BIRDING
WITH YOUR GROUP LEADER
Hello
everyone,
The RSPB have a number of events that we as a
group have always wanted to take part in but
unfortunately we have always struggled to find a
suitable site within
Liverpool
. The site
would need lots of people, facilities and birds.
So thanks to Laura at the Palm House we will be
able to run a two day event on the 27th and
28th January at the Palm House to highlight
Big Garden Bird Watch.
A week before we will set up a couple of
feeding station around the grounds.
I wonder how many of you would be happy to help
post a Big Garden Bird Watch leaflet through some of
your neighbour’s doors.
North of England office have said that they
want to see BGBW have over ½ million people taking
part in Jan 07 and I hope to have a number of leaflets
and a flyer telling the public about the group ready
for the January meeting. 
Can you please collect them then or contact me
if you want some.
And finally, Chris
is organising a weekend trip to
Norfolk
in May 2007. The
hotel will be dinner bed and breakfast, and will mean
a 2 night stay. Birds
hoping to be seen include, Stone Curlew, Nightjar,
Bearded Tit, Hobby and the difficult Golden Oriole,
plus lots of others.
Please contact Chris if you are interested.
Enjoy your birding.
Big
Garden Bird Watch 27- 28 January 2007.
Highlights of Field Trips
May To August 2006
The group outing for May was to
RSPB Blacktoft Sands.
Although this reserve is a long way down the
M62, the reserve is a wonderful place to visit but not
in the pouring down rain!!
Yes it was not the best day to visit but some
of the birds we saw helped such as Bearded Tit, Sedge
Warbler, Avocet, and Marsh Harrier.
With the rain falling all the Swift and
Swallows were feeding close to the water.
June’s trip was a bit closer.
Our outing to Risley Moss started well with a
male blackcap singing in the car park, with robins at
the feeding station but no food!. Good views from the
tower hide gave us Whitethroat, Blackbird, Lapwing,
Moorhen, Gulls, Song Thrush, Willow Warbler, Swallow,
and Swift. A couple of Buzzard started to
dispute territory overhead and a Sparrowhawk.
Hobby can be seen from this site after 13.00.
We then travelled on to Rixton Cley pits. The weather
was ok for today's trip however; this nature reserve
was badly affected by flooding. With so much
water covering the reserve the normal paths were
submerged.
John Clegg had excellent weather in June for his
walk around Llangollen.
A good variety of species, the main highlight
being the superb close up sighting of Spotted and Pied
Flycatcher. More
rewarding than watching
England
's opening World Cup game!
The first trip in July was to Crook O’ Lune.
Howard had a rewarding return visit to a scenic
part of
Lancashire
. Top of
the bill were once again the aerobatic Sand Martins,
plus excellent supporting acts, and as a fitting
finale, a superb sighting of a Kingfisher.
The
second trip in July was to Newborough Warren.
We started our day with a gentle stroll through
the pine woods and around the lake on the reserve
looking for birds and wildlife. The
air was alive with grasshoppers chirruping and
dragonflies and butterflies abound. Small
birds such as Stonechat and several member of the Tit
family flitted through the wood.
Buzzard called over head, dipping down into
clearings on the look out for lunch.
After lunch we moved on towards South Stack,
stopping at Malltraeth an area encompassing a large
estuary, river Afon - Cefni, saltmarsh and shallow
lagoon. Wildfowl
and waders can be found here all year round and it is
renowned for migrant waders and wildfowl. We
weren't disappointed 3 Little Egrets were amongst the
collected waders including both Curlew and Whimbrel. There
was talk about an Osprey visiting the cob recently,
but he/she wasn't around today.
Saving the best for last we arrived at RSPB
South Stack, for some of our beginners they had their
first sighting of Puffin, then the event of the
day
' Chuffed' to see Chough feeding their young on the
fields by the cafe. 
Although
the seabirds had finished breeding there were plenty
about including Razorbill & Guillemots.
A spectacular aerial displays by a party of
Ravens shearing through the cliffs faces gave us a
great opportunity to appreciate their size...if only
we'd seen a Jay in the woods, we could have then laid
claim to having seen all 7 Corvid's on the same day!!
A joint coach trip to Old Moor RSPB reserve was
well worth the trip just to see the Tree Sparrows
swarming over the feeders in the enclosed bird feeding
garden. The
Kingfisher showed itself to only one of our group,
alas not me. Lots
of waders especially Lapwings, Green and Wood
Sandpiper and better yet a Spotted Redshank. Reserve
pathways were alive with the twitterings of finches
and tits, and a large charm of goldfinches were
feeding on thistles growing on the reserve.
TOTAL NUMBER OF SPECIES SEEN SO FAR.
124
Thanks to all the
field trip leaders for their time and energy in
finding new sites and searching for good birds.
Regd
charity no 207076
