Welcome to the 63rd season of Mid-Cheshire Ornithological Society and I hope you are all looking forward to another exciting birding year. The new season will soon be upon us.

Society Business

Ian Williams

Sadly, we learnt recently that Ian passed away. Ian had been a member of the society for a great number of years and volunteered to become secretary a few years ago. One of his roles was organizing the programme of talks for the group and even though he wasn’t well, he completed this task with great relish and enthusiasm. The speakers that he found over the last number of years were all well-received and the talks all brilliant and varied. We will miss him and hope we can carry on to match his excellent standards.

Committee

Our committee is very light now as we are down to only six members. We would like some others to join and if you are interested please contact the Chairman, Paul Kenyon – contact details below.

Website

One of the highlights of the last season was the setting up of a new society website by Ged Petch and we are bearing fruit from his efforts already with new members signing up and we hope that this momentum continues.

Christmas Lunch

Stephen Williams will be organizing a Christmas Lunch on the 15th of December to follow the midweek trip to Marbury Park and if you are interested, please let him know.

Membership & Subscriptions

The subscription fee of £20.00 per person remains the same as last year

If you are willing to carry on receiving future newsletters by e-mail or your e-mail address has changed then please include it on the renewal slip – this will help in keeping down our running costs. The annual subscription fee is £20.00 per person.  Please make your cheque payable to Mid-Cheshire Ornithological Society and send it to our Treasurer, Stephen Williams (address is at the bottom of the newsletter), enclosing the renewal/joining slip. You will receive your receipt at the first indoor meeting. Alternatively, you may wish to pay by bank transfer into our National Westminster Northwich branch using the Sort Code 60-15-29, Account Name: Mid-Cheshire Ornithological Society and Account Number: 40512002. Please identify payment as SUBS2026 and insert your surname into the reference field and please email Stephen when you have paid.

Entry to indoor meetings is free to members and £4 to non-members. Please remember that the meetings start at 7.00pm. There is now a nominal charge (voluntary) for all our field trips towards our society funds – transport is by members’ cars, so please give one of us a ring if you would like a lift.

Programme for 2026-2027 Season

The first indoor meeting is on 9th October 2026 when we welcome one of our own members, Andrew
Aldridge to give his talk ‘Guyana – Land of many Rivers’.

The first mid-week walk is on 15th September 2025 when Ged Petch will lead a walk to ‘RSPB Conwy’.

Our first weekend trip is a 3-day return visit to ‘East Yorkshire’ in Mid-October (16th-18th), led by Ray Evans. Further weekends are planned for the Somerset Levels in March and Kent in May. Last year we had some great birding on the trip to Yorkshire - not many rarities but lots of migration in action. Please let Ray know asap if you would like to come on any of the three weekend trips, especially the Yorkshire one in October as the hotel needs to be booked by the end of August/early September (email address on next page).

The full programme for the 2026/2027 season is printed below and details are on the website.

Indoor Programme
All meetings are on the second Friday of the month at Hartford Village Hall starting at 7.00pm.
October 9th - ‘Guyana – Land of many Rivers’ - Andrew Aldridge 
November 13th - ‘Ardnamurchan – Almost an Island’ - Mike Roberts
December 11th - ‘Ultimate Frontier – Danube Delta’ - Julia Mottishaw 
January 8th --  ‘Wild Southern England’ - Brian White 
February 12th -- ‘The Biggest week in American Birding – from Ohio to Michigan’ - Dennis Atherton 
March 12th - ‘Gateway to the Sahara - Morocco’ - Keith Offord 
April 9th - 'AGM’

Mid-week Field Trips
Meetings are always on Tuesdays and the meeting place and leader are in brackets

Trips are led by Stephen Williams (SW), Ged Petch (GP) and Andrew Aldridge (AA) 
Sep 15th   - ‘RSPB Conwy/Great Orme’ - (Meet Carpark 10.00am - GP)
Oct 13th   - ‘RSPB Point of Ayr’ - (Meet Carpark Talacre 10.00am - SW - HT 12.54)
Nov 17th - ‘Llanfairfechan/Spinnies’ – (Meet Llanfairfechan front Carpark 10.00 am – SW)
Dec 15th - ‘Marbury/Neumann’s Flash + Xmas lunch’ – (Meet Carpark 10.00am – GP)
Jan 12th   - ‘RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands’ - (Meet Carpark 10.00am - SW)
Feb 23rd - ‘Pennington Flash’ - (Meet Carpark 10.00am - GP) 
Mar 16th - ‘RSPB Marshside’ – (Meet Carpark 10.00am – AA)
Apr 13th - ‘Loggerheads Country Park’   – (Meet Carpark 10.00am – SW)
May 11th – ‘Cannock Chase’ – (Meeting place Tba 10.00am – GP)
June 8th – ‘Tittesworth Reservoir’ – (Meet Carpark 10.00am - SW)

Weekend Field Trips
Meetings are always on Sundays, unless weekends. Meeting place and leader in brackets

Trips are led by Graham Haspey (GH), Joe Carroll (JC), Paul Kenyon (PK) and Ray Evans (RE).
October 16th-18th - ‘East Yorkshire weekend’ – (RE)
November 8th – ‘RSPB Leighton Moss’ – (Meet Carpark 9.30am- PK)
December 6th – ‘RSPB Marshside/Hesketh Marsh’ – (Meet Carpark 9.00am - GH)
January (Tide dependent – date to be arranged) – ‘N Wales Coast’ – 
(Meet Llanfairfechan front - 9.00am - RE)
February Sun 14th – ‘Fylde Coast’ – (Meeting place to be arranged - JC)
March 18th-21st  – ‘Weekend to the Somerset Levels’ – (RE)
April 25th – ‘Conwy Valley/Clocaenog/Brenig’ – (Meet RSPB Conwy 9.00am – RE)
May 20th- 23rd  - ‘Weekend in Kent’ – (RE)
June 13th  – ‘RSPB Blacktoft Sands’ – (Meet carpark 9.30am – GH)

Ray Evans/Andrew Aldridge

Contacts

Paul Kenyon (Chairman)

196 Chester Road 

Hartford

Northwich

CW8 1LG  

Tel 01606 77960

pkenyon196@sky.com

Stephen Williams (Treasurer)

3 Sandiway Park

Hartford

Northwich

Cheshire

CW8 2AS

Tel 01606 606195

stephen.jackie.williams@gmail.com

Other Committee Members
Ged Petch
Graham Haspey
Joe Carroll
Ray Evans (ray.evans21@btinternet.com)

MCOS MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL/JOINING SLIP 2026/2027

To: Mr Stephen Williams, 3 Sandiway Park, Hartford, NORTHWICH, Cheshire, CW8 2AS
I wish to pay £20.00 for single membership of Mid-Cheshire Ornithological Society
A cheque for £______  payable to MCOS enclosed
Name(s): …………………………………………………………………………………………..
E-mail address:  ……………….…………….……………………………………………………..
(To save on costs, all future correspondence could be sent by e-mail)
Full address - ……………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………   Post code: ………. …. ….. Tel No - ………………………...
All this information will be retained on computer solely for the purposes of Society membership.