MARCH 2010

The cold harsh weather of late December and early January with snow laying over several days and temperatures below freezing for days on end, may well have had quite an adverse affect on our local birds. The cold winter of 1962/63 where large areas of the country were under snow from Boxing day of 1962 until March 1963 had a terrible affect on some of our birds, (some of us oldies can still remember that winter)! Numbers of birds such as kingfishers, grey herons and many waders were reduced by up to ninety percent, and the small numbers of Dartford warblers were virtually wiped out.

Today we are in a much better position to see the recovery of our bird numbers. The cold spell of the past winter did not last too long, and with much greater numbers of people partaking in providing food for birds in gardens, and organisations such as the RSPB providing extra food in areas of high numbers of wintering birds, greater numbers of some birds should have been able to sustain themselves during the worst of the weather. One hopes that our bird numbers will recover quickly.

Although it is too early in the year to see what the lasting affect of the cold spell will have had on our bird population, much greater monitoring of bird populations these days should give us early indications of the affects of the cold weather, and there are some optimistic signs that the recovery should be rapid. Last year was a very good breeding year for many of our commoner birds, therefore greater numbers should have survived, and as not all of the country was under snow at any one time many birds will have been able to move to areas less affected by the weather. Birds such as kingfisher, blue tit and great tit that suffer badly in any prolonged cold spell produce large clutches of eggs and therefore young in a season, and can recover quickly. Many of our common birds such as robin, dunnock, blackbird and song thrush rear a number of broods in a year, and usually make up numbers lost quickly.

One bird that will no doubt take a long time to recover from this winter will be the Dartford warbler. Southern Britain is really at the northern edge of the breeding range of Dartford warbler, and after the winter of 1962/63 the only strongholds of this bird was on the Hampshire/Surrey border and the New Forest. Throughout the seventies and eighties its numbers increased only very slowly, but with the milder winters throughout the nineties Dartford warbler numbers increased and they moved into new areas. Locally we saw good numbers of this warbler breeding on Ashdown Forest in recent years, but the cold weather of last February saw a collapse in numbers and with the cold spell of this winter could see this bird back to the small numbers of the late sixties.

The BTO Breeding Survey is in its third year this year, and with many thousands of volunteers monitoring vast areas of the country, we should quickly be able to see how the bird populations recover from cold spell of this winter.

The group indoor meeting in March is on Wednesday 10th at the White Hart Barn, Godstone starting at 8.00pm. The speaker will be David Boag - a well known speaker at our meetings, who will give a talk entitled “Safari – a book in the making” about the excitement, spectacle and amusing moments of an African wildlife trip. Everyone is welcome, admission £3.00.

The March field trip is on Sunday 14th to Rye Harbour – Long Lagoon and Castle Water, with the chance of seeing some winter wildfowl, bittern and maybe long-eared owl. Meet at Godstone Green car park at 8.00am. Bring or wear cold weather clothing, packed lunch and a hot drink.

FEBRUARY 2010

The cold weather, ice and snow of late December and early January indicates that we may be in for a colder winter than we have had for a number of years. My garden, on the southern edge of Godstone village, produced an abundant crop of various berries during the autumn, but by the end of the year these had been stripped by blackbirds, song thrushes, mistle thrushes, redwing and fieldfare. Firstly they took the rowan berries , then moved on to stripping the cotoneaster, and finally taking the apples from a variety of Siberian crab apple tree. This variety of crab apple is good in that it retains the apples on the tree all winter, unless of course the birds take them in the first part of the winter, as is the case this year.

The colder weather has certainly produced larger numbers of birds into the garden, some days we have seen up to seven blackbirds feeding. Most of these no doubt are birds that have come from eastern Europe to spend the winter here. Mistle thrushes are a common bird in our area, but we rarely get them in the garden, although the easy pickings of berries was no doubt the attraction. Both fieldfare and redwing are regular winter visitors to our area, but so far this winter the flocks of these birds have been quite small compared to some years. No doubt if the cold weather continues it will drive the birds from further north into our area.

