This is our latest newsletter to keep everyone abreast of all that’s happened in the Society in the last couple of months. Sadly we had to cancel meetings in January because of the adverse weather. There will be one more newsletter in June after we’ve concluded our 2024/25 season.

Indoor Meetings

On Friday 14th February, John Gardner came to talk to us about the ‘Dalmatian Pelicans at Lake Kerkini’. John was a new speaker for us, based the other side of Wakefield and this was the furthest west he’d been to give a talk. He was surprised that when we contacted him to confirm he was down to give the above talk. He explained that he spent 4 days at Lake Kerkini with some birding friends to photograph the overwintering population of Dalmatian Pelicans and felt that the material he had would not make a full talk so we ended up with a ‘sandwich’. One third was about the Pelicans, the final third about birds in West Yorkshire and the East coast with the filling, a piece about a trip he made to Lesvos.

John got started in photography taking pictures of wildlife and is now a commercial photographer and the standard of his images were second to none and together with his relaxed and knowledgeable style made for a very interesting talk. He had excellent images of the pelicans both on the water and in the air. They went to great lengths to get their photographs, buying buckets of fish from local fishermen for some of their aerial shots and hiring a boat one day to get out amongst the birds.

The photographs in Lesbos were equally as good, and he showed images of all the specialities - Kruper’s Nuthatch, Cinereous Bunting, Cretzschmar’s Bunting, Rupell’s Warbler and Isabelline Wheatear to name a few. John had a great interest in the names of birds especially the Latin nomenclature, he explained that the name Isabelline comes from the Neo-Latin for ‘greyish- yellow’ and is a reference to Isabella I of Castile who was loathe to change her undergarments.

In his final third, he had images from Yorkshire and the North East coast with Gannet at Bempton Cliffs, Olive-backed Pipit and Pallas’ Warbler from last autumn, Great Northern Diver and Smew from local reservoirs and Iceland Gull in South Shields. One image that stood out for me was of a Sanderling at Seaton Snook with the wind creating a sand-storm and he was lying on the ground to take the photograph. 

An excellent talk, and a good speaker find by our secretary, Ian Williams.

The final talk of the season was on Friday 14th March when we welcomed back, Keith Offord with ‘What’s That Raptor. The last time he came to us was when we were in Hartford Village Hall the first time round.

He explained that most of the time, we see raptors at a distance and fleetingly and there are subtle differences that can eliminate species before homing in on an accurate identification. The colour of the bird is not as important as wing & tail length, speed, depth of wingbeat & habitat. He arbitrarily divided the UK raptors in to large (eagles, Goshawk & Marsh Harrier), medium (Harriers, buzzards & Sparrowhawk) and small (Kestrel, Hobby, Merlin). If you look at his criteria & clues, you are very unlikely for example to see a Merlin in your back garden – wrong habitat – more likely to be a small male Sparrowhawk. However he mentioned that Merlins in Canada inhabit urban habitats.

The larger raptors all have large wing surface area so they can soar high, while the smaller falcons have narrower, pointed wings for fast flight. The species that are found in woodland (Goshawk & Sparrowhawk) have longer tails for manoeuvring while hunting through the trees. One interesting fact as a diagnostic difference between Goshawk & Sparrowhawk was that the former has 5 fingers at the wing-tip while the latter has 4. Buzzards have 5 fingers but the eagle species have 6. His talk was backed up by fantastic slides and he finished off with images of the remainder of the raptor species in Europe.

It was an excellent talk, Keith’s knowledge and presentation are second to none. We won’t be waiting that long to invite him again.

I think all our members owe a huge vote of thanks to Ian Williams, our Programme Secretary, for organising a great and varied programme of talks for the season.

The April meeting is our AGM. Once the business side concludes, it will be followed by refreshments and a short, illustrated talk by one of our members, Andrew Aldridge entitled ‘Indonesia Explorer – Briefly’.

Mid-week Group

The February (18th) trip was to Pennington Flash and was meant to be led by Ged. Sadly he was unwell and both the other mid-week leaders were away. No volunteer could be found to lead the trip and it had to be cancelled.

The trip on March (18th) was to Leasowe led by Stephen. Eight members met at Leasowe lighthouse on a sunny day with blue skies. The first birds of the trip were a pair of Stonechat displaying nicely next to the carpark. Walking along the footpath along the horse paddocks, we soon found Chiffchaff plus a Kestrel hovering by the hedge. There was a biting wind off the sea above the embankment so we sheltered on the lower footpath. Meadow Pipits were plentiful in the paddocks along with Linnet & Curlew but sadly we could not find any Wheatear, although some were seen on the Wirral that day. 

The total bird species for the day was 25.

The trip in April (15th) is to Woolston Eyes led by Andrew meeting at the reserve gate at 10.00 am. This is a permit only site and the leader will be arranging the permits. Woolston has a lot of wildfowl & waders but is renowned as one of the leading sites in the country for breeding Black Necked Grebe. At the last count there were 22!

Their final trip of the year is on May (13th) to Tittesworth Reservoir & Rudyard Lake led by Stephen. Both venues will have plenty of wildfowl and a mixture of woodland birds around the carparks. There is always a chance of migrants in the form of Common & Green Sandpiper at the Conservation pool at Tittesworth and also migrant Flycatchers and Warblers at both sites.

Weekend Group

The January 12th trip to North Wales was cancelled because of the weather but was rearranged for Sunday 2nd February and led by Ray. 7 members attended the first outing of the year and we met as usual on the front at Llanfairfechan where there was hardly any wind and the sea was flat calm but the tide was a long way out. The light was a little murky but we soon picked up Red Throated Diver, Common Scoter, Slavonian Grebe, Eider together with Dipper on the river.

