Hertfordshire News, Comment and Bulletin articles
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Herts bird records - 12,000+ per year!
Editor required for 1998 report
Swifts in Hertfordshire - survey planned
Bird Club walk round Maple Lodge reserve, July 4th
Hilfield Park Reservoir Report 1998
Herts' birdwatchers go national!
Bird Club walk round Maple Lodge reserve, July 4th
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Success or nightmare?! Herts bird records now over 12,000 records per annum
A success if you look at it from the view of efficient and enthusiastic Hertfordshire birders recording the current situation in the Hertfordshire countryside. And certainly a success when the records are received by the Environmental Records Centre. But if you are the County Recorder it is a NIGHTMARE! Five years ago it was 6000 records and that kept the Recorder busy sweating over a hot computer for weeks on end. Now we receive 12,000 records, and how do they arrive? From individual observers, from site wardens, from Bird Clubs; some on nicely printed sheets, some on scruffy bits of paper, some via belated telephone messages and some via the Internet and even some on HERTS BIRD CLUB RECORDING FORMS - NIGHTMARE!
Hence our cry for help. Please note the new recording procedure. Please try and help us. By sending records during the year we can reduce the Recorder’s February NIGHTMARE and your records can also be considered for the bi-monthly Bulletin. The web site submission for has been amended to reflect this. Also please keep to the Herts Recording Format:
SITE or GRID REF – SPECIES – COUNT – DATE – NOTES – COUNT TYPE.
ANY OTHER FORMAT DOUBLES THE COMPUTER ENTRY TIME AND DELAYS PUBLICATION OF THE ANNUAL BIRD REPORT.
Late records for 1998?
Please send any outstanding records for 1998 to Rob Young at: 37 Barkus Way, Stokenchurch, Bucks, HP14 3RD By 30 June 1999.
Revised recording procedure for 1999
1 Use recording forms or copies or computer simulations if possible.
2 Both records for the Bulletin and year-ending should be submitted in the following format only:
SITE or GRID REF – SPECIES – COUNT – DATE – NOTES – COUNT TYPE.
3 When presenting records on computer print outs, please use the above format only.
4 Please use separate sheets for site or miscellaneous records.
5 Please send records to the Bulletin Records Editor by the 7th of the month for the preceding two-month period.
6 Please do not send records if they have already been given to site co-ordinators where the co-ordinator sends monthly reports to the Bulletin Records Editor.
7 Please keep year-end records to a minimum and submit them by the end of January to the Bulletin Records Editor. Please do not duplicate records sent throughout the year.
Please submit descriptions with any records which will go to the Herts Rare Birds Panel.
Send records to: Lee Marshall, Bulletin Records Editor, 18 Williams Close, Rowner, Gosport, Hampshire, PO13 9QP.
It’s November, it’s dull, wet and windy and your British year list is about as long as it is going to be. You fancy a bit of birding, somewhere a little different yet not too far away to experience jet lag and warm enough for you to need to wear shorts. The answer to the ‘where to go birding’ conundrum is Goa.
Goa, for the geographically challenged, is a province half way down the west coast of India. It used to be under Portuguese control until 1945 but is now fully Indian. Two friends and I sneaked a week off last November with the intention of seeking a new birding experience. Our flight from Gatwick to Goa lasted 11 hours and we touched down in good spirits with the sun blazing. An exhilarating hour long taxi ride to our hotel followed for the exorbitant cost of £13. I say exorbitant because by Goan standards £13 is a fortune. Food and transport isn’t just cheap here its criminal. Still this isn’t a travelogue this is a birding report. So let’s get back on the avian trail.
Our hotel was in Calangute, which is in northern Goa, and was ideal for the standard Goan birding spots. Goa has been well researched by previous birding explorers and even if you don’t know just where to go the taxi drivers do. Over the years certain hotels such as the Bierra Mar, that overlooks a superb marsh (with Painted Snipe on tap), have entertained so many birders that the taxi drivers have become used to going to certain sites time and again. Given that a whole day out for three of us with our own taxi and driver starting at 5am and finishing at 8pm cost about £4 each you can see that birding by taxi is how it’s done in Goa.
We chose to visit different sites every day except that one site, Bondla, was so incredible we went twice. Most places, except Bondla, are within an hour’s drive or less. Unfortunately you have to travel for the best and the forests of Bondla are about two and a half hours away. The only real problem with this is the road safety, ie, there isn’t any. In fact there often isn’t any road. What is road can be occupied by various antiquarian modes of transport mainly bikes and scooters interlaced with cows, dogs and rice. Roads are nice and dry and flat so where better to dry your rice! Indians are somewhat mean with their expenditure so why bother with headlights and streetlights when luck will do. Anyway we risked life and limb to visit Bondla simply because it was amazing. All the sights we birded were largely unspoiled unless it just happened to be near an industrial site and there are very few of these in North Goa.
