Upcoming Events

THE GWENT ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY LAUNCH "THE BIRDS OF GWENT" Submitted 12/04/08 by Trevor Russell

The culmination of nearly ten years of recording, listing, comparing and analysing will come to fruition with the launch of a new book, THE BIRDS OF GWENT, on APRIL 19th at 2pm, at the new NEWPORT WETLANDS VISITOR CENTRE.

It is one of the first comparative breeding bird atlases for a county in the UK! Distribution maps based on the earlier 1981-85 Atlas are compared with these latest maps, showing clearly the changes that have occurred in recent years - the great expansion of the Buzzard's range, for example, and the severe decline of the Tree Sparrow. All these changes are analysed and discussed.

In addition to breeding birds, all other wild birds that occur in the county are discussed, from winter visitors such as Fieldfare, and passage migrants including Sanderling, to rarities, for example, Golden Oriole. The bird habitats of Gwent are also described together with the "Ten Best Places to See Birds in the County".

The 488-page hardback is illustrated with 64 colour photos by local photographers plus line drawings by local artists Steve Roberts, Chris Hodgson and Helen Scourse.

The Gwent Ornithological Society is proud to invite you to the Visitor Centre at the Newport Wetlands Reserve on April 19th, where the book will be officially launched by RSPB Wales Manager, Tim Stowe. A supporting slideshow and brief talks will reveal how the surveys were conducted and the results compiled, together with some of the more fascinating findings. A team of Authors will be present to sign books for you which will be available at a discount of 20% for this event. You will also be able to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and snacks and browse the shop. Suitably refreshed, you will be able to stroll around the Reserve for a spot of birdwatching! Admission is free and the Centre closes at 5pm.

Bring teddy and a picnic and have a fun adventure exploring the secrets of the woodlands and meadows. Meet in the Car Park.

We’re also planning:
An evening of mothing on National Moth Night - 7^th June in the Robinswood Hill Orchard

An Evening Walk (bats, glow worms etc.) - Robinswood Hill on 19^th July
- details of both to be confirmed, please ‘phone 303206 closer to the date.

Dawn Chorus Events are being held at two NT sites Woodchester on Sat 26 April 2008 4:30 am meet in NT car park, booking required, and at the Ebworth Centre on Sat 10th May 2008 meet at the offices 4:30am meet. Both events are free to members and £3 to non-members.

Several people have alerted me to this "Save The Severn" petition following an update announced yesterday. Please sign the petition if you feel you can support it. Update and link below:

Severn barrage construction will be shackled by the huge costs and legal obstacles highlighted by the Sustainable Development Commission today. Dr Mark Avery, Conservation Director at the RSPB, said: 'The SDC's report is not a green light for the barrage but something between red and amber. Its construction will cause the emission of ten million tonnes of carbon. Greenhouse gas savings will be substantial in the long run, but those savings could be too late to avert the damage of climate change. It would be far better to spend the £15 to £20 billion the barrage will cost on measures that will cut emissions more quickly. The Severn estuary is an irreplaceable refuge for wildlife and because of that, the SCD report questions whether a barrage across the Severn is the best way to spend that money.'

Peregrine Survey in the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean 2007 Submitted by Gavin Black and Ken Eames 31/07/07

We conducted a survey in an attempt to establish how many breeding pairs of Peregrines there are on the cliffs and quarry faces in the district of the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean. This is an abridged account of our findings. We opted to start when the eyasses (unfledged chicks) were almost ready to fly which would help us to find the eyries, prove the Peregrines had bred and give us a head count of offspring. However, as the searches often took longer than anticipated thereby making the project drag on a bit, we were too late, in some cases, to establish how many offspring there were as they had already fledged, so, where this happened, we opted for finding what fledglings we could to prove breeding. At three sites, only pairs of adults were seen which had not bred or had possibly been robbed. We believe this was the case at at least one of the sites. The Peregrines had bred at six other sites, including Symonds Yat (Coldwell Rocks) where the new female (pic below by Gavin) had three offspring. At one of the sites we found five eyasses which is not unheard of but is unusual. At another site the pair appears to have bred on a pylon and fledged just one juvenile. We found four Kestrel families which fledge later than the Peregrines. We also saw a few large stick nests of Ravens but as they breed so much earlier we did not see any birds.

