All news

A day in the Forest of Dean

by

On 24th February, and as the weather forecast was favourable, we decided to visit the Forest of Dean to see if any adders were out basking in the sunshine. Even though late February is early, we had seen them out at the same time in 2011, but we were unlucky, and didn’t see any. Even so, the morning at New Fancy, gave us splendid views of Goshawk, with one of the three sighted flying towards us at the Viewpoint so that the distinguishing features were clearly visible, even through binoculars! The best views we have ever had – a wonderful sight!

The afternoon took us to the new ponds at Laymoor Quag to look for frogspawn and any frog activity. We approached one of the ponds and could hear frogs croaking, but on our approach they all disappeared. We sat very quietly on a couple of convenient tree-stumps to await events, and counted 25 clumps of spawn; and after quite a while one frog appeared, then another, and another, until there were 35 blue-throated males purring and chasing one another around the pond. It was an absolutely magical sight, just sitting and watching them, and made one glad to be alive!

BTO Berks & Oxfordshire Conference 2012

by

BTO Berks and Oxfordshire have organised a “Birdwatchers’ Forum” conference which will take place on Saturday March 3, 2012 at Benson Parish Hall, Sunnyside, Benson, Oxfordshire OX10.

The fifth of its kind, this exciting conference hosts the broadcaster, Stephen Moss, discusses issues in agri-environment schemes, unravels mysteries behind one of our most iconic African migrants and much more! This event represents a great way of meeting BTO Staff, members and volunteers and there will also be stalls and displays from local bird clubs, conservation and commercial organisations, and a free raffle – how can you afford to not to come?

Conference tickets are great value, at only £14.00 per person which includes ea, coffee and a buffet lunch, so book soon to avoid disappointment.

A link to our Events page on the BTO website where you can find the programme and booking form for the conference is www.bto.org/new-events/events.
Please have a look and we hope to see you there!
Ellen Walford
Membership Promotions Officer, BTO
Phone : 01842 750050

Spring flowers on New Year’s Eve

by
Sweet Violet

There are 22 species of wild flowers in bloom in my garden in Standish. About half are opportunist annual veg garden weeds such as Shepherd’s Purse; then there are the hang-overs from last summer such as Hogweed, Herb Robert, Bramble and Campion; but there are also the harbingers of spring, Whitlowgrass and Sweet Violet. This unusual combination must be due to the mild weather so far this winter.

Whitlowgrass

Red Kites at Eastleach, 20 December 2011

by

Saw two Red Kites pottering around over a steep wooded valley and farmland near Eastleach, sometimes interacting with each other, sometimes patrolling for food, sometimes being hassled by corvids.

Fantastic fungi on May Hill, 17 November 2011

by

Time to go out to the woods and fields looking for fungi! It must be the recent warm damp conditions that have brought on a flush. May Hill is magnificent with good quantities of many species including Macrolepiota procera and Amanita muscaria.

Control of Urban Nesting Gulls

by

John Sanders has sent me a report into the control measures that have been introduced to control the numbers of gulls using the three main landfill sites in the county.

The County Council, supported by the Environment Agency, have invited Falconers to operate on the three main sites at Hempstead, Stoke Orchard and Bishops Cleeve.

The immediate result has been dramatic but as John says the birds are highly adaptable and the true impact will only be known in the months and years to come.

Read the full report here.(This is a large pdf file and may take a few moments to load. You will also need Acrobat Reader installed to read the file).

Closure of the Wilderness Centre

by

As you may have read in the local press the County Council has closed the Wilderness Centre and other environmental education centres in the county and plans to sell them to raise money.

A campaign group “Friends of the Wilderness Centre” was set up to fight the closure and come up with an alternative solution.

The group attempted to block the sale by legal means but the High Court has rules that they do not have a legal argument to stop the closure. See this report from the BBC.

The executive committee have contacted the Friends of the Wilderness Centre to offer our support in principle and discuss possible ways of supporting the campaign.

Coombe Hill

by

Coombe Hill (8 November 2011, Les Brown / Mike Smart)

Scrapes still dry, but water slightly higher on Long Pool and Snipe Pool.

Flock of geese flew in and stayed to graze: 47 Greylags (including two with white patches on wingtips), 2 Canadas and six Canada x Greylag hybrid goslings (parents on guard).  None of them appeared to have any darvic rings; 2 Wigeon and 68 Teal on Long Pool.   2 Snipe.  60 Fieldfares, 5 Redwings. 80 Goldfinches.  Four Mute Swans on canal, three cobs fighting over a single pen, one cob distinctly the worse for wear afterwards; first swans here for ages.  Otherwise, all quiet on the western front.

Skip to content