Events

Local Walk - Kelsey Park

Location: The entrance to Kelsey Park to meet at will be added shortly.
Postcode: BR3 3LH (Google map)

A morning walk in Kelsey Park lead by Anne Yeulett. This is a well maintained suburban park with a stream and lakes and holds a surprising variety of bird life, especially in Winter.

Time: 9.30am

Price: Free

Members car Trip to Abberton Reservoir

Location: The reservoir visitor and car park is at Church Rd, Layer-de-la-Haye, Colchester, CO2 0EU
Postcode: CO2 0EU (Google map)

A members car trip to Abberton Reservoir, Colchester where the target will be the wide variety of wildfowl that assemble their in Winter. The 1200-acre expanse of Abberton Reservoir and its adjacent farmland is one of Europe's most renowned wetland sites. It is of international importance as a safe haven for wild duck, swans and other water birds, whether resident, passing through on migration or over-wintering. The reservoir is situated close to east coast migration routes and, with its surrounding envelope of pasture and tree plantations, is a welcome sight to tired birds. Lifts will be arranged wherever possible, inquire at the previous Wednesday's meeting.

Time: !0.30 am at agreed meeting point.

Price: Free/petrol contribution agreed with driver

Talk - Pagham Harbour

Location: Bromley Centre Library, Bromley High Street, next to The Churchill Theatre

A talk on the birds of Pagham Harbour by Adrian Thomas. The speaker is a project officer for the RSPB and co-author of a book on the best birdwatching sites in Sussex. Pagham harbour is a fantastic area of saltmarsh and mud and one of the most important wildlife sites on the South Coast.

Time: 7.15pm for 7.45pm

Price: £3.00 per person

Local Walk - Ruxley Gravel Pits

Location: Post code: DA14 5AD
Just south of the A223, ½ mile (0.8 km) west of Ruxley. Parking instructions will be announced at the previous Wednesday evening meeting.
Postcode: DA14 5AD (Google map)

Morning guided walk at Ruxley Gravel Pits near Orpington. Just south of the A223, ½ mile (0.8 km) west of Ruxley. The reserve consists of an 11 hectare complex of lakes, islands and promontories derived from old gravel extraction that finished in 1951. An oasis of wildlife amongst the onslaught of industry, roads and housing! Over 500 plant species have been recorded on site and new bird records are being added to every year. The site's open water and marginal swamps provide a rare habitat for many wetland birds, plants and invertebrates. The site is noteable for overwintering wildfowl and bittern. Normally this site is not open to the public so this is an an usual opportunity.

Time: 9.30 am

Price: Free

Members Car Trip to Rye Harbour

Location: Meet at the main public car park at TN31 7TU at the end of the Rye Harbour Road.
Postcode: TN31 7TU (Google map)

A members car trip to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Rye Harbour is a fascinating Nature Reserve and worth a visit whether you want to discover its wildlife and habitats, explore its history, or simply experience the landscape and enjoy a walk beside the sea, whatever the season. The Nature Reserve lies within a large triangle of land extending south from Rye, along the River Rother, past Rye Harbour to the sea, westward to Winchelsea Beach and northwards along the River Brede. This triangle of land was largely designated as the Rye Harbour Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the many unusual plants and animals that live here as well as the way the land has been built up by the sea over the last 500 years. Shingle wildlife is specialised because of the harsh conditions that prevail, so there are many rare and endangered plants and animals to be found here. Large gravel pits were created by shingle extraction and these have become a valuable habitat for wetland wildlife. Most of the area also has the European wildlife designations of Special Protection Area (SPA) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC). In 2006 the SSSI was included in the new 9,000+ ha. site called the Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay SSSI. There should be plenty of waders and wildfowl around, plus the possibility of an early Spring migrant like wheatear.
Lifts will be arranged where possible. Inquire at the previous Wednesday's meeting.

Time: Meet at 10.30 am at the car park.

Price: Free/petrol contribution agreed with driver

Special 40th Anniversary Dinner!

Location: The Warren
Croydon Road
Bromley
Kent BR2 7AL
Postcode: BR2 7AL (Google map)

A special dinner to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Bromley RSPB Member's Group. We hope as many members as possible will support this event, but places are inevitably limited, so listen for more announcements at Wednesday meetings and here on the web.

Time: 7.30 pm for 8.00 pm

Price: To be announced

Booking essential

Talk - Adventures of the Urban Birder

Location: Bromley Central Library, Bromley High Street, next to the Churchill Theatre.