More on access to Lydney New Grounds, Aylburton Warth and Guscar Rocks Submitted by Mike Smart 28/04/06

I have phoned Mr Hunt of Plusterwine House Farm and Mr Roger of Alvington Court. Both indicated that they had no objections to birdwatchers visiting their land, as long as they did not take dogs, left gates as they found them and in general behaved reasonably. Both of them said they liked to be asked for permission and to know what was going on. I have, as a follow up, written to them (and to Mr Guest) on GNS headed notepaper and sent them copies of the latest Gloucestershire Bird Report.

This morning I went to the area again, and called on Mr Guest; I went to Mr Hunt's farm but he was away; I called again on Mr Brown the agent for Lydney Park Estates, who said that he appreciated being kept informed of what was going on; he also noted that in the future the Estate would be interested in receiving advice on management practices that might enhance the New Grounds for wildlife.

I would strongly advise that, if you are visiting Aylburton Warth or Guscar Rocks you should call at Mr Guest's and Mr Hunt's farm. Both are on the lane leading to the Plusterwine railway crossing, Mr Hunt at the top of the lane on the right, Mr Guest on the left half way down. They will appreciate knowing who is going down and why.

The Cotswold Water Park now has a Website for the purpose of publicising daily sightings. This has been developed in conjunction with Bob Philpott and Nick Adams.

The second and probably more important purpose is to encourage birders visiting CWP to submit sightings. All sightings are passed to Gareth at CWP and shared with Gloster Birder where appropriate. There are rules governing publicising Schedule 1 Birds when necessary and security of private and dangerous sites. All records reaching the site (where included on the website or not) will be collated and sent to relevant county recorders as is already done.

Please use the site when visiting CWP and help us by submitting your sightings when you return home.

In time, additional information will be added to this site regarding birding locations, colour ring projects and so on.

Please support this site; there is clearly the demand for this as indicated by the frequent queries we receive.

We look forward to hearing from you,

Many thanks

Gareth Harris

THE BIRD HIDE AT LAKE 68C , WATERHAY, COTSWOLD WATER PARK HAS BEEN RE-OPENED FOLLOWING RELOCATION AND IMPROVEMENTS

The Cotswold Water Park Society would like to offer tremendous thanks to volunteers from WOS as well Cleveland Farm Quarry, Aggregate Industries, for all help received in undertaking this project.

Thanks to Ben Dormer and team at Cleveland Farm Quarry, over 600 tonnes of material was moved top create a bund upon which the hide has now been located.

Thanks to a huge number of volunteers from WOS, along with the CWP Ranger Team, the hide was dismantled, moved and re-erected at the new location.

Work on the hide and surrounding landscaping and screening was completed yesterday (18^th March) with further help from WOS members (Pete Adams, Brian Crookes, Bob Philpott, John Bayliss and team).

The hide is now fully open again. And the view is considerably better than before!!

The Cotswold Water Park Society is an environmental charity working to improve the Water Park for wildlife and people.

There is a small possibility that some wild birds may be affected by the highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in the UK this autumn and winter. If you come across a suspicious occurrence of sick or dead wild birds please:

Over the last few weeks, many birdwatchers will have become aware of considerable media interest in the subject of avian influenza or 'bird flu', following outbreaks in central Asia and the Black Sea region of the highly pathogenic type of the H5N1 virus strain which developed within poultry.

Representatives of BTO, WWT, RSPB and JNCC have been involved in discussions with the relevant government agencies, principally to advise on the latest knowledge of the origins of birds wintering in the UK, migration routes and timing, and bird distributions within the UK. Such information is derived in large part from the hard work of volunteers working on schemes such as the BTO Ringing Scheme and the BTO/WWT/RSPB/JNCC Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). We have also remained in close contact with international colleagues.

The overall assessment is that the chance of this strain of the virus being carried to the UK by a migrating bird is currently low (and perhaps much less than the chance of transmission via illegally imported poultry). In addition, even if the highly pathogenic form of H5N1 avian influenza did make it to the UK, it is important to note that there are no known cases of transmission from wild birds to humans. In south-east Asia, the virus has spread (infrequently) to humans as a result of people coming into close contact with infected poultry within the context of the confined proximities of poultry farms. Thus, the risk to human health from wild birds carrying avian influenza would currently appear to be very low.

Nevertheless, it is clearly sensible to keep the situation under review. A number of organisations are working together to deliver a national surveillance programme for wild birds on behalf of Defra (for further details see http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/index.htm.) This will include enhanced monitoring for sick or dead birds, coupled with a programme of taking faecal samples from a) apparently healthy live birds, and b) birds shot as part of legal wildfowling activities.

