Theale Area Bird Conservation Group.

Make Kennet Meadows a Trust.

You all know how important this area is for birds. Although the immediate threat has been staved off this latest attempt by the Pru was one of several attempts to build on the floodplian over the years. Apart from flooding, the birds are important. In winter the Burghfield and Theale pits hold internationally important numbers of Gadwall, Nightingales are regionally significant and on one morning in spring I took a BBOWT representative and we found Turtle Dove, Hobby, Nightingale, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting and much more within minutes. Few places have these, a heronry and the succession of interesting birds that the area turns up. You can help save the area by signing a petition, it takes just a minute but will help show the great public support for securing the area in a trust.


Just click on the link and within a couple of minutes max you will have
helped efforts to save the area.
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/29575.html

Colin Wilson

Butterflies & Dragonflies

Clouded Yellows have been seen at Moatlands and Burnthouse Lane. Painted Lady numbers remain high. Purple Hairstreak, White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary have all been seen at Hosehill.

Although the poor weather has had an adverse effect on overall numbers, there is still a reasonable variety of species around our local sites. The first Southern Hawkers Migrant Hawker and Darter species have been seen and appear likely to increase, joined in suitable habitats by Common Emerald Damselflies. The species that seems to have suffered most from the weather is the Common Hawker never particularly numerous, but there have been no confirmed records in our area for 2009 despite the efforts of a number of observers. Small Red-Eyed Damselflies are now on the wing, first seen in our area on 24th July at Shinfield with further sightings at Moatlands - both locations where the species was recorded in 2008. There are no records from any new sites in our study area. Derek has prepared a simple ID guide that he will “e-mail” to any members wishing to separate from the more common Red-Eyed Damselfly. Many species are approaching the end of their season with Beautiful Demoiselle Broad-Bodied Chasers) and Four-Spotted Chasers) all in decline. Black-Tailed Skimmers are still around in small numbers, but most are showing definite signs of wear. Please send all sightings to Derek McEwan at derek_d_mc@yahoo.co.uk in order that last dates can be calculated.

Black-headed Gulls Ringed

In an effort to understand more about the survival and movements of local Black-headed Gulls we colour ringed 100 chicks at Hosehill in June - these birds have white rings engraved with a 4 character code on the left leg and a metal BTO ring on the right leg. A further 54 chicks this year were ringed with just a BTO ring.
 
These birds are already fledging and beginning to disperse - the first bird has already been seen away from Hosehill - one reached Midgham within about 5 days of fledging!
 
If you see any of colour ringed birds can you please report your sighting - even local sightings are useful as we would like to build up a picture of when birds leave the area and return again each year. Whilst we have only started ringing the gulls this year this is actually part of an ongoing project across much of the Severn and Thames Basins which is already starting to build up fairly detailed life histories for a significant number of birds. Sightings can be reported to me at gulls@rbringing.co.uk or the scheme coordinator, John Wells, john.wells2@btinternet.com

Thanks

Tim Ball

Dragonflies

The recent unsettled weather has reduced Odonata numbers from their peak a few weeks ago, but on sunny days there are still quite a few around. The summer species such as Southern, Migrant and Brown Hawker, Small Red-Eyed Damselfly, Common and Ruddy Darter have all been recorded locally and should be on the increase, although this will be dependent on the weather

Common Blue, Blue-Tailed, Large Red Damselfly, Downy Emerald, Black-Tailed Skimmer, Emperor and Broad-Bodied Chaser are also present around most local waters. Emerald Damselfly, Golden-Ringed and Common Hawker should be found on heathland sites.

Small numbers of migrants have been recorded, so it’s worth double-checking any Sympetrum species for Red-Veined Darter Sympetrum Fonscolombii. Good numbers of Keeled Skimmer Orthetrum Coeruscens have been reported from Snelsmore Common recently, with White-Legged Damselfly Platycnemis Pennipes present along the rides at Paice’s Wood and the Thames towpath at Pangbourne.

Please submit full details of all sightings to Derek McEwan at derek_d_mc@yahoo.co.uk

Annual General Meeting.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: Roger STANSFIELD has taken over as Membership Secretary. He can be contacted as follows: 3 Greencroft Gardens, Reading RG30 3PL Telephone 01189 584858 or email rogerstansfield@btinternet.com Maryanne THOMAS agreed to help collate data for the Bird Report. The remainder of the committee were re-elected unanimously. John ANDREWS and Richard CRAWFORD were thanked for their hard work over many years for the group. It has been decided that all subscriptions will be due as of the 1st of April each year.

TABCG Berkshire Bird Race 2009.

