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Edition 93

August 2018

Nuthatch – Summer 2018

Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)

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RSPB CHESTER GROUP

NEWSLETTER rspb.org.uk/groups/chester

facebook.com/RSPBChester @RSPBChester

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Group Leader’s Spot

By Norman Sadler

Friends, as we move from spring to summer, there are highlights and lowlights, as with any turn of the seasons. I never fail to be amazed at how resilient nature is throughout the year. If it wasn‟t, of course, we could not enjoy it!

“Our” resident mallards, Daphne and Desmond, laid 14 beautiful white eggs in a down-lined nest buried in reeds right next to the canal. However, they only hatched six fluffballs. These soon diminished to three, then two, then none. The pair are still together, practically welded at the wishbone but the result is they have no viable offspring despite all their efforts so far this year. We are hoping that they attempt a late second brood.

The canal could be harbouring mink or we have one big fat pike. Even heron have been known to take baby ducklings. But mallard, as like our successful blue tits, produce many offspring to account for the huge attrition rate.

The peregrines at Beeston have also failed this year. Despite the pair making all the right noises and mating moves, there were no eggs produced. Long-term falcon watchers think that the male is new and inexperienced and may even be a Jaffa, so the watch has been stood down for this year. Peregrine normally lay 3-4 eggs and usually rear 2-3 pullis. So “our” pair are not so unusual. There have been barren years in the past.

I got a call from Beeston Castle saying they had ducks, with black and white ducklings, in the gents‟ toilet. I went to investigate, with the Castle staff. Pictures taken at the time showed it was a family of shelduck. Inside the Castle grounds, nowhere near muddy water and food, they were well lost. The dampness of the toilets was probably the attraction. Even the canal is a day‟s trek away for a non-flying fluffball with short legs.

Hopefully, your summer will be more productive. Relax and enjoy it! We look forward to seeing you all again at the start of our new season in September.

The Membership Secretary’s Report

By Margaret Bain

September sees the start of our new season of trips and talks, so your subscriptions are due. Please fill in the renewal slip fully so that it complies with the new data protection law. If you no longer want to be a member, please let me know, so that time and money are not wasted.

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Outdoor Events

Unless otherwise stated our meeting location is the Sainsbury end of Caldy Valley Neighbourhood Church car park, Caldy Valley Road, Chester, CH3 5PR

Newcomers and beginners are particularly welcome on these trips. Please contact the leader at least three days beforehand to confirm arrangements. If the leader does not know you are coming, they cannot let you know of any last-minute changes. Car sharing is encouraged.

Date Destination and description Leader

Sat 22 Sept RSPB Dove Stone Reservoir walk, upland birds including raptors

Ian Cameron 01829 770 974

Sun 14 Oct Greenfield and Flint / Bagillt Forest area followed by coastal walk. High tide 3.00 pm

Roger Nutter 01829 782 237

Sat 10 Nov Lancashire Wildlife Trust Brockholes Award winning centre: reed beds and lakes. Parking fee is £3 per car

Ian Cameron 01829 770 974

Sun 09 Dec Hoylake, Red Rocks, West Kirby Winter waders and seabirds High tide 12.15 pm

John Chapman 01244 316 590

Indoor Events

Meeting at Christleton Parish Hall, Village Road, Christleton, CH3 7AS. Time 19:30, member‟s fee £2; non-member‟s fee £4 including refreshments.

Date Destination Speaker

Wed 19 Sep Raptor Conservation in Cheshire Bernard, a former leader of the group, talks about his conservation work

Bernard Wright

Wed 17 Oct Hope for Harriers RSPB work in the forest of Bowland

James Bray

Wed 21 Nov Green Birding What is it, who does it, why and the adventures of the birding biker.

Gary Prescott

Wed 05 Dec Christmas Party Pre-Christmas fun and nibbles. Following the format that has been popular for the past few years.