As part of this process, we would ask birdwatchers in the field to keep an eye out for any suspicious cases of large-scale mortality or sickness amongst wild birds. Waterbirds are potentially among the most vulnerable wild birds. Obviously, all birdwatchers encounter dead birds occasionally, almost all due to perfectly natural causes, so use your common sense. However, if you should come across an incident that seems out of the ordinary, this should be reported via the Defra Helpline on 08459 335577. Calls would then be referred to more local laboratories. Specialists at the labs would then make an assessment on what further action, if any, should be taken.

Although there have been no proven cases of humans catching the disease from wild birds, the virus is spread through nasal secretions and faeces so please do not touch sick birds or carcasses in the event of a suspicious die-off. Note that separate guidelines have been provided to ringers and these will be made available to anyone else who regularly handles wild birds. In general, however, to guard against a wide variety of illness including avian influenza it is always prudent to exercise basic hygiene (e.g. washing hands with soap, especially before eating) when coming into close contact with wild animals.

At a time when there is a lot of misinformation circulating on this issue, it is essential to keep matters in perspective and to sift fact from fiction. We reiterate that, to the best of our current knowledge, we consider the chance of wild birds bringing highly pathogenic H5N1 to the UK to be low and the potential for onwards transmission from wild birds to people to be very low. Obviously, however, we are continuing to monitor the situation and if there are any further developments we will communicate these widely, in the first instance via organisational web-sites.

In an effort to further increase the number of bird sightings (and other wildlife sightings) generated form the Cotswold Water Park, a new sightings logbook has been placed in the Cotswold Water Park Gateway Centre, Lake 6 (just off the A419 Spine Road junction).

Please can I encourage you to please use this logbook as and when you go birding in the CWP.

As always with the CWP hide records, all records are sent to the county recorders, so please help us all to improve the birding coverage in the CWP.

On Friday 14^th and Saturday 15^th October, the Cotswold Water Park Society, in partnership with the Cotswold Water Park Ringing Group and local birders, will be leading a work party to improve and manage the habitat at the reed beds at Cleveland Farm/Waterhay for both wildlife but also for birders. Viewing of the site has become increasingly difficult due to rapid reed and reedmace growth, leading to lots of complaints by local birders. This will hopefully be at least partly rectified during this work party. In a further work party in the near future, we are planning to move the bird hide on Lake 68c to a more useful location, hopefully to an elevated position if possible.

This work is being done for local birders; if you regularly go bird watching in the Cotswold Water Park , please help us to make YOUR birding facilities better.

We need more help to achieve this work. If you are interested in helping for a day or would like further information, please contact Gareth Harris, Biodiversity Officer, Cotswold Water Park Society on 01285 861459 or email Gareth.harris@waterpark.org

The third phase of work is starting at Coombe Hill at the end of August 2005 in the Long Pool and is expected to last for approximately two weeks. The Trust's plans include excavating a shallow two hectare pool in the marsh to provide more open water habitat in a sheltered environment. This will benefit a range of bird species as well as providing great viewing from the bird hide. It will also increase the overall range of habitats within the reserve making it even more diverse.

However in order to excavate the Pool there will be a period of disturbance while diggers and dumper trucks excavate and transport the spoil from the site. The spoil will first be left in a heap to allow it to drain before the spoil is then taken out of the flood plain.

Although we realise that there are some passage migrants at the reserve at this time, this is the only time of year when such work is practicable . In the spring and summer the breeding birds prohibit such activity and in the winter the ground conditions and flooding mean that the reserve is inaccessible for heavy machinery. During this time the circular route and the second hide will be closed. The Grundon Hide will remain open but birds may be disturbed by machinery moving behind the scrape.

Please bear with us during this period, we hope that you are able to visit and enjoy the much improved reserve once the work is complete. For this please check the Trust website www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk We will post start and finish dates as soon as these are known.

I am pleased to welcome James Lees, a new warden to WWT, this week. James will be working with Martin and will be an asset to the local birding scene. His more impressive finds in Britain include Veery and Syke's Warbler.

The Redstart is normally regarded in Britain as a breeding bird of western (especially Welsh) oakwoods, nesting in holes (and easily adapting to nestboxes). In Gloucestershire, it is best known from Nagshead in the Forest of Dean. In the Severn Vale, however, there is a local adaptation to nesting in the boles of pollarded willows, and for many years it has been recorded in such situations (though only in small numbers) in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. This year and next year, the British Trust for Ornithology is carrying out a survey of Scarce Woodland Bird Survey, focusing on eight scarce woodland species, one of them being Redstart.

