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The RSPB Macclesfield Local Group

The

We extend a warm welcome to Stephen Moss, our speaker tonight This will be the first visit to our group by Stephen, a lifelong naturalist who is one of the country’s leading nature writers, broadcasters and wildlife television producers. He has written more than 30 books on birds and wildlife, has a monthly Birdwatch column for the Guardian and writes for many other publications. He is the original producer of the Bafta Award winning TV series Springwatch, as well as other TV credits including Big Cat Diary, Birds Britannica and Birding with Bill Oddie. In a career spanning almost three decades at the BBC, spent mainly at the world famous Natural History Unit in Bristol, he has had the good fortune to travel to all seven of the world’s continents in search of wildlife. He has worked with David Attenborough, Bill Oddie, Alan Titchmarsh, Chris Packham, Kate Humble, Simon King, Charlie Dimmock and Michaela Strachan. His talk, entitled ‘Around the World with the BBC Natural History Unit’ will cover his work at the BBC in what he describes as ‘probably the best job in the world’.

HeronHeron Newsletter - March 2017

The Royal Society for the protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: in England and Wales no. 207076, in

Scotland no. SC037654

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Sunday 19

Outdoor Meeting: North Wales Coast Join us for a visit to the popular bird watching sites along the North Wales Coast looking for waders and sea watching around high tide at 14:44 pm. Early migrants, wheatear and sand martins may be a possibility. Meet at Duke Street car park at 8:30 am for an all day visit. Car Park fees maybe payable during the day. Leader: Ray Evans 01625 432635 Please confirm your participation at this Outing the night before with Ray Evans - if we have insufficient numbers we may cancel the event

Thursday 23

Special Event: RSPB Coffee Morning Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee with biscuits at Gawsworth Community Hall. A selection of homemade cakes and preserves will be available to purchase. Gawsworth Methodist Community Hall, Congleton Road, Gawsworth, Macclesfield, SK11 9QZ, 10 am to 12 noon Contact: Chris Revett 01625 617384

Sunday 26

WGBG Coach Trip: Carsington Water Depart at 8:00 am from Wilmslow Guild, Bourne Street, Wilmslow, SK9 5HD Contact: Steve McGann 01625 533652

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Tuesday 11

Walk with Nature: Danes Moss Cheshire Wildlife Trust Reserve Join us on the boardwalk of Macclesfield’s closest nature reserve. We will be looking for woodland birds and early summer migrants. Meet at Lyme Green (Homebase car park) SK11 0TA, LR Grid Reference: SJ913712, WGS84 N 53.23756, W 2.13152 8:00 am to 10:00 am. Leaders: Alan Brereton 01625 615628 and Ray Evans 01625 432635

Tuesday 11

Indoor Meeting: The Lady with the Lens by James Parry Introduced by: Lydia Taylor 01260 275248

Wednesday 19

Walk with Nature: Trentabank Reservoir Come and join us along with members of the Macclesfield Lifestyle Group and Rossendale Trust to see the herons and possibly mandarin ducks at Trentabank Reservoir. This session will only require walking from the car park to the reservoir viewing point. Any ability or mobility welcome, telescopes will be available to assist viewing of the birds. Meet at Trentabank Visitor Centre car park, Post Code SK11 0NE. LR Grid Reference SJ962713, WGS84 N 53.23738, W 2.05907 13:00 am to 14:30 pm Wednesday Leaders: Abercrombie 07775 904683 and Lydia Taylor 01260 275248

Thursday 20

Walk with Nature: Dawn Chorus at Tegg’s Nose A very early morning walk in the woodland and scrub around Tegg’s Nose listening and looking for the area’s resident song birds as well as spring migrants including chiffchaff, willow warbler, blackcap, garden warbler, pied flycatcher and common redstart. Meet at Tegg’s Nose Reservoir car park, Holehouse Lane, Langley - SEE PAGE 3 LR Grid Reference SJ945718; WGS84 N 53.24349, W 2.08290 6:00 am to 8:00 am Leaders: Ray Evans 01625 432635 and Ian Taylor 01260 275248 with Cheshire East Ranger, Paul Hughes