This year's TABCG Berkshire Bird Race Winners are Marek Walford, Mike McKee & Paul Bright-Thomas with a very respectable score of 114 species. They managed to pip Fraser Cottington, Adam Bassett & Andy Johnson who recorded with 113 species and finished second followed by Ken Moore, Ken Spring & Nigel Rampton with 107 species. This years "bird of the day" was Redwing recorded by Mike Taylor, Phil Bysh & Adrian Lawson. Full results can be seen on the Berks Bird Race page. Congratulations to the winners and well done to everybody that took part.

Butterflies & Dragonflies.

The group would welcome all sightings of Butterflies and Dragonflies, Butterfly sightings will be forwarded for inclusion in a new National Butterfly Atlas that is currently being compiled.Please Email the following contacts.

BUTTERFLIES:       John LERPINIERE -  johnle@ntlworld.com

DRAGONFLIES:     Derek McEWAN  - derek_d_mc@yahoo.co.uk

 

Consultation on the Government Announcement on the South East Plan.

The good news is that the Government has reduced West Berkshire's New Housing allocation to 10,500 and has provisionally removed the proposal for 7,500 new homes to the South West of Reading from the proposed structure plan. The bad news is this does not mean that the Kennet Meadows are now safe from development. Having fought to get this removed from the plan we must now support keeping it out!

The KVPA meeting on 31st July had several speakers including one from the Environment Agency. They are still opposed to any flood plain development per se. There was a proposal to get increased protection for the area, which at the moment is a Wildlife heritage site, the lowest form of “protection” there is. To increase this status ideally to that of an SSSI we need hard facts and numbers of as many different species as possible, not just birds, especially anything which is on a Red List or is on Schedule 1. If you have or get any records for any species, especially from the less well recorded areas please make sure they are submitted to John LERPINIERE, or write them in the book at Hosehill.  If it is not a recognised site a grid reference or detailed description of where it is or was seen would be useful.

 Consultation on the Government Announcement on the South East Plan

Runs to 24th October – but the sooner we write the less likely we are to forget!

Write to The RSS Team, Government Office for the South East,

1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford GU1 4GA, or email tomailto:rss@gose.gsi.gov.uk 

Quote both references H1b Greater Reading and H1b West Berkshire, and refer to “The proposed Strategic Development Area South West of Reading” rather than Kennet Valley park or the Prudential scheme.

 

Support for the retention of the 10,500 figure for Berkshire is also important.

 

You can also join the Save Kennet Meadows Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaveKennetMeadows/

 

You can read more about the proposals at www.kennetvalleypark.com

 

If you wish to have further information please contact Colin Wilson.

 

Colin Wilson

Colin.wilson@berksoc.org.uk

Tel 01252 837411

Mobile 07899 066687

Meadow Pipit Ringing Project.

MEADOW PIPIT RINGING PROJECT:  The Meadow Pipit roost at Padworth Common is being ringed with the support of West Berkshire Countryside Service. The data gathered will be used in the management plan of the site. Each bird is being marked with a unique combination of rings so each there will be a metal ring over a colour ring on the right leg and two colour rings on the left leg. If you see any Meadow Pipits can you please check to see if they are colour ringed and if they are can you pass details of when and where you saw them and the exact combination of rings to Tim BALL tim.ball@ntlworld.com or 0118 9543580. He will reply promptly with ringing and sightings details of the birds concerned.

 

 

BTO Bird Atlas 2007-2011

The BTO is organising a nationwide bird atlas for the British isles with fieldwork starting on 1st November 2007, to help with this survey you can contact your regional organiser or sign up online at the BTO web adress below.

There are two ways to help with the bird atlas survey -

Timed Tetrad Visits - record all the birds you see and hear in a 2km x 2km square. Visit for an hour or more in the winter and breeding season.
 
Roving Records - any bird, anytime, anywhere. If you see it, record it, and the BTO will map it.
 
For more information please visit the BTO website http://www.bto.org/

Berkshire Bird Atlas.

As the BTO is currently working on a new nationwide bird atlas for the British Isles. It had been decided to use this opportunity to update the local Berkshire county atlas as well. The last edition of the Berkshire atlas was issued in the 1980’s – and significant changes in the county since that time are bound to have an impact on the birds found. It was intended that the new Berkshire Atlas would cover both breeding and wintering birds, and would be based on a 2km-2km tetrad (the national atlas would use a 10km square). For a county the size of Berkshire this meant approximately 450 tetrads. Survey work on the Berkshire Atlas was due to commence in November 2007, and it was hoped that the work would be completed in 2 years. The fieldwork would use recognized BTO techniques familiar to anyone who had taken part in the BTO Breeding Bird Surveys, and involve four timed visits to each tetrad per year (two in the summer, two in the winter). “Roving Recorders” would also be used to make more general bird watching visits to a number of squares, simply recording what the observers see and hear. Particular emphasis would be placed on breeding records – nest sites, parents carrying food, fledgling birds etc. This is a highly significant project and anyone interested in volunteering their time/expertise – or simply submitting their records - should contact Chris Robinson direct on 01491 671420.