CHELMSFORD & CENTRAL ESSEX GROUP NEWS Winter 2015/16 The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654 LOCAL GROUP TALKS As many of you know, we have a great programme of talks for you to enjoy through the winter. The speakers are very varied in subject matter and presentation style but all are well-received by our audience. Two recent evenings have been particular highlights of the season. David Lindo visits Writtle We were very pleased to welcome “Urban Birder” David Lindo as guest speaker at our meeting on 12 November last year. Visitor numbers reached 146 so we removed the auditorium’s central division for the first time since moving our talks to Writtle College two years ago. Woolly-hatted David arrived in his vintage Rolls Royce, armed with lots of copies of his book, The Urban Birder, and snazzy tee-shirts that were for sale. He greeted me warmly with a big hug – an unexpected treat as we’d never met before! David focussed the first half of his talk on the background, his promotional efforts and the successful selection of Britain’s first national bird, the robin, including how he’d toured the streets with publicity material plastered all over his roller. Overtly passionate about birds and the importance of inspiring others, David was clearly very pleased with his campaigning achievements. ROBIN The second half followed David’s travels in Latvia, Northern Serbia and surrounding regions, and included interesting stories and lovely pictures. A memorable moment was when everyone let out a spontaneous gasp when shown a photo of long-eared owls roosting in a tree in a Serbian town square (in Kikinda) – dozens of them! What an amazing spectacle it must be to see hundreds of these beautiful birds perching together in an urban setting. LONG-EARED OWLS (David Lindo) Naturally, David encouraged everyone to visit these fascinating eastern European sites which are becoming increasingly famous for their rich and varied bird life. 1 Those who didn’t attend missed a very enjoyable and financially successful event. We made £430 profit including £107 on the raffle for which David kindly donated a signed book and a tee-shirt. After another hug and lots of smiles, everyone drifted off and David “rolled” back to west London. Thanks to all those who supported us by promoting and attending the event, donating prizes and refreshment money, and buying raffle tickets. We look forward to commissioning another high profile speaker in due course. Cute little fellas … …was Russell Savory’s description of his resident little owls at Stow Maries First World War Aerodrome. Very pleasing visitor numbers attended on a cold 14 January evening to hear Russell’s captivating talk which he illustrated with truly impressive photographs and fascinating videos. Imagine crystal clear, full screen water vole faces and beautiful back lit barn owls “frozen” in flight at sunset. Russell entertained us with several humorous photographs but his video of five stoats playing together, hiding in the long grass, chasing each other and jumping over puddles, was a particularly endearing “once in a lifetime” experience for him, and very amusing for us. We were offered lots of camera and field craft hints and tips, including that the best hide is a car! Russell explained that if we spend a little time predicting where a bird is likely to perch, pop some meal worms nearby, with patience we too could achieve amazing close up shots. Easy! Keen to support the RSPB further (he already does so in lots of ways), Russell very generously donated a canvas print of Geronimo (pictured) which helped us to achieve a near record raffle profit and a very financially successful event overall. LITTLE OWL (Russell Savory) Huge thanks go to Russell and all who attended and bought raffle tickets. We’d love to see you again at future events. Sue McClellan – Talks Organiser 2 LOCAL GROUP AGM Our Local Group AGM will take place at 7.30pm on Thursday 28 April 2016, immediately prior to the talk which will be at 8.00pm as normal. Do please come and support us at the AGM – without it there would be no committee to run the local group, and therefore no walks and no talks. These events don’t just happen on their own! Even better, if you would like to join the committee, we would welcome you with open arms. The work is not onerous and the more people we can share it around, the less there is for each individual to do. We have committee meetings three or four times a year and they are informal and sociable, although of course we make sure we get through the necessary business efficiently. Contact details for the current committee members are at the end of this newsletter, before the diary dates, so do feel free to contact one of us if you would like to talk about joining the committee. Even if you don’t think you are a committee-type person, come to the AGM anyway – we won’t force you to join the committee but it is important that local group members hear the Annual Reports, and get the opportunity to ask questions and express their views. OUR LOCAL GROUP WALKS There are several walks to tell you about since our last newsletter. In October last year we went to Fingringhoe Wick, an Essex Wildlife Trust reserve. A select group set off around the reserve on a fairly cloudy morning. We started off by going down to the river and looking at the waders, of which a decent selection were on view. We were pleased to find a bar- tailed godwit among the black-tailed godwits and were able to see the diagnostics which distinguish the two species. BAR-TAILED GODWITS (Viv Connett) We then wandered up the path to walk around the lake and found a goldcrest showing well next to the path. There had been thousands of these tiny birds migrating into the country over the previous few weeks and certainly there were a few here. As the hides around the lake are quite small we split into two groups and my group was rewarded with the sight of about a hundred fieldfares suddenly exploding from the trees – along with redwings these winter thrushes were now starting to appear on these shores, a sure sign that winter was coming. 43 species of bird were seen, a very commendable total. In November we went to RSPB Rainham Marshes. It was a very windy morning so the eight of us that set off were under no illusions that we would see much in the way of passerines on our way round. Instead we were concentrating on the waterfowl and any other birds which were likely to be on the ground. From the path outside the Visitor Centre we had a good view of the scrape which held large numbers of teals, wigeons and shovelers. We continued along the path through the woodland which, as expected, was very quiet although a dark butterfly, probably a peacock, was something 3 of a surprise. Viv spotted a bullfinch which eluded everyone else, and then Tim found a kingfisher perched, which in true bird fashion had gone by the time the rest of us caught up. We walked up the path to the hide keeping an eye open for the Dartford warblers which had been around recently but, as expected, they were hunkered down and we didn’t see them. From inside the hide, we could see a snipe asleep on an island, showing just how well camouflaged these birds are. In front of the hide we (or at least I) were delighted to see a handsome male pintail feeding quite close to us. PINTAIL We continued on and found many more ducks of several species together with good numbers of coots and – surprisingly – a few stonechats who didn’t seem to mind the wind. From the far hide we had good views of marsh harriers hunting over the reeds and finally – the target bird for the day – a handsome water pipit! There had been a few of these pale winter visitors reported over the last few days but we hadn’t managed to spot one so far. The far side of the reserve did not produce much as the wind had increased considerably so we retreated to the visitor centre for lunch. 46 species of bird were seen. Our planned December walk to RSPB reserve Old Hall Marshes had to be cancelled as the weather forecast was for a lot of wind and rain. Those of you who are familiar with the reserve, and know how exposed it is, will appreciate that it is not a good place to be on a Sunday morning in the depths of winter when it is pouring with rain and blowing a gale. It is always a hard call to decide when to cancel a walk; we never do this lightly as we don’t like to disappoint people, but on the other hand we have to take the likely weather conditions into account. As the decision has to be made the evening before, so as to give everyone sufficient notice, it is a bit of a gamble when looking at the predictions. In the event, on this occasion it proved the right thing to do, as it did indeed rain for most of the morning and the walk would not have been a pleasant experience if it had taken place. Our first expedition of 2016, in January, was to Warley Place (an Essex Wildlife Trust reserve).