Many of the bird families were new to us and with rather rudimentary fieldguides identification was often difficult. Separating Richard’s, Blyth’s and Paddyfield Pipit is not for the fainthearted. Nevertheless many of the species we saw were unmistakable. Birds such as Malabar Whistling Thrush, Orange-headed Ground Thrush, Loten’s Sunbird, Malabar Hornbill and Scimitar Babbler were just a few of the smackers that we recorded. In all in our week we listed 165 different species. One bird that we had set our sights on was the Indian Pitta. This is gaudy blue, yellow, white and orange bird about the size and shape of an overlarge dipper. For four days we staked out the only known site, an open sewer. Each day we stayed until we could stand the pong no longer, usually about half an hour. As time went on we became more despondent. As luck would have it we bagged a Pitta with the aid of a birding professional who knew another site. The fact that we just stumbled upon the guide whilst he was leading another party was our real luck.
It’s difficult to do justice to the variety of birds we saw, when we left we truly felt that we had in a week just about as good a birding experience as it possible to get. Added to the fact that the weather and food are brilliant too you really can’t go wrong. The icing on the cake is that it’s very hard to spend £50 in a week! A good curry evening with enough beer to make you see double for the three of us was generally about £2-£3 each.
One final thought - when we went we took with us birding reports from Steve Whitehouse - they were invaluable. The field guides were not brilliant but the new Indian guide by Tim Inskipp should prove more than up to the job. Take my advice, check out Goa before too long.
Mike Baverstock
Following further delays this year we apologise for the late publication of the 1997 Bird Report. However, this is now with the printer and will be available in early June. We realise that late publication not only effects the currency of papers included and is detrimental to sales, but it is also a disappointment to those waiting to see which records have been published. We need to improve the production of the next issue. If you feel able to help get the Report back on track, please see the notice below.
New editor required for the 1998 Bird Report
We urgently need someone to take over organising the next Bird Report, which should begin production soon. The editor would work closely with the team of writers, editing all the texts for style, contacting photographers, liaising with Anna Marett the art editor, checking/ verifying records and organising the job ready for the printer. A good knowledge of birds, English, and computing skills would be an advantage and to have the appropriate time available to fulfil the work. If you have access to, and the ability to use, desktop publishing software this would help keep production costs down considerably but is not essential. If anyone can offer help, or would like to know more about what is involved, please contact Chris Dee on 01279 755637.
What are the fortunes in Hertfordshire of this enigmatic bird? They are a common sight in summer throughout the county but we know little of the current level of their local breeding population. We are looking for members to take part in a county-wide survey of breeding Swifts. To register your interest in taking part in this important work, please contact Johne Taylor on 01442 826948.
I would like to ask any Hertfordshire ringers who have not sent their 1998 totals to please do so as soon as possible. Your contribution to the overall picture of ringing activities in the county is very important and your help to make this as complete as possible is much appreciated. Please send them to me, Johne Taylor, at 4 Barber’s Walk, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 4DB, telephone 01442 826948.
Herts Bird Club field walk round Maple Lodge Nature Reserve, Sunday 4 July 1999
If you study the species listings in the Bulletin you will have often seen references to Maple Lodge Nature Reserve, a mixed wetland and woodland reserve near Rickmansworth in the Colne Valley. It attracts good numbers of a variety of species throughout the year. Now there is an opportunity for a morning look around this excellent local nature reserve, entrance to which is usually restricted to members. Participants should meet at 9.00am at the end of Maple Lodge Close (TQ 036927).
For further information, please contact Peter Delaloye on 01923 442182.
1998 Hilfield Park Reservoir Report published
Les Borg’s historic colour picture of two of the four young Black-necked Grebes raised at Hilfield celebrates this exciting event which was the highlight of 1998. However, there were many other notable records amongst the 123 species seen at this HMWT reserve during the year. An additional tern raft, donated by the Three Valleys Water Company, was launched and the old raft re-sited. This brought immediate success with a pair of Common Terns using each raft. The ringing report, by Bob Cripps, records the ups and downs of species monitored by the CES operated at the reservoir, and also lists the first foreign recovery of a Reed Warbler.
Steve Murray has again edited the butterfly and dragonfly reports. The dragonfly population has been further enhanced by Steve’s continuing work on the ponds sited near the A41.
Copies of the report are available from the Warden and compiler, Gary Elton, at a price of £2.50 (post free) from 263 Muirfield Road, South Oxhey, Watford, WD1 6HZ.
Last September we noticed a Blue Tit investigating the nestbox, attached to a shed just outside the kitchen window, and going in and out during the day. In mid-October my husband installed a small video camera to the underside of the nestbox roof and that same evening we switched it on and discovered this headless fluffy apparition on our television! Having felt impelled to start a daily diary of events, we have been watching the Blue Tit channel ever since. It beats ITV and Sky hands down!