Sunday 23

WGBG Coach Trip: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Reserve at Potteric Carr Depart at 7:30 am from Wilmslow Guild, Bourne Street, Wilmslow, SK9 5HD Contact: Steve McGann 01625 533652

Tuesday 25

Walk with Nature: Birds of the Goyt Valley An early morning walk in the Goyt Valley looking for our less frequently seen spring migrants. We will be searching for pied and spotted flycatcher, common redstart, tree pipit and the elusive wood warbler which sadly is declining in numbers. Meet at Errwood Hall car park, Goyt Valley LR Grid Reference SK012748, WGS84 N 53.27053, W 1.98317 NB; Access to Goyt Valley from Errwood Dam end only. 7:00 am to 9:00 am. Leaders: Alan Brereton 01625 615628 and Ray Evans 01625 432635 with Cheshire East Ranger, Paul Hughes

Thursday 27

Walk with Nature: Birds of Tegg’s Nose A morning walk in the woodland and scrub around Tegg’s Nose looking for the area’s spring migrants especially pied flycatcher and common redstart. Meet at Tegg’s Nose Reservoir car park, Holehouse Lane, Langley - SEE PAGE3 LR Grid Reference SJ945718; WGS84 N 53.24349, W 2.08290 9:30 am to 12:00 noon Leaders: Ian Taylor 01260 275248 and Alan Brereton 01625 615628 with Cheshire East Ranger, Martin James.

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NB: It is possible that Tegg’s Nose Reservoir car park may be unavailable for use. The main car park at Tegg’s Nose Country Park Visitor Centre will be the alternative meeting

point.

Please check on the RSPB Macclesfield website a few days ahead of the two walks at Tegg’s Nose for the latest situation or telephone one of the walk leaders

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Thursday 4

Walk with Nature: Three Shire Heads Join us to search for ring ouzel and summer plumaged golden plover where the counties of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire meet. Meet at Sparbent layby on the A54 Congleton to Buxton road, LR Grid Reference: SK001692, WGS84 N 53.21966 W 1.99952. 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Leaders: Ray Evans 01625 432635 and Alan Brereton 01625 615628

Fun Guy by Ray Perry

Long Service Awards by Ian Taylor

At the February meeting Ian Taylor on behalf of the RSPB presented three volunteer long service awards. These awards are marked with a certificate and pin badge. Chris Revett and Joan Wilson received puffin pins for their 10 years service, Ray Evans a kingfisher pin for 15 years and a first for the Group was a bittern pin badge and certificate to David Tolliday for 30 years volunteering for the RSPB. Our congratulations and thanks to them all for their contributions in various roles to make The RSPB Macclesfield Local Group so successful. Photograph by Lydia Taylor (camera supplied by David Tolliday)

Fun Guy: Well I don’t really mean Fun Guy I mean fungi! I will explain but first I must admit, that this is a miscellany type article. In other words all about the world of nature but in no particular order. Alan Davies, a comedian and actor, is a regular panellist on the TV programme QI. If fungi is mentioned, he tends to assume a South American accent and talks about a “fun guy”. A few days

Macclesfield Big Bird Box Build (MBBBB) Update by Ian Taylor

A belated huge thank you to our Group volunteers and the Cheshire East Countryside Ranger Service who have spent time putting up nestboxes as part of the MBBBB despite some terrible weather.

We can now report 25 more homes for wild birds at Tytherington Wood and Sycamore Wood in Macclesfield. In addition, willow tits should find plenty of new homes around our local schools and at Danes Moss, our local Cheshire Wildlife reserve. An incredible effort for our project.