A talk on the pleasures and pitfalls of urban birding by noted writer and speaker David Lindo http://www.theurbanbirder.com/. This is what David says about himself : "I am David Lindo and I am The Urban Birder — writer, broadcaster, speaker and bird guider. My whole vibe is about getting urbanites to realise that there is a whole world of wildlife under their noses in the world's cities.
I was a twitcher in the womb and was born clutching for a pair of binoculars. An interest in wildlife and in particular watching birds was a natural thing for me to get into, despite being surrounded by non-birders and having no mentors in my north London neighbourhood. I didn't meet another birder until I was around 9, by which time I had developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the birds of Britain, Europe & North Africa. I was taking my fellow primary schoolmates out on guided birding walks in the school woods!
I've crossed a lot of rivers and seen a lot of land since those infant days and I have now decided to dedicate my life to extolling the virtues of urban birding to all and sundry. I never cease to be amazed by the variety of birdlife to found in our urban centres and it's my mission to tell you about it. When not traversing the world studying urban wildlife I can be found looking for birds in west London at my beloved local patch, Wormwood Scrubs."
This is a talk to really look forward to so do come and be entertained.

Time: 7.15pm for 7.45pm

Price: £3.00 per person

Local Walk - Jubilee Park

Location: Meet at the Blackbrook Lane car park at the end of Blackbrook Lane, Bickley.

A morning guided walk in Jubilee Country Park Local Nature Reserve lead by Margaret Rusbridge. One of the London Borough of Bromley's most significant nature reserves, Jubilee Country Park is an area of woodland and wildflower and grassland meadows which stretches over 62 acres. The site is home to a vast number of species of plant and wildlife, many are protected and many are rarely seen in the London area. The park is located near to Petts Wood and can be accessed from seven entrances, three on Southborough Lane, three on Blackbrook Lane and one through Hawks Wood. There are also three car parks in Blackbrook Lane, Thornet Wood Road and Tent Peg Lane. We should see a variety of woodland birds, and perhaps some early spring visitors will be singing. This walk will start from The Blackbrook Lane car park.

Time: 9.30 am

Price: Free

Coach Trip to RSPB Minsmere.

Location: Minsmere RSPB Reserve, Westleton, Suffolk. Join the coach at Hawthorne Road BR1 2HG, Bickley Station end. Coach departure promptly at 8.00am
Postcode: IP17 3BY (Google map)

An early Spring coach trip to the RSPB's flagship reserve Minsmere. At this time of the year Avocets return to breed on the Scrape - about 100 pairs nest annually. From mid-April see returning common terns, while wildfowl start to leave in March, and migrant wading birds pass through. Look for marsh harriers displaying over the reedbeds. Minsmere is the best place in Britain to hear booming bitterns. Listen for nightingales singing in the scrub from mid-April, and listen for various other warblers around the reserve. Look for Dartford warblers on the heath, and listen for great spotted woodpeckers drumming.
Booking essential at a Wednesday meeting or contact Val Bryant 020 8462 6330

Time: 8.00 am prompt depart

Price: Approx. £15 to be confirmed

Booking essential

Talk - The World of a Wildlife Photography

Location: Bromley Central Library, Bromley High Street, next to the Churchill Theatre.

A talk by renowned speaker and wildlife photographer David Boag http://naturalfocus.co.uk/. The questions David is most often asked are about his 'favourites'! What are the pictures you are most pleased with - what is the best place you have visited - which subjects do you most enjoy photographing? These are impossible questions to answer because ones opinion constantly changes. How can you possibly compare the Queensland tropical rain forest with the desert of Utah; or compare the delicate but vibrant sunbirds with the power and majesty of a bald eagle? It may be impossible but, in this lecture, he is going to try! Working his way through his commissions over a span of 30 years, he brings us right up to date with his latest and most exciting project.
This promises to be a superbly informative and entertaining talk and stunning photography is guaranteed. Don't miss this one.

Time: 7.15pm for 7.45pm

Price: £3.00 per person

Local Walk -South Norwood Country Park

Location: South Norwood Country Park, Elmers End, Croyden. Precise details of the meeting place to be announced.

A morning guided walk to South Norwood Country Park lead by Val Bryant. Located in South Norwood, main entrance off Albert Road, the country park extends as far as Elmers End Road in the north east
The land was originally used for agriculture but has also been used for pottery and brickworks which involved extensive quarrying which was subsequently backfilled. For about a hundred years the site served as a sewage farm for the Corporation of Croydon who acquired it piecemeal from 1862 onwards, the last acquisition was as late as 1951.

