Reading RSPB Group

THE Reading RSPB Group held its final indoor meeting of 2023 on December 12, which was our annual Christmas social.

As we sipped mulled wine, the evening’s entertainment started with one of our secretary’s wonderful poems, A Turkey’s Hopes for Christmas.

This was followed by a series of short presentations by members, starting with an account of a trip to Norway originally planned for 2020 but long delayed by the covid-19 pandemic.

The visit centred on the national park close to Trondheim where, after an arduous climb to high ground, a herd of very rare musk oxen was found.

Photographs showed the size of these impressive beasts and their snowy winter habitat. Birds featured, too, including the wonderful crested tit.

We were then transported to Central Park in New York which, in spring and autumn, provides a perfect stopover for migrating birds.

A slideshow of photographs showed an extraordinary range of very colourful warblers, tanagers and thrushes all the more amazing for being found right in the heart of such a big city.

Closer to home, the wildlife of the moorland and river valley around Ilkley brought us dippers, kingfishers, goosanders and peregrine falcons.

The final short presentation of the evening was a trip by boat along the eastern leg of the Galápagos Islands with blue-footed and Nazca boobies, frigate birds and Darwin’s finches. not forgetting giant tortoises and colourful lizards and iguanas.

The evening concluded with delicious festive eats.

On December 17 the group visited Little Marlow Gravel Pit between Marlow and Bourne End.

A cloudy start was quickly improved by the sun coming out as we walked around the lake.

There was a large number of gulls present, mostly black-headed gulls with a few common, herring and lesser black-backed gulls.

Ducks were mostly on the spit at the north end of lake, shoveler and teal, with some wigeon hiding along the edges.

Tufted ducks and pochards were diving in the bays off the lake.

A flock of siskins and goldfinches was nice to see, as was a small group of
skylarks.

It was an enjoyable morning’s birding and we recorded 39 species of bird.

December 20 was a wetter day for our walk round Greenham Common and our efforts produced few sightings, mostly jackdaws and magpies, but a few rooks were nice to see.

We also found a small flock of redwings feeding in and around the bushes.

A few robins tried to cheer up the day by singing but it seemed a lost cause. We recorded 13 species, which is our lowest on a bird walk for a long time.

The first indoor meeting of 2024 is on January 9 and will be a talk by David Boag on Britain’s wild coastline.

On February 13 Peter Holden will give a talk on how birds have inspired art and culture.

On March 12 Jonathan Forgham will talk about birding on the Polish Baltic coast.

Outdoor trips start on January 16 with a trip to Chimney Meadows, the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust’s largest reserve in Oxfordshire.

On January 21 there will be a morning walk at Wishmoor Bottom, near Camberley.

On February 18 there will be a minibus trip to Blashford Lakes in Hampshire followed two days later by a visit to the Warburg reserve near Henley.

Future trips include a visit to College Lake, near Tring, on March 17 and a morning walk at Paice’s Wood, near Aldermaston, on March 19.

All indoor meetings are held in Pangbourne village hall. starting at 8pm. Visitors are very welcome.

There is an entrance fee of £5 for non-members, juniors half price. New members are always welcome with annual membership set at a modest £15 (£10 for juniors).

For more information, visit group.rspb.org.uk/reading

Judith Clark