Photograph Martin James

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ago I saw a birthday card entitled A Fun Guy but it showed a fungus in its picture! There are books about fungi but one I can recommend is the Oxford Book of Flowerless Plants. Depicted on the cover are fungi BUT the book also covers ferns, lichens, mosses, liverworts, seaweeds and stonewort’s. All species have descriptions and coloured pictures. The copy I have was printed in 1985 and its ISBN number is 0 907408 46 X. Nature: It’s interesting that the RSPB look at all of nature now, although birds take the forefront. This is in line with other organisations such as the Wildlife Trusts. Personally I think this is the way forward, just looking at nature. When walking in the countryside who does not see other things as well as birds? I often walk in and around the village of Gawsworth and note everything natural, whether birds, flowers, grasses, mammals, fungi and so on. Tunnicliffe again: Tunnicliffe (CFT) wrote and illustrated many books about nature – particularly birds. A Times Nature Notebook writer, Matthew Oates, recently extolled the virtue of two of CFT’s illustrated books, What to look for in Spring and What to look for in winter. The text was written by E L Grant Watson. By the way I have a spare CFT book. It is entitled Portrait of a Country Artist by Ian Niall. Talk to me at the next meeting if you would like it. Simon Barnes again: I have mentioned before that Barnes now writes each week in the Sunday Time magazine about nature, particularly birds. He now writes in the Radio Times about sport, his other love. Art in nature: A bronze statue of a great crested grebe has been made by Geoffrey Desmond, This massive statue (about 6ft tall.) will be exhibited at the Birds of the New Forest exhibition at the St Barbe museum in Lymington, Hampshire in July of this year (2017). There was an art exhibition in Macclesfield recently. The picture that had the greatest number of votes from members of the viewing public was of a grey heron. Good. Derwent May: May continues to write about birds in the Times: His piece is headed as the Feather Report. He recently wrote about the decline of the greenfinch. Nature notebook: This is regularly featured in the Times. There are a number of authors now that Simon Barnes no longer writes this piece. I’ve already mentioned Matthew Oates above but others are involved too. Another author is Jonathon Tulloch who recently wrote about waxwings. This has been a waxwing winter, coming south to Great Britain when food is scarce in the north. The effect is known as an irruption. Sometimes the berries they eat have fermented, they like a little booze and their livers can cope with it. Lesser celandine, this pale yellow flower can now be seen. Have a look for it. There’s plenty about. Crows are now chasing lapwings. Why? Who knows! Cuckoos: As we know this species goes south to the Congo around midsummer. It seems that the Celtic (Scottish and Welsh) cuckoos avoid the English by flying in different directions but end up in the same country. The Celtic birds cross France, Germany and Italy, before crossing the Mediterranean and then Libya. The English birds pass over Spain before crossing the Mediterranean and flying down the African coast. Oddly only about half the Cuckoos that go south via Spain survive but those crossing Africa but much further east have a higher survival rate at 98%. Nobody knows why! Gardens: Our group has always encouraged members to make their gardens wildlife friendly. Please continue to do so. Private gardens in the UK cover 667,000 acres. Amazing isn’t it? Have a pond, if it’s safe to do so. Have bundles of sticks for insects. Piles of leaves or grass cuttings are good for hibernating hedgehogs. We must encourage them to survive. They used to be common but distressing sights as squashed animals on our highways but no more. Bird feeders hanging in the garden. We have seven!

Waxwing by Ray Perry

Fun Guy by Ray Perry continued

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Danes Moss Breeding Bird Survey 2017

T he breeding bird survey at Danes Moss got off to a cold and very exciting start on the morning of Tuesday 13 March. Five members joined Alan Brereton at Lyme Park for the 06:45 am meet to walk down to the reserve

entrance serenaded by a song thrush ready for the prompt 7 am start at the reserve entrance. Our intention was record everything we could see and hear, Alan was poised with his clipboard, the mist was rising from the Moss which gave a very eerie atmosphere to hear Canada geese calling from the small stretch of water just past the picnic tables as we entered the reserve. Even at that hour in the morning the occasional train raced along the line as we strained our ears for something other than the general background of wrens, great and blue tits with the occasional robin singing for all they were worth to demark their territories.

