News archive
November 2009
Saturday, 28 November 2009
November Round-Up
At Rye Meads, the winter visitors are coming in! There have been some good sightings of redwing, teal, snipe, common sandpiper, common gull, stonechats and this week the fieldfares arrived at the reserve. They've also had great views of kingfisher, male and female peregrines and a little egret appeared at the reserve for a couple of days last week.
Goldeneye have been seen on both Friday Lake and Bowyers Water, along with good numbers of wigeon. At Fishers Green on Friday 27th, we saw several small flocks of redwing and fieldfare. Lots of mixed flocks in the bushes and trees, with about 15 siskins plus some goldfinches near the weir. A brambling was seen on 26th. A Bittern was seen on 70 Acres lake, in a reedbed recently at Fishers Green, and one was seen at Amwell, also goldeneye, marsh tits on the feeder by James hide, grey wagtail and kingfisher. A great northern diver was seen on the 26th on the King George V Reservoir (Thames Water permit needed)
You can keep updated with news of local sites by visiting our 'Links' page. Have a look at the Herts Bird Club or East London Birders Forum websites for details of birds in our area.
100 CLUB
Congratulations to our monthly 100 Club winners for November:-1st Andrew Coote, 2nd Emily Betts. Don't forget to contact Geoff Brown if you would like to join our fundraising club, using the 'Contact us' link above. (If you would like to join from our December draw, the cost is £6 - (that is £4 plus a one-off £2 admin charge) Last season a total of £535 was raised by club members for various RSPB projects. You have raised over £2,700 since the club was formed!
GROUP MEETING 24th NOVEMBER
Roy Croucher gave a very entertaining talk on 'The Wildlife of Northern France', sharing with us some of his favourite birding sites - and bars! The bring n' buy table raised £25, our thanks to everyone who donated or bought items. We have started to raffle the lovely photograph of a Great Blue Heron, kindly donated to us by Elsie Sinclair, to raise funds. Tickets are 50p each and the winner will be drawn at our AGM in April. Don't miss out - make sure you get your ticket soon!
E-NEWSLETTER
If you would like to receive our new E-Newsletter, with up to date news of events and the group, please send your details to us, using the 'Contact us' link above, subject title 'E-Newsletter' and we'll put you on the list!
COMING EVENTS:
We have a local walk around Cedars & Theobalds Park on 6th, a car trip to some Breckland sites on 13th and our special Christmas meeting on 15th! Have a look at our events pages for more details. Don't forget to return your Grand Christmas Draw raffle stubbs and cash/cheque by 15th ....you could be lucky!
Have you booked your table for our very popular General Knowledge Quiz on February 6th? See our events page for details.
NEWS FROM THE RSPB
Have you signed the RSPB Letter to the Future? Visit http://www.rspb.org.uk/lettertothefuture/ for more details.
Thousands of climate campaigners will be marching for climate justice in London and Glasgow on 5 December. The RSPB will be taking part along with other organisations from the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition - will you join us there? See the RSPB website for more details - www.rspb.org.uk/climate/what_can_I_do/decembermarch.asp
Do have a look at our events listings for further details. We look forward to meeting you at one of our events very soon.
Terry Smith, Group Leader
Sunday, 15 November 2009
'Meet the Group' day at RSPB Rye Meads
Derrick Ling and Sue Reeks were in the Draper hide, on 'Hide-watch'duties during the day - they found 46sp plus feral pigeon. Ted Bell was as inventive as ever on the Lucky Tombola, keeping everyone amused with his 'patter'. Geoff Brown and Douglas Smallwood were on the RSPB sales table during the day, raising over £100 through sales of christmas cards, diaries and calendars etc. Lillian and David Adams were in charge of refreshments and Ann Smith had a general sales table. Group leader Terry Smith had an information table, greeting visitors as they entered, he also had the important job of changing the video films and giving out stickers to the younger visitors!!
Mike Oakland who also helped during the day, reported his best views this year of a kingfisher, from the Kingfisher hide in the afternoon.
Thanks to the staff at the reserve for hosting our event, we hope to repeat it next year around the same date.
Don't forget, there will be RSPB cards, diaries and the odd calendar for sale at the next group meeting on Tuesday 24th November when Roy Croucher visits to show us the 'Wildlife of Northern France' - full details in our coming events listings.