ESSEXBIRDING THE JOURNAL OF THE ESSEX BIRDWATCHING SOCIETY ISSUE NO. 127 WINTER 2015/SPRING 2016 £5 www.ebws.org.uk Registered charity number 1142734 EBS Journal no127 pp.indd 1 19/1/16 09:22:22 Editorial Lesley Collinsn Where does the year go to, another New Year has hopeful that this will become a regular slot arrived and I hope your bird lists for 2016 are well from Simon. and truly started by now (if Steve has his way I know We are also pleased to announce that EBwS ours will be!) We have a poem in the topic of ‘listing’ members will be helping Jeff Martin with the Essex which I hope will make you smile. Tawny Owl Survey. We have a few details on page Profits from theConservation Event in March will 15 with more to appear on the website as we get be shared between The North Thames Gull Group them (Activities tab) we are also hoping for regular (NTGG) and Black-tailed Godwit colour ringing updates on this from Jeff. project. With that in mind Paul Roper has written a Never far away in any issue is a birding trip abroad, superb follow up from his article in Issue 124, so you and in this issue we have the continuation of John can see what great work they are doing at NTGG. and Diana Camp’s Falklands trip – every bit as This article updates on Black Headed, Herring and enjoyable as part 1. I have also had the time to write Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and in the next issue he up our Canada trip as promised – I left Steve to add will update on Great Black-back and Caspian and in all the birds we saw! It was lovely to recall the Yellow-legged Gulls. I hope you agree this is a very great time we had and I hope you enjoy reading it. worthy cause for us to give our support to. Now a plea.... for more photographs on our website Dr Jennifer Gill, who works on the Black-tailed please, especially from the south of the county! We Godwit project, gave us a talk at our March 2015 are really pleased to be able to use so many of your meeting and you can read Gerry’s write up in issue colour photos in Essex Birding now and we are 126. Dr Gill is one of our speakers at the Conference; choosing from those that have appeared on the a full agenda for this is printed on page 8. website. On the subject of photography, please see As we have tried to do in the previous few issues, page 9 to find details of our firstphotography we have a couple of articles from reserves that we competition, and also details of our firstE BwS will be visiting in the next few months – Rye Birdathon Race. Full terms and conditions can Harbour (February) and Old Lodge Reserve (June). be found at the back of the magazine and also on Hopefully these articles whet your appetite to join the website. us on a field trip. A lthough getting up early on a We are really pleased that Judith Ross offered to Sunday for the drive to Chelmsford does not suit us provide recent sightings in the Dengie, especially as all, you can then go back to sleep on the coach and we have lost a few areas recently, please let us know wake at the breakfast stop (I do!) This issue will be if you would like to provide a report of recent out after our field trip toF ingringhoe Wick but I sightings in some of the areas of the County that hope you enjoy the update following the breach of we are missing. the sea-wall, which has resulted in a salt water Lastly, we now have a generic email: lagoon and a new 360° hide. [email protected] this will be We have some thought provoking articles, one monitored by the members of the executive being about the Hen Harrier Day by John Smart and committee and can be used for any of your letters, another on Conservation by Simon Tonkin; we are comments or questions about Society matters. Tree Swallows at Frank Lake Conservation Area, Calgary (LESLEY COLLINS) 2 EBS Journal no127 pp.indd 2 19/1/16 09:22:25 Contents Summer/Autumn 2015n Editorial 2 Programme of 2016 38 Lesley Collins Old Lodge Nature Reserve 39 Chairman’s Watchpoint 4 Mark Monk-Terry Gerry Johnson Birding For All 41 Notice of 2016 Annual General Meeting 5 News and Information 6 Bird Reports 42 Margaret’s Musings 7 Abberton Reservoir 42 by EBwS President Margaret Mitchell David Wimpress Archivist Report 7 Dengie Peninsula 46 by Terry Jeffries Migration – Out of Africa 8 Judith Ross Agenda Foulness 48 EBwS Photography Competition 9 Dr Chris Lewis EBwS Birdathon 9 HanningfieldR eservoir 49 A Falkland’s Odyssey 10 David Ackfield John and Diana Camp Conservation 14 Langdon Hills and Thameside Nature Park 52 Simon Tonkin Andrew Cox & Essex Tawny Owl 15 Southend RSPB website (Graham Mee) Jeff Martin Mersea Island 55 An update of Colour Ringed Gulls from Pitsea LandfillS ite Essex 