Blue tits and great tits had a good breeding year last year and this is reflected in larger numbers of these birds coming to the garden. Up to four great spotted woodpeckers regularly visit the garden feeding on peanuts and sunflower hearts. Chaffinches have now increased in numbers with over ten birds coming in each day, although goldfinches, which numbered over twenty coming into the garden in October, have dropped away to less than ten at the moment. A flock of over thirty siskin have been in the trees just outside the garden since October, but as of yet very few have come into the garden. No doubt there are still plenty of alder cones for them to feed on. Lesser redpolls numbers are down this winter compared to last winter, but it may be that like the siskin they are feeding on alder. Both the pied and grey wagtail have been in the garden which is always a sign of colder weather.

For the second winter running we have had a little egret in the garden. It lands in the garden then walks down to feed in the stream at the bottom of the garden, probably attracted to the stream because the larger bodies of water in the area are frozen over. A kingfisher has put in brief appearance over the stream, perching on a branch just outside the garden. Even black-headed gulls have come into the garden when the snow has been on the ground to take scraps, landing briefly to take a morsel before flying off. So keep a look out for the birds in your garden, as this could be a good winter for less common birds such as yellowhammer, reed bunting or a brambling.

The group indoor meeting in February is on Wednesday 10th at the White Hart Barn, Godstone starting at 8.00pm. The speaker will be Bill Coster who will give a talk entitled “Birds of the Shetland Isles” a digital presentation of this popular birding destination. Everyone is welcome, admission £3.00.

The February field trip is on Sunday 14th to East Head and Snowhill Marsh in Sussex, meeting at Godstone Green car park.

JANUARY 2010

In 2010 the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is on the weekend of January 30th – 31st, the idea being to count the maximum number of bird species you can see in a one hour period over the weekend. You can choose any particular hour, but early morning or mid afternoon tends to be the time when the maximum number of birds are feeding. The Bird Watch is carried out in January because it is the middle of winter, and usually cold, which brings the birds into gardens looking for food and shelter. Picking one hour to do the survey means many more people, including children, are likely to take part, rather than having a survey over several hours. The RSPB is hoping that at least 450,00 people will take part, meaning that something like 250,000 gardens are being surveyed.

The Big Garden Bird Watch started in the late 1970’s, when the RSPB asked their junior membership to count the birds in their garden for one hour over the weekend at the end of January. The idea was so successful that it has been an annual event since 1979. Last year 551,000 people took part and 8.5 million birds were counted The results give us an insight into the number of birds in each region, and an indication of increasing or decreasing numbers of individual bird species. If you do not have a garden a local park etc can be used to carry out the count. For further information on the Big Garden Bird Watch go to the website :- www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch.

The popularity of bird food and feeders in recent years has meant an increasing numbers of birds coming into gardens to feed, either on feeders or other sources of food such as over wintering insects and larvae. Other than blue tits, great tits, blackbirds, song thrushes, we have seen such birds as goldfinch, nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker, collared dove and coal tit becoming regular visitors to gardens. Long-tailed tits, siskins, lesser redpoll and even goldcrest have been attracted to garden bird feeders and very recently bullfinches have been known to come to feeders on occasions. If your garden has shrubs that hold berries during the winter months, you may attract in mistle thrushes, and if the weather is really cold there is always the chance of seeing redwing and fieldfare in the garden. With more bird species using gardens to feed, it sometimes attracts in birds that are normally not associated with gardens, particularly in more rural areas. Yellowhammers and reed bunting are two birds that are seen in gardens very occasionally and, if you are lucky, you may see a wintering blackcap or chiffchaff. If you are really lucky one may see waxwing in the garden, although to date the numbers of waxwings reported in the country this winter is very low compared to last year.

The group indoor meeting in January is on Wednesday 13th , where the speaker will be Barry Wright who will give a talk entitled “Travels in South America”. (Well, it would have been but for the inclement weather! We hope to rebook Barry Wright in the near future. Web editor. )

The January field trip is on Sunday 17th to the Dungeness area in Kent. The February field trip is on Sunday 14th to East Head and Snowhill Marsh in Sussex, meeting at Godstone Green car park at 8.00am for both trips.