The Birds of Berkshire Annual Report 2013 Published 2016 Berkshire Ornithological Club The Birds of Berkshire Registered charity no. 1011776 Annual Report for 2013 Contents Page The Berkshire Ornithological Club (BOC) was founded as Reading Ornithological Club in 1947 to Introduction and acknowledgements .................................. 4 promote education and study of wild birds, their habitats and Submitting records ................................................ 5 their conservation, initially in the Reading area but now on a county wide basis. It is affiliated to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). Membership is open to anyone interested Articles in birds and bird-watching, beginner or expert, local patch enthusiast or international twitcher. The The Berkshire Bird Index 2012 by Renton Righelato .................... 6 Club provides the following in return for a modest annual subscription: Birding Highlights of 2013 by Ken Moore ............................ 8 Bird Photographs for 2013......................................... 9 • A programme of indoor meetings with expert groups such as Friends of Lavell’s Lake, Weather Summary for 2013 by Renton Righelato ..................... 17 speakers on ornithological subjects Theale Area Bird Conservation Group and Surveys ...................................................... 18 Moor Green Lakes Group. • Occasional social meetings Damselflies & Dragonflies in Berkshire – 2013 Highlights by Mike Turton . 19 • Opportunities to participate in survey • An annual photographic competition of very work to help understand birds better. The high standard surveys include supporting the BTO in its Bird Report for 2013 • A programme of field meetings both locally work and monitoring for local conservation Report for 2013 by the Berkshire Records Committee .................. 21 and further afield. These can be for half days, management. 2013 Systematic List ............................................ 23 whole days or weekends. • The Club runs the Birds of Berkshire Escapes, feral species and hybrids ................................. 113 • Regular mid week bird walks in and around Conservation Fund to support local bird Extreme dates................................................. 116 many of Berkshire’s and neighbouring conservation projects. counties’ best birdwatching areas. County Map.................................................... 118 • Exclusive access to the pre-eminent site Queen Mother Reservoir (subject to permit) Contributors to the Systematic List .................................. 120 • Conservation involvement in important local County Directory ................................................ 123 habitats and species. BOC members are involved in practical conservation work with Bird-watchers’ Code of Behaviour ................................... 124 This Berkshire Bird Report is published by the Club and provided free to members. Members are encouraged to keep records of their local observations and submit them, electronically or in writing, to the Recorder for collation and analysis. Edited by Chris Heard and Renton Righelato Published in 2015 by The informative and fully illustrated County Atlas and Avifauna, The Birds of Berkshire, published in 2013, can be purchased at www.berkshirebirdatlas.org.uk, price £35, and is available to members at BERKSHIRE ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB meetings at the discounted price of £30. © Berkshire Ornithological Club ISBN 978–0–9553497–6–8 For further details of the Club and membership visit www.berksoc.org.uk Price £7·50 or contact the Hon. Secretary: Sally Wearing, 9 Deans Farm, The Causeway, Caversham, Reading, RG4 5JZ telephone 0118 946 3125; e-mail [email protected] Introduction Submitting records Here is the Berkshire bird report for 2013. Although we have managed to publish four years Sending your records promptly and electronically will enable the County database to be of reports in the three, we still have a way to go to get really up to date, but I hope that some kept complete and up to date. To facilitate review and report preparation, records may be of the measures we are taking to enhance the recording and reporting process will improve sent throughout the year and anyway should be filed within three months of a year end. If the timeliness of reviewing records and reporting, make records more accessible and add you are unable to send your records electronically, we may be able to help: please contact interest to the published reports. the Recorder: Richard Burness, 20 Burlsdon Way, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 2PH. The BOC and NDOC have appointed Richard Burness as the new County Recorder, Records can be entered on line at www.berksbirds.co.uk or sent by email to the succeeding Chris Heard. Chris, with his renowned expertise in the field and extensive Recorder [email protected] as an excel file or as a CSV file. Excel files should experience in record adjudication, both locally and nationally, has made an outstanding have the following eight columns in this order: contribution to ornithology in Berkshire. As well as his work as Recorder and editor of the Species, Site, Grid reference, Arrival date, Departure date, Number, Notes, annual report, he has an impressive record in the field, including finding many new species Observer, Breeding status. for the County, including this year’s (2013) Bonaparte’s Gull. We are grateful for all that he has done and are pleased that he will continue as a member of the BRC. Species: Required. If possible, please use the species name from BWP. Please not use plurals. i.e. do not enter “Siskins” or “Canada Geese”, but “Siskin” or “Canada Goose”. Richard Burness moved to Berkshire in 1990, has become a well-known observer in both Site: Required. If possible, please use the site names as used in these reports. Otherwise, east and west Berkshire and has been contributing to recording and reporting over several please enter the site as the nearest landmark on an OS map and specify the grid reference years. He is a long-standing WeBS counter, he brought up to date Berkshire’s submissions in the “Grid reference” field. Sites such as “my garden”, “River Thames”, “3 miles east of for the Rare Breeding Birds Panel and for many years he has contributed to annual reports Reading” or “by the A33” are examples of inappropriate site names. as a species accounts writer and more recently, as an editor. As Recorder, he will convene the Berkshire Records Committee (BRC) to advise him on records of unusual species. Richard Grid reference: Four or six figure grid ref. The prefix, either “SU” or “TQ” should be writes: included and there should be no spaces between characters. Grid references are only required for less well-known sites, or to give a very precise location within a large site. As incoming Recorder, I aim to provide continuity with my predecessors by maintaining the accuracy and scientific integrity of the historical record. My personal objectives are to maximise the input of Arrival date: Required. In the format “dd/mm/yyyy” i.e. “01/01/2005”. For records data, to make the operation of the Recorder and the BRC more transparent and to improve the that refer to more than one day enter the first date in this field and the last date in the timeliness of delivery of outputs. The first two can be achieved by providing positive feedback to “Departure date” field. observers who submit records and ensuring greater openness to encourage those who don’t. Improving Departure date: Optional. In the format “dd/mm/yyyy” i.e. “01/01/2005”. our timeliness will require a review of requirements, methods and deadlines. Number: Required. Whole number only. i.e. the following are not valid: “c10”, “10+”, Everyone can help Richard by ensuring the records database is complete and up to date by “1-2”, “many”. Enter any quantifying information in the notes field. submitting records promptly, preferably on line at www.berksbirds.co.uk or as excel or Notes: Optional. Use the notes field to enter information on age, sex, behaviour, breeding .csv files to the Recorder at [email protected]. See below for submission guidelines. details etc. Any reference to other species made in this field will not be recorded for that species – please make a separate entry for each species. Breeding Status: Optional. Please use the BTO breeding evidence codes: http://www. Acknowledgements bto.org/volunteer-surveys/birdatlas/methods/breeding-evidence. The preparation of the County bird report relies on the voluntary efforts of many people for Observer: Required. Please enter your full name and include your middle names if you data collection, species account writing, preparing articles, providing photographs, editing have any. and, critically, the observers who put in their records. At the end of this report is a list of the CSV files should use the same eight fields separated by commas (whether or not they observers whose records contribute to the reports. We hope the list is accurate: please let us contain data) and note that any field containing a comma should be enclosed in double know of any errors or omissions, for which we apologise. quotes. Thus, for example: Siskin,”Searles Lane, Burghfield”,03/02/2001,,100,,,,MJT We are grateful to the species account writers and others who have helped in editing the Confidentiality: Confidential records should be sent separately but in the same format, accounts, who are acknowledged at the start of the systematic list. Our thanks also go to and noted as confidential in the covering