News archive
February 2010
Sunday, 28 February 2010
FEBRUARY ROUND-UP
This event had to be cancelled due to the very bad weather on Sunday 28th.
GROUP MEETING 23rd FEBRUARY
Tim Hill & Ali Hauser joined us at the group meeting with news of the HMWT's 'Action for Hertfordshire & Middlesex', updating us on the Trusts work at various sites. Ali gave us an insight into her work with water voles - mink are a particular problem, as female minks can enter the water voles burrows and kill them. Join Ali for a stroll at Silvermeads, Broxbourne on June 6th, looking for signs of water voles. Full details on our events pages.
Your last chance - have you bought your raffle tickets for 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!
MONTHLY 100 CLUB DRAW
Congratulations to our monthly 100 Club winners for February:-1st Fred Coppi, 2nd Dilys Fawcett.
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 April draw, the cost is £14 - (that is £12 plus a one-off £2 admin charge) Last season a total of £535 was raised by 100 Club members for various RSPB projects, Club members have raised over £2,700 towards RSPB projects since the club was formed.
E-NEWSLETTER
For up to date news of the group and of the RSPB, subscribe to our free E-Newsletter, please send your details to us, using the 'Contact us' link above, subject title 'E-Newsletter' and we'll put you on the list.
LOCAL BIRDS
At Rye Meads, during the month - water rail, common sandpiper, green sandpiper, snipe, shelduck, black headed gull, common gull, kingfisher (male and female), siskin, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, kestrel, bullfinch, fieldfare, redwing, yellow hammer and bittern (seen on 20 February at the 'bittern pool' half way between the moorhen hide and the lagoon hides).
In the Fishers Green area, bitterns were seen throughout the month, goosanders were seen in good numbers on Ashley Pits and Holyfield Lake, smew and goldeneye also. A few little egrets were at Bowyers Water and on 70 Acres pit, and one was seen flying over Hayes Hill farm buildings.
At Walthamstow Reservoirs, earlier in the month a Dusky warbler was a surprising find and on 25th a Slavonian grebe was found.
At Amwell, on 26th, a pr smew, 3 goldeneye plus 2 marsh tits & siskins were seen. Bitterns were seen regularly.
At Kings Meads, on 27th, a Little egret, 3 stonechat & 50 fieldfare were spotted.
At Broxbourne Woods - Danemead Wood, 2 male hawfinches were seen in trees on south side as entering field from main entrance on 28th.
In Hertford, a Jack snipe was seen around ponds in Morgans Walk woods on 27th.
Remember, 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.
COMING EVENTS IN MARCH:
We start the month with a morning walk in the London Colney area at Tyttenhanger gravel pits, on Sun 7th, your leader is Mike Oakland.
On Wed 24th, I will be leading our morning fundraising walk to learn more about our local birds, please use the 'contact us' link above to request details. A £3 donation is requested for each walk.
On Sat 27th, we have a coach trip to RSPB Dungeness and the coast, led by Terry Smith. Book early with Barrie Stockwell.
At our group meeting on 30th, we welcome Bruce Bennett with his talk on 'The birds and flowers of Yorkshire & Northumberland' - a taster for the group weekend in Yorkshire in May 2011.
Have a look at our events pages for full details of all our coming events.
Hope to meet you soon,
Terry Smith
Group Leader
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Annual General Knowledge Quiz
17 tables were sold for the quiz, with 8 people to a table on most of them. The winners managed to answer 79.5% of the questions correctly and the last table managed exactly 50% correct answers. We were kept in check by our Quizmaster, Geoff Brown. Supper was provided by our volunteers led by Dorothy & Phil Blatcher.
Don't forget, make a diary note now - next years quiz is on February 5th 2011. Tickets will be available from October 2010.