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Cheshire and District Ornithological Society – CADOS

Indoor Meetings

Date Subject Speaker

Thu 27 Sep Taiwan Roger Wilkinson

Thu 01 Nov Mexico Greg Roebuck

Thu 06 Dec Birding East Anglia Nick French

Outdoor Meetings

Date Destination Leader

Sat 25 Aug Migrants Ron Shewring 0151 339 0696

Sat 08 Sep North Wirral Roger Wilkinson 01244-381343

Sat 20 Oct Migrant Mystery Tour Nick French 01829-271945

Broxton Barn Owl Group – BBOG

Date Destination Leader

May – Sep Barn Owl Ringing Various Locations

Jenny 01829 771 628

Sep – Nov Owl Box Field Works Various Locations

Jenny 01829 771 628

02 Oct 7 pm

BBOG AGM Meadowbank Farm, Broxton Venue to be confirmed

Steven Prince

01829 770525

In Memoriam: Malcolm Leigh

By Norman Sadler

Malcolm Leigh passed away in June. For many years he was both a member of the RSPB Chester Group and one of the original Friends of Caldy Valley and worked on both committees. He would often be seen manning stalls at various events for our group and collected stamps for recycling. He was one

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of the original Young Ornithologists' Clubs (YOC) leaders.

In recognition of his efforts with the Friends of Caldy they named the small scrape, which he dug out, on the right of the inner path from the blue bridge towards the children‟s play area “Malcolm‟s scrape”.

He organised the making and installation of nest boxes in the cathedral grounds and again in Grosvenor Park, which are still active. He erected the original bird & bat boxes in the Caldy Valley.

Malcolm will be greatly missed by Caldy Valley Friends and RSPB Chester Local Group.

Swift conservation: nest box scheme for target areas

By Roger Nutter

Members of Chester Group started the Chester Swift Conservation Project three years ago to raise awareness of the alarming fall in breeding swift numbers in the UK.

Working with partners including Chester Zoo Wildlife Connections, Cheshire Wildlife Trust, rECOrd and CWAC, the Project‟s survey work in Chester in 2016 and 2017 confirmed a fall in breeding swift numbers of 46% since 1995, mirroring the statistics nationally. The reasons for the fall are complex but part of the problem is the renovation of old buildings and construction of new developments, which do not provide suitable sites for nests.

Project members have been talking to schools and community groups about the possibility of installing artificial nest sites (boxes and bricks) on suitable buildings. Last year, the Queens School put four swift boxes up near existing natural nest sites on it buildings near the city walls and installed a mini-amplifier to play attraction calls. Discussions with the University of Chester and a local social housing company aimed at installing swift boxes and bricks into new-build developments are at an advanced stage. Project members recently organised two swift walks in June 2018 in Hoole and Great Sutton, as part of the first-ever UK Swift Awareness Week.

Swift in brick

©Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)

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We are now proud to announce that we have just secured funding from The Naturesave Trust to support swift conservation in target areas around Chester. This will help us to increase the availability of suitable nest sites around Chester by offering subsidised box installations in areas near existing swift colonies. Areas we are targeting include Upton, Newton, Hoole, Handbridge, Garden Quarter, Vicars Cross and Boughton. The Naturesave Trust, a registered charity, was founded in 1995 by Naturesave Insurance of Totnes in Devon to fund environmental and conservation projects in the UK.

Please let us know if you or someone you know would be interested in having a swift box installed on your home. Even if you‟re not in a target area, we can help with sourcing boxes and advice on installation. Please e-mail the group RSPBChester@googlegroups.com

Cheshire and Wirral Bird Report 2015

By Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society (CAWOS)

We are delighted to say that the annual Bird Report for 2015 is now available. This year‟s eye-catching colour front cover is a stunning second-calendar-year Laughing Gull.

