News archive

Wednesday, 27 September 2006

A Review of Last Season

Our indoor meetings and field trips continue to be the mainstay of our group's activities. We have been entertained by some first class speakers with a variety of topics: East Devon Nature Reserves, The Wildlife of Scotland, Birds of Japan and Bird Sounds As You've Never Heard Them Before!. Average attendance at these meetings was 120 members and visitors. Of course, we must not forgot our Social Evening in December when 85 members enjoyed our traditional quizzes and an excellent buffet.

Field trips have again proved very popular with 67 different people attending on one or more occasions. 116 species were recorded. We've travelled around Devon, Dorset and Somerset visiting the RSPB reserves at Lodmoor, W. Sedgemoor, Greylake, Bowling Green Marsh & Exminster Marshes, plus other good sites for birds. Our bi-annual bar-b-cue at Thorney Lakes, nr. Langport is always very
popular. This probably has more to do with the food than the number of birds we see!

The group newsletter which is published twice a year in February and September is something we all look forward to receiving with many interesting articles, many of which are written by our members. I particularily enjoy the Did You See.....? page, trying to work out from the initials who has seen what!

The RSPB undertakes a great deal of survey work each year, with which we are involved. Volunteers from our group helped with: The Beached Bird Survey, WEBS Counts and the Volunteer & Farmer Alliance. Volunteers have also assisted with the Wildlife Walks at West Sedgemoor and at Greylake with practical help on the reserve.

Financially, we made a significant contribition to the RSPB with £5,617 going towards the RSPB's Somerset Reserves. This amount includes the sales profit of £1,290 and £517 pin badge money.

The group have been out and about over the past year, particularily during the summer, spreading the word about the RSPB and selling goods - those Christmas cards are here again! We attended the West Sedgemoor Wildlife Walks, the Parrett Festival at Langport, Chard Reservoir Countryside Day, three days at the National Amateur Gardening Show and the Greylake Reserve Open Day just last weekend.

A new venture for us was 'An Introduction to Garden Birds' evening for the National Trust at Tintinhull House, which was a great success. Members have given talks to several outside organisations, with more planned for next year, using our Awards for All equipment.

This brings me to my two highlights of the past year:
- Our successful Awards for All bid which enabled us to purchase a laptop
computer, a digital projector and a screen.
- The Greylake Open Day last Saturday which marked the first day of this new reserve being open to the public. This for me is what it's all about By supporting the work of the RSPB we can make a difference. The first time I visited Greylake it was simply 20 fields of 14 acres each, which had been drained in order to grow carrots.
It is now managed for wetland birds. The transformation in just over 3 years is simply amazing. Water levels have been raised, ditches dug, scrapes created, a boardwalk put in place and a spacious hide erected. I urge you to go along and see for yourselves.

Finally, my thanks to the committee, our volunteers and members for their continued support in the running of the Crewkerne & District Local Group.

Denise Chamings
Group Leader