I'm trying to ensure that the survey gives due weight to our own local Redstart adaptation, and am carefully gathering any records from the vale. As usual, the species is showing well in the Ashleworth and Hasfield area, with at least half a dozen males singing well in the area of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Reserve. There are smaller numbers this year on the opposite side of the river, at Coombe Hill and the Leigh Meadows. On 20 May I found one singing well in a new site at Sandhurst, in an old line of willows that hadn't been pollarded for a long time, but that from a distance looked absolutely perfect for the species. There are other places that look suitable in the Apperley, Chaceley and Tewkesbury areas, and I hope to check them in the coming weeks. Any records from these or other sites will be very welcome.

Collin Park Wood is one of only 12 Grade One conservation sites in Gloucestershire. It's an ancient woodland of over 100 acres, 35 acres of which form the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's Collin Park Wood reserve. The wood has extensive stands of Small-leafed Lime which used to be coppiced, and the canopy is largely made up of Sessile Oak. Its botany, entomology and bat populations have been well recorded. Yesterday 21 May, the GWT held its annual Reserve Managers' Conference at Collin Park. Among the birds recorded were at least two singing Wood Warblers and a Spotted Flycatcher; Wood Warbler doesn't seem to have been recorded from here in the past - only from the Forest of Dean proper. And Spotted Flycatcher is red-listed nationally and one of the Gloucestershire Biodiversity Action Plan priority species, which still seems to survive in the Forest of Dean area (and the Cotswolds), though it has become very scarce elsewhere.

As usual, the British Trust for Ornithology is organising bird surveys in Gloucestershire this year, with the participation of a large number of volunteer birdwatchers. The three main surveys are as follows:

Breeding Bird Survey: This is the annual survey which provides much of the basic information for population trends of breeding birds, widely quoted in the media. So observers are helping to monitor the state of health of British birds. The survey involves two transects in spring in one km squares randomly pre-selected by computer. Gloucestershire is pretty well covered by this survey, with about 40 squares covered each year, out of over 2,000 nationally (see the BTO website for further details). But there are always squares available, especially up on the Cotswolds. Still time to do it this spring!

Scarce Woodland Birds Survey: A new survey, running in 2005 and 2006. Observers are asked to carry out transects in two woodlands, which they select themselves, and note 28 woodland species. For 2005, it's too late now to accept any further woodland sites (because of the time taken to prepare maps). BUT, many more squares will need to be covered in 2006, and FROM NOW ONWARDS observers are asked to report ALL observations of the following eight main target species: Firecrest, Hawfinch, Lesser Redpoll, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Redstart, Tree Pipit, Willow Tit, Wood Warbler. Most of these are Gloucestershire species, especially in the Forest of Dean, with a special adaptation of Redstarts to willows in the Severn Vale. Casual record forms are available from me, or can be downloaded from the BTO website; or records can be submitted via BirdTrack.

Heronries Survey: The oldest survey of all, dating back to 1928, but still going strong; there's an article about it in the latest BTO News. The main Gloucestershire heronries are regularly covered by a team of observers, but we would always like to know about any new heronries. For example, there are no known heronries in the Forest of Dean, nor along the River Frome above Stonehouse or in any of the five valleys round Stroud and Painswick; are there really no herons nesting there??

On the 2nd of April, Les Brown and I saw an immature Grey Heron at Coombe Hill; on closer inspection, we found it had a yellow wing tag, which we read as an inverted black capital D on a yellow ground. Knowing that Rich Hearn of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust is

marking young herons at Gloucestershire heronries with wing tags, we forwarded the record to him, with a request for information on any previous sightings of the bird. Alas, the response came back that all wing tags have not one, but two letters; we had obviously not looked carefully enough. However, Rich sent the photo shown of a wing tagged heron as a guide, and a light went up: an inverted capital D looks remarkably like CI (with serifs), the right way up. So we are pretty confident that this was the bird we saw, even though it has not yet been obliging enough to show itself again at Coombe Hill among all the other star birds of the last week. CI was originally ringed at Frampton and has been recorded at a number of other Gloucestershire sites, including Dowdeswell where Dave Pearce took its picture.

Moral: look very carefully at herons for wing tags, take great care to read them correctly, then forward your observations to Rich Hearn at Slimbridge. Mike Smart.

Additionally Richard Cawsey had a Grey Heron with orange wing tags near the Wash pool on Cleeve Hill on 07/04/05, so if you are up there looking for Ouzels keep an eye out.