Articles include; western sandpiper discovered back in 2012, the discovery of the first Surf Scoter for Cheshire and Wirral, how visiting birders upstaged the locals after finding the 1st-winter laughing gull on New Brighton Marine Lake and how 2015 was a good year for Cetti‟s Warblers.

There is a full systematic list of birds recorded in Cheshire and Wirral during 2015 plus a species index.

The Bird Report is free to Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society members (ordinary membership costs £12), otherwise, it costs £8 + £2 p&p and copies are available from: David Cogger, 71 Parkgate, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 8HF, Tel: 01565 228 503, Email: davidcogger@cawos.org

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My First Twitch – The Spotted Sandpiper

By Shirley Bain

Well, the transformation is complete, Ken has believed for a while that I had crossed to „the dark side‟, that is from keen birder to twitcher and I must admit he is probably right!

It all started on the 26 January with an innocent „WhatsApp‟ message from my son‟s girlfriend, Gabi, who was training on the canoe slalom course at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham. It went something like this, „there‟s a load of twitchers at the course this morning, looking at a spotted sandpiper‟. Yes, I was a bit envious. I had seen a sandpiper that day up on the Wirral, a purple one, but that seemed a little less exciting now. Due to work and other commitments, I put it from my mind, another one that got away. All was well until my son commented a couple of weeks later how surprised he was that I had not found an excuse to visit him and see „that bird‟. I could scarcely believe my ears, it was still there!!

Well, it was just too much to resist, the lure of the spotted sandpiper and brunch with my eldest son! I set off before dawn on a chilly Friday morning to Nottingham watching a fantastic sunrise along the way.

As it was a few weeks after its first appearance, the flurry of birders had settled and there were just a couple of others looking for the bird. I had also been told to watch out for the long-tailed duck and it was showing beautifully.

It was not long before we caught sight of the spotted sandpiper and it was a beautiful bird. It seemed surprisingly unconcerned by the kayakers training on the whitewater course and set about

feeding on the banks, later flying across to the regatta course and staying quite close for excellent views and photos too.

Brunch with David and Gabi followed to make this a great day. I will keep an ear to the ground next Autumn/Winter as I gather this is an excellent place for the more unusual ducks, etc. I can always use the excuse that I‟m just going for brunch, honest!!

Thanks to Gabi, firstly for the tip off but secondly for being so close to not one but two rarities this year. Recently a green heron was spotted in Narbeth, South Wales, only 5 minutes from where she lives.

Spotted sandpiper ©Shirley Bain

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Springtime in the Scillies

By Liz McClure

This was a wonderful break, blessed with good weather while the rest of the UK was stormy, albeit it was a little chilly at times.

The storm was so bad on the way the “Scillonian” was cancelled due to very rough seas but fortunately, the company got us there by Airbus with a favourable wind. On our arrival, the weather promptly improved.

Guided by Will Wagstaff who leads birding and other trips worldwide but is at home in the Scillies, being part of their culture, we were not allowed to make many guesses.

We had boat trips and island circuits, often both together of course. We visited Bryher, St Martin‟s, the Eastern Isles and Tresco.

The birds were not as ubiquitous as we had hoped but it was a rather late spring. The snowy owl on St Martin‟s as we arrived had the audacity to fly to Norfolk before we sighted it.

Many of our usual species were seen but the herring, greater and lesser

black-backed gulls were added to by a fabulously white Icelandic gull – would we have missed it?

The shrubbery and coastal paths revealed linnets (linnit, linnit they said), wheatear, song thrush, chaffinch, stonechat pair, dunnock, rock pipit, meadow pipit, willow warbler, greenfinch, chiffchaff, blackcap, black pheasant, golden pheasant and the ever-present wren, of these there were hundreds singing madly all day. Will did wonder if they were slightly different like the St Kilda Wren is but they haven‟t been classified as a separate species.

As for the blackbirds, when Liz saw one with a bright red bill there was great excitement, was it a chough? But no, all the blackbirds on Scilly have orange/red bills!!