Carrion crows, jackdaw and grey herons flew overhead as we walked along the path before stopping to watch a couple of long tailed tits search for breakfast in the shrubs. Our walk was regularly interrupted by long tail tits then a pair or was it three goldcrests flitting high in the silver birch trees. The first exciting find of the morning was a barn owl on the Moss. Alan informed us that this was the first record since he started keeping records last year - what a terrific start to this year’s survey. We continued around the site, moving onto the board walk, treading with care as the surface was very slippery. We soon picked up a male reed bunting and we could hear a

pheasant calling. On the far side we found our first dunnock of the morning, located by call then observed on the wire fence. More goldcrests, great and blue tits and robins were both seen and heard . We then heard drumming, soon to be followed by not one, but four greater spotted woodpeckers playing chase. Some had good views as one landed on a trunk and drummed again for the observers who missed it the first time. As we walked off the board walk and back along to the canal we saw a pair of barnacle geese, again a first for the reserve as we discussed the merits of whether they were feral birds or a couple of lost souls on migration. We finally finished the survey at about 9:15 am after logging 28 species, those not mentioned were black headed gull, chaffinch, coal tit, coot, jay, magpie, trecreeper and woodpigeon - I for one cannot wait for the summer migrants to come back, when will the first chiffchaff be heard? If you are interested in taking part, or would like to know more, please speak to Alan Brereton, either during the interval at tonight’s meeting or contact via telephone or email 01625 615628 or 07760 156153 / aa.brereton@btinternet.com

Ian Taylor

Photograph by Ian Taylor

Photograph by Ian Taylor

Gawsworth Community Hall Coffee Morning

T hursday 23 March, 10 am until 12 noon will see the Local Group hosting the Gawsworth Community Hall Coffee morning. We will be selling homemade cakes, biscuits, fruit pies, scones etc. as well as jams and preserves together with bird food.

If you are not able to join us on the day but would like to donate some homemade produce your contribution would be very welcome. We can arrange pick up of any items on the Wednesday should you not be able to make the event, please contact Chris Revett, 01625 617384. Thank you

Chris Revett

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Health and Safety

In the event of fire or other emergency necessitating evacuation of the building, please leave in an orderly manner

via the nearest available Emergency Exit or as instructed by a designated Committee member. Emergency Exits are

indicated by the internationally recognised symbol of a ‘running man’ on a green background.

If required, there is a first aid kit in the kitchen. (If you do have an accident, however minor, while here tonight please

report it directly to a Committee member who, amongst other things, will ensure that details are logged in the

Accident Report Book.)

Notices

A Lucky Tawny Owl by Graham Palmer

Doing Stuff by Abercrombie

Bees and Butterflies- March weather can be challenging for wildlife but the first butterflies on the wing are generally Brimstone and Red Admirals. Early Bumblebees are to be seen now on heather and flowering shrubs as well as bedding plants. Please visit the 'Doing Stuff' table for more information about these welcome spring visitors. Sparrow Park Litter Pick- Eight bags of bottles, cans and general litter were collected on Sunday afternoon from our MBBBB site at Sparrow Park. Shrubs re-staked and bulbs released from detritus whilst a robin sang loudly above us. Wildflower seed will be broadcast here at the end of the month and at Heritage Walk. Please sign up at the DS table during the break if you are able to help giving a time which is convenient to yourself.

Easter Raffle

We will be

holding a special Easter Raffle at

the April meeting

Don’t forget to bring

some extra money for

your tickets

A tawny owl in the Wincle area owes its life to the multi-tasking skills of James Stelfox, an apprentice fish farmer at Danebridge Fisheries. James was giving two Australian visitors an introduction to the basics of trout fishing one morning in February when they noticed a large bird trapped in protective netting above an adjacent breeding pool.

The bird was not moving and appeared to be dead, but on closer inspection James found a tawny owl still alive but exhausted with one leg thoroughly entangled in the plastic net. It was mid-morning so it was reasonable to conclude that the bird had been trapped for several hours. James spent the next ten minutes standing in the middle of the pool, painstakingly cutting the netting from around the bird's leg, and a further ten minutes in his work station cleaning the wound

just above its claw. The leg was bruised but not broken and a few minutes later the owl flew confidently into the nearest woodland.

⇒ The books donated by the late Ms Ann Brown raised £80.84 at last months meeting. Thank you to all who supported this book sale, I’m sure you found some bargains.

⇒ Preliminary figures suggest over £614 has

been raised from pin badge sales during the Big Schools Birdwatch. An incredible £234 was raised at Kings by just two pupils - well done to all who took part.