After about an hour we drove on to the Spinnies Nature Reserve at Aberogwen. We visited the two road hides first and then down to the estuary car park. Highlights were Treecreeper, and the tide was already driving flocks of birds on to nearby farmland, including Black & Bar Tailed Godwit, Greenshank and Curlew with Goldeneye, Wigeon, Pintail and Shelduck on the Straits.

We returned to Llanfairfechan for our lunch, and had close views of both Rock Pipit and Grey Wagtail. We travelled on to Rhos on Sea and the high tide made it easy to find 5 Purple Sandpipers resting close-in among the rocks with 20-30 Turnstone plus Shag, Guillemot and Razorbill on the sea. We moved along to the east end of Colwyn Bay promenade where in amongst the thousands of Common Scoter, Richard very quickly managed to find one of the overwintering drake Surf Scoters which was no mean feat.

Our final port of call was an area of Rhyl called Horton’s Nose which is on the west side of the river next to the harbour. However there was a distinct lack of birds, not helped by the dozens of dog walkers. The weather stayed fine all day without any of the forecast wind and drizzle, and we managed a respectable 56 species.

The February (16th) trip to RSPB Leighton Moss was led by Paul. 10 members turned up and as soon as we arrived at the carpark, a Green Woodpecker was heard from the direction of the golf course while a couple of Siskins and Goldfinch flew overhead. After entering the reserve, a Marsh Tit gave good view on the feeders along with a variety of woodland birds including Bullfinch and Redwing. We moved to Lilian’s Hide, overlooking one of the main bodies of water and were soon watching Marsh Harrier over the reed-bed, plus Gadwall, Pintail & Pochard amongst the plentiful wildfowl.

We then walked down to the Causeway hide where the highlights included Common Gull, a flock of Snipe and a Bittern, both in flight over the reed-bed. We had lots more wildfowl including Tufted Duck and also found (with the help of a local birder) the over-wintering female Ring-necked Duck. We took lunch and then walked down to the other 2 hides on the reserve where highlights were more Snipe, Sparrowhawk, two Treecreepers alongside the path and a flock of Fieldfare.

We then drove to the other part of the reserve, down by the saltmarsh. Waders were few but included Lapwing, Redshank and Curlew. Other highlights were Little & Great Egret and the bird of the day, a fine male Merlin which sat on a post opposite the Allen hide. The weather remained dry all day and it was warm out of the brisk wind and we ended up with 45 species.

The March 20th-23rd trip was a weekend to Norfolk and led by Ray, when 14 members stayed at the Stuart House Hotel in King’s Lynn, a new venue for us, and we were well- looked after. We all met on the Thursday morning at Welney WWT Reserve on the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border. Highlights included Common Crane, White Fronted Goose, Spoonbill, Marsh Harrier & Short eared Owl. We checked in at the hotel mid- afternoon and travelled to Great Massingham to look for reported Hawfinch but no joy and moving on to Flitcham Abbey Farm where we saw both Grey & Red-Legged Partridge, Red Kite & Golden Plover.

Friday was a day in the Brecks at three different sites where highlights were Yellowhammer, Woodlark, Stonechat, Redpoll, Siskin, Mandarin, Stone Curlew & Marsh Tit. We returned to Great Massingham but still no joy in finding Hawfinch.

Saturday we travelled along the coast starting at RSPB Titchwell and moving to Cley Marshes. Highlights at the 2 sites were Great White Egret, Spoonbill, Tawny Owl, Mediterranean Gull, Little Ringed Plover, Avocet, Lesser White Fronted Geese (from the Swedish reintroduction scheme),Common Scoter, Red Throated Diver & Gannet plus good numbers of other waders & wildfowl. Plans for Holkham for the Shorelark & Warham Greens for the Pallid Harrier were abandoned when the forecast rain arrived about 2.00 pm. Some of us went to Morston Quay for Black Redstart.

The weather had been really kind to us until the Saturday afternoon and the sun was shining again on the Sunday morning. We set off after breakfast to two new reserves, owned by Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, the first Willow Tree Fen where we had astounding views of Common Crane – displaying, flying and bugling and then Deeping Lakes NR where highlights were Long Eared Owl, Little Owl, Glossy Ibis, Cattle Egret and Sand Martin.

We ended up with 117 species for the weekend – not all seen by everybody but between us we managed to see all 5 British owls, the first time I’m pretty sure we’ve done it on one of our birding weekends.
 

The April (27th) trip led by Ray is a reprise of last year, when we travel down to the Conwy Valley meeting at 9.00 am at RSPB Conwy and we then travel down the valley to various sites to look for migrants. We will hope to see Pied & Spotted Flycatcher, Redstart, and Garden, Willow & Wood Warbler plus Blackcap. The trip will end at Brenig Reservoir to visit the Osprey nest.

May’s outing is a weekend (15th-18th) trip to Somerset led by Ray, staying near Cheddar. This is a trip for members only and is already booked. We will be visiting numerous sites on the Somerset Levels and also WWT reserves at Steart & Slimbridge. We will hopefully see Bittern, all the Egrets, Bearded Tit, Cetti’s Warbler, Marsh Harrier & Hobby plus many more species.

The final trip of the season is in June (8th) to RSPB Old Moor led by Paul, meeting at the reserve car park at 9.30. This is another good reserve with lots of wildfowl & waders, nesting Bittern, Bearded Tit, Cetti’s Warbler etc.

Ray & Andrew on behalf of the MCOS Committe