As for the pied flycatcher, again Liz was told it was probably a very white male stonechat, I was not convinced as it was me that saw it, unconfirmed of course.

Wren ©Liz McClure

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The birds seen mainly at sea or on the cliffs and shoreline included puffin, gannets, buzzard, merlin, peregrine, sandwich tern, raven, cormorant and large gangs of shag with beautiful crests. Great northern divers were also fairly frequently seen, fulmar, swallows, oystercatcher, razorbill, guillemots, accompanied by a large number of Atlantic grey seals.

With both Peter and Liz vying over finding and identifying plants, we found at least as many of these, many Scilly variants, as we did the birds. Many Echium as in Madeira, a lot of tropical plants in Tresco, Euphorbia mellifera, hemlock, water dropwort to name a few but one of the most exciting days was to the whole group on hands and knees with bottoms in the air searching for the Scilly pansy!! What a blessing we found it, only the size of a quarter of a 5th fingernail. And in the vicinity, perhaps one of the best birds, a yellow wagtail feeding where the cattle were turning over the grass.

Soon time for home but at least we got more gannets and lots of shearwater as we sailed back on the Scillonian in a flat calm.

With thanks to Peter, Chris, Isabelle and Dave for help with the bird and botany listings.

Bee-eaters at Nottingham

By Nick Carey from an idea by Will Sleddon

In the summer of 2017, seven bee-eaters set up residence in CEMEX‟S East Leake quarry near Loughborough, Nottinghamshire. By 25 June they successfully hatched chicks, just the third time this has happened in a decade.

By mid-July 2017, nearly 10,000 people had come to see these spectacular birds. But behind the scenes, RSPB protection staff were guarding three active nests.

24-hour wardening was due to continue until the three nest sites, successfully fledged young.

A fox had been seen and deterred from the quarry several times over several nights.

European bee-eater

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Bee-eaters nest in burrows that reach up to 10ft (3m) often in sandbanks, in which they lay 3-9 white eggs. Bee-eaters are rare visitors to the UK, normally nesting in southern Europe. Bee-eaters previously nested in the UK in 2015, when two pairs set up home at Low Gelt sand quarry near Brampton in Cumbria. But by early August it was reported that the nests had failed. Mark Thomas, RSPB senior investigations officer, wrote in his blog; " We suspect this is a natural failure probably linked to food provision for the young.

Despite being able to lay up to 9 eggs, bee-eaters typically hatch 3-4 eggs and if a helper is not assigned to a nest then it is only expected that 1-2 young will survive, even in good weather with a profusion of insect prey.

Yesterday the third nest had an adult bee-eater sitting in it and later in the day this bird was taking food back to the nest but it is clearly operating alone. Last night the adult birds did not roost in their nest holes.

This morning no bee-eaters have been seen associating with the nests!”

Please remember that bee-eaters are a Schedule 1 species and their nests are protected from disturbance.

Last year, the bee-eaters could be seen by following your sat nav to LE12 6RG. The car park opened from 6am-7pm at a cost of £5 (half of which went straight back to the RSPB to help protect the wildlife you love).

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Field Trip Reports

Halebank – 08 April 2018

By Helen Wilson

A rather misty, chilly April day saw RSPB Chester Group meeting at Caldy early to travel to the banks of the River Mersey at Halebank.

We travelled over the new, impressive Mersey Gateway Bridge to Hale Village. One of our group took a wrong turning on the other side of the bridge and we had to catch him up to point him in the right direction, of course, it wasn't his fault he says, notice no names mentioned!

The name Hale is thought to derive from an Anglo-Saxon word (halh) meaning a corner or angle of land, which perfectly describes Hale's position on a promontory on the north bank of the river Mersey.

We were meeting Bill Morton, he of Frodsham Birder fame. He knows both banks of the Mersey in this area very well, spending a lot of time here. Bill is a good friend of RSPB Chester Group; having led walks in the past