Your Bird Club Needs You!

There are only 2 opportunities to bring in your tombola

to meetings; one is this Monday. It's a chance to de-clutter by getting rid of any unwanted gifts, bottles of wine, good as new items. The income provides a significant boost to our club helping to keep subscriptions down, pay for speakers, rent of premises etc.

The stall is also a chance to up our profile in the community by showing what we do and that our aim is 'to promote birdwatching for beginners'.

On the day volunteers will be needed to man the stall and lead bird walks. Please let me know if you can help.

Madeleine

Chair Update

Dear Members,

Our next meeting is on Monday 13th March at 7.30pm in Sapcote Church Hall. Neil Glenn's talk is entitled 'Warbler Wonderland Ohio'. I've just googled him; he has an excellent birding background. Many of you will know him from previous visits. I hope to see you there for what promises to be a stimulating evening.

The walk on Sunday 19th March will be led by Graham Deeping and will be in the Swithland Reservoir area - more details to follow.

It's now time to start collecting tombola for our stall at the Burbage Fete on May 7th! Please bring any contributions to the meeting on Monday 13th.

Your Chair in the terrible hat, Madeleine

Fruitful Stanford

We had a fruitful time at the reservoir yesterday. Nev Weston led the walk, ably supported by Chris Goddinton. Sixteen Birders walked along the eastern edge from the Welford Road car park almost as far as the small bird hide returning along the old railway track.

There was a lot to see, as you will see from the impressive table Nev has assembled (See attached list below. If you difficulty opening it please let me know). The sheer number of birds on the reservoir was phenomenal, especially the egrets and goosanders. All in all, we saw 55 species in the morning and 6 more in the afternoon. Of particular note were a juvenile long-tailed duck, 4 kingfishers, goldcrest, green sandpiper and the one that really cheered us up, a skylark singing high in the sky. Despite the cold wind it felt like summer was on the way.

Future walks are being planned. The next one being on Sunday 19th March. Details will follow asap. Please note that the Easter Walk due on Easter Sunday will be moved to the following week - Sunday 23rd April.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the March meeting when Neil Glenn will be talking about 'Warbler Wonderland, Ohio, Michigan'.