Now in mid-March it seems that ‘our’ bird (assuming it is the same individual, and short of ringing it is impossible to tell) sleeps 14 hours every night, has a favourite corner of the box and has a potential partner popping in and out to see if the premises are up to scratch for the breeding season. Watch this space!
Any comments on roosting Blue Tits would be greatly appreciated - phone 01923 776159.
Anna Marett
Herts' birdwatchers go national!
Ask any standard of birdwatcher why they watch birds and resultant replies will inevitably range from "I like to compare tertial lengths of all flava sub-species", to "That Robin’s red breast sure compliments the yellow on my spade handle!"
Ornithology must surely be one subject in the world, possibly second only to the weather, where everyone has a view of one form or another. Bump into a complete stranger down the pub and conversationally raised topics generally end with "West Ham, what sort of food is that then?" to the "Tony Blair, ain’t he that effeminate dancer on the telly?" But mention birds then everybody has a story to tell, from that Baltimore Oriole visiting the bird table to the, "well my pussy likes the green ones best!"
Take this one step further and possibly everybody keeps notes of their sightings in one form or another, from the casual garden sightings to how many times that Bobolink blinked, from the mentally remembered details to those extravagant essays written on each species seen that day.
Then there are those loyal band of anorak birdwatchers who every year put their lives on the line for the name of science, undertaking survey work around tetrads. They thrash the countryside regularly each year getting soaked, bitten by dogs, run over or chased by mad cows (and I don’t necessarily mean the bovine contingent), whilst they monitor bird numbers and their movements and take voyeuristic breeding details.
It’s through these recordings that population changes are monitored. These are not only important in their own right (take the decline of Tree Sparrow, Skylark and more recently House Sparrow), but also reflect a wider picture of changes in our countryside. Barren land means few flowers which ultimately leads to low insect numbers which then breaks the food chain, culminating in no birds - get the picture?! This information can then lead to appropriate land conservation and ultimately management of the environment.
Basically all this rambling leads us to the following bottom line: observe, count, record, monitor, then submit the sightings to the county bird recorder each year for analysis and inclusion to the annual report. But for the real rock-bottom line, enjoy this great hobby. Unlike train spotting, stamp collecting and knicker pinching from washing lines, (whoops, who said that?) it definitely serves an important purpose.
* * *
In Hertfordshire, recording of birds was first officially recognised in 1879 when annual sightings were summarised in Transactions for the Hertfordshire Natural History Society. Subsequently this continued until 1981 when the Herts Bird Club separated, though still under the society’s wing, and today presents its annual report independently.
Although a separate issue, the information displayed remains the same. Through birdwatchers records, all rare and scarce birds are detailed, the status of all commoner species are analysed and the earliest and latest dates of our spring and winter migrant visitors are tabulated.
The value of such data showed its worth recently when the national press covered several reports on global warming. In the Daily Express (6 Nov 1998), it was reported that government ministers had decided on a series of indicators to help assess how rapidly global warming was advancing.
They commissioned a report that proposed 35 ‘natural barometers’ such as the breeding success of garden birds, and more importantly arrival dates of spring migrant birds. Other indicators included river flows, potato yields and the health of Beech trees.
It was concerning spring migrants that the Express quoted data obtained from the Hertfordshire bird files, which showed the following average arrival dates from around the county:
| Species | 1890s | 1990s |
| Swallow | April 8 | March 26 |
| Willow Warbler | April 9 | March 28 |
| Chiffchaff | March 25 | March 10 |
| Garden Warbler | April 28 | April 17 |
| Blackcap | April 19 | Over-winters |
| Swift | May 3 | April 20 |
Summarising, the article stated that this decade had been the warmest on record with 1998 confirmed as the hottest for 1000 years. Statisticians then showed that for every one-degree increase in spring temperatures, Swallows arrive in the UK two or three days earlier. Predictions therefore stated that by analysing such temperatures, by the year 2100 Swallows would be a regular sight zipping overhead mid-March.
The Independent (13 Jan 1999) carried a similar report. They too quoted Hertfordshire bird records, giving other examples like the Orange Tip Butterfly emerging 11 days earlier than 20 years ago and oak tree leaves emerging three weeks earlier than in 1947. Interestingly another statistic included twenty species of bird (including the Chaffinch) that had shifted their egg laying dates by an average of 8.8 days earlier over the last 25 years.
I guess the last paragraph from the Independent sums up this article, that the importance of the Government’s new initiative ‘was to bring together for the first time official emphasis on monitoring’! Hey, we’ve been doing this since 1879!
So, well done you Herts! Keep up the good work and remember, when you’re bored rigid next year during Christmas Day lunch at the mother-in-law’s, just draw back the patio doors and listen out for the first Cuckoo of next year, and record!
Mike Russell