr I Griffiths of WILLENHALL, Mr D Harris & Mrs D Harris of KINGSWINFORD, GDPR Consent Update Sincere thanks to all have responded by completing and returning the GDPR Consent form. We have had responses from 1148 (70%) members. This leaves 544 (30%) members from whom we have not had a response. We respect the right of members not to respond. However, under the GPDR Regulations we will not be able to send out any further communications, other than the Membership cards, Newsletters and Annual Reports, which are part of the Membership package purchased through your membership fee. As well as the recently introduced reminders for meetings and events we plan to expand the use of email to keep members informed of club matters where they have given their consent for us to do so. This is particularly relevant next year as there are several events being planned in celebration of the Club’s 90th Anniversary. We will not be sending out any further requests for consent to existing members. Those who have not yet responded are welcome to do so at any time in the future. Please just email me at the address below for a consent form, or download one from the join section of the club’s website, complete and post it to the address below. Kind Regards Michael Bevan WMBC Membership Secretary 64 Brookfields Road, Ipstones, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire ST10 2LY Email: [email protected] A report from our Solihull Branch The Solihull Branch started the new season with its new committee in October. We kicked off the programme with a delightful presentation by Paul Wilkinson on the Natural History of the Midlands waterways.