16 Steve Entwistle Paul Roper – North Thames Gull Group Metropolitan Essex 57 Correspondence 19 Howard Vaughan ‘The List’ 19 North East Essex 58 A poem by Arnold Hitchon Dr Simon Cox Rye Harbour Nature Reserve 20 Barry Yates RSPB Rainham Marshes 62 Indoor Meetings 22 Howard Vaughan Gerry Johnson Southend area 63 Field Trips 26 Paul Baker Hen Harrier Day 32 Wat Tyler and Vange Marsh 68 John Smart EWT Fingringhoe Wick Visitor Centre 33 Andrew Cox Alberta 34 EBwS Photography Competition and Lesley and Steve Collins EBwS Birdathon Rules 71 Please note that opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Society, Trustees, Officers or ExecutiveC ommittee. Printer Swallowtail Print Ltd, Drayton Industrial Park, Taverham Road, Drayton, Norwich, Norfolk NR8 6RL. Telephone: 01603 868862. www.swallowtailprint.co.uk Publisher The Essex Birdwatching Society. Front cover illustration Hen Harrier by Richard Allen. Society Logo Barge and Brent skein by Richard Hull Editor details Steve and Lesley Collins, 37 Springham Drive, Colchester CO4 5FN. Telephone 07733 003048 (after 7pm). Email: [email protected] or [email protected] 3 EBS Journal no127 pp.indd 3 19/1/16 09:22:29 Chairman’s Watchpoint Gerry Johnsonn Through the superb efforts of the Executive The conservation projects for Turtle Doves and Committee the Society will be holding its Kestrels, benefactors from our two previous 3rd Conservation Conference on Saturday conservation conferences, are proceeding well, 19th March 2016 at Writtle College’s, but we cannot be complacent. If you know of a Northumberland Lecture Theatre. site that can be managed for Turtle Doves and/ This Conference has the title of Migration – Out or you know where additional Kestrel nest boxes of Africa, but it will also include so much more might be erected, please contact a member of with species from outside of Africa. Amongst the the Executive Committee with the details. excellent speakers we have Professor Ian Newton If you have a passion for a specific species or OBE, FRS, FRSE, with the full list of top quality ‘group’ of birds and have ideas what actions can speakers and interesting subjects being covered be undertaken to achieve some positive and shown later in this issue of Essex Birding. Attendance meaningful conservation please forward them is restricted to just 100 delegates maximum and, to the Secretary for future consideration. with the extensive advertising, places are, as You still have the opportunity to purchase a expected, going quickly. Therefore to avoid 2016 Society Calendar, but only a few remain disappointment members are encouraged to book so you will need to be quick. Including the cover places early with Secretary Louise and John Sykes this Calendar depicts thirteen splendid images (01245 355132) or Vice Chairman Steve Collins by Alan Knight, of some of our well know (07733 003048). Tickets are amazingly just £15.00 and frequently seen birds. The Calendars can each for the full day, including the ‘light’ sandwich be obtained from Sales Goods Organiser lunch, and are being snapped up fast. Accompanied Peter Dwyer (01787 476524). juniors under 16 are only £5.00 just to cover the Our Annual General Meeting is just around the lunch cost. corner and I would be more than pleased to With very grateful thanks to GROUND CONTROL receive all nominations for the positions on the LTD., of Billericay who are kindly sponsoring two of Executive Committee, no later than the middle of the speakers, the proceeds of the Conference will to February. Please see the full list of positions on the be divided for two quite different but equally AGM agenda later in this Essex Birding. No important conservation projects. One being The experience necessary, just a willingness to become North Thames Gull Group, who with Paul Roper involved and join a positive group of members have been carrying out extensive research through that wish to move the Society still further forward capturing and processing of gulls at key sites in based on the success of what has already been Essex along the Thames corridor every winter to achieved; on new and wider platforms. If you are establish where they come from and how long they a little unsure about full commitment then why live, etc. Over many years they have built up not start as an Assistant to the Committee? considerable data for species such as Black-headed At times like this when there is a plan to grow Gull, Herring Gull, Great and Lesser Black-backed the Society further in many directions across the Gull as well as less common gulls like Yellow-legged, County, I cannot help but wonder what it takes to Mediterranean, Caspian and the rarer Kumlien’s.