The Sewage Farm was never a success for the subsoil was London Clay and the flooded fields would remain wet for months without draining away. A series of concrete channels were constructed over the farm to direct the sewage out over the numerous fields.
With a change in the methods of treating sewage the irrigation beds were abandoned and a series of round filter beds were built in the centre of the site. This change in sewage disposal meant that the fields were not used for many years and in that time a great variety of wetland grasses and vegetation has grown virtually undisturbed.

The sewage works was closed in 1967 and the filter beds dismantled down to ground level, the south western end of the site was then extensively tipped with some rubbish but mainly waste from the highways such as road scrapings, old kerbstones and concrete.
Old plans of the area show a double-moated site near the open stream, and this is shown very clearly on the Estate Map of Thomas Morley dated 1736 and on another dated 1836. On the Thomas Morley map the site was called La Motes which suggests possibly an eighteenth century ornamental feature. The site was excavated in 1972 by the Croydon Historic and Scientific Society but this was limited mainly by the very wet nature of the site which caused all excavations to be quickly flooded.
The highest point on the site is the viewpoint which is an artificial mound created mainly from hardcore tipping from wartime demolition. The viewpoint was landscaped in 1988 at the beginning of the project to develop a Country Park on the site.
Two streams run through the site from the Albert Road end of the site to Elmers End Road. The southern water course is an open brook which runs along a line where the London Clay meets the Blackheath Beds (sands and gravels) the other water course runs in a deep concrete channel along the north western boundary.
The Sewage Farm had a community of plants which, although they are not particularly rare, are interesting because of the scarcity of a similar wetland habitat in the area. The aim of the Country Park was to preserve the wetlands and also develop new meadow lands on the areas that had been tipped once they had been made safe. There are a wide variety of birds which live on the site or regularly visit and these include Mallard, Kestrel, Pheasant, Gulls, Skylark, Warblers, Tits, Finches and Linnets. Over twenty variety of butterflies have been spotted on the site and also several varieties of moth. At this time of the year a variety of warblers will be singing, Whitethroat are a speciality of the reserve.

Time: 9.30 am

Price: Free

Local Walk - Downe Area - Note Change of Date

Location: Meet at the Downe Scout activity Centre main car park, Birdhouse Lane, Luxted near Downe, BR6 7LJ
Postcode: BR6 7LJ (Google map)

A morning guided walk in the Downe Bank area for plants and birds lead by Dick Eddowes. This is a rich area of chalk grassland and woodland and should provide some interesting plants and insects as well as Summer birds.

Time: 9.30 am

Price: Free

AGM and Talk on Recovering the UK's Most Threatened Birds by Gwyn Williams

Location: Bromley Central Library, Bromley High Street next to the Churchill theatre.

A brief group annual general meeting followed by a talk on recovering the UK's most threatened birds by Gwyn Williams, Head of Reserves & Protected Areas at the RSPB. The Group is privileged to hear from a senior member of the RSPM team how the work of the RSPB is helping the come back of some of those wonderful bird species that only have a toe hold in Britain, like the Cirl bunting and the Corncrake.

Time: 7.15pm for 7.45pm

Price: £3.00 per person

Members Car Trip to Farnham Common (RSPB Farnham Heath)

Location: Meet at the Rural Life Centre Car Park unless announced otherwise. Take the B3001 south from Farnham. Take the right hand fork, signposted Tilford, immediately past the level crossing. Keep to that road. Just outside Tilford village it is signed to the Rural Life Centre. Follow those signs. Entrance is on the right after 0.5 mile (c1 km).

A members car trip to Farnham Heath RSPB Reserve, Surrey. This reserve is a major restoration project, reawakening the heathland that was lost here - as in so many places - to commercial forestry. Many hectares of conifers have been cleared, with heather seeds germinating, and rare heathland wildlife such as woodlarks, tree pipits, nightjars and sand lizards returning.

The reserve also has areas with wonderful displays of bluebells in spring, and we are opening up some wonderful views for the first time in decades. Do come and see this crucial conservation work in action. The reserve is next door to the Rural Life Centre, and RSPB visitors are welcome to use their car park, toilets and tea room.
Lifts will be arranged where possible, inquire at the previous Wednesday's meeting.

Time: 10.30 am at meeting point.

Price: Free/petrol contribution agreed with driver

Coach Trip to Rutland Bird Fair and Barnsdale Gardens

Location: Rutland Bird Fair and Barnsdale Gardens

Planning for a coach outing to the Rutland Bird Fair, and to Barnsdale Gardens for non-birding family and partners, is underway for August 2012. Watch out for more announcements for date confirmation as this it not yet certain.

Time: 8.00 am prompt depart

Price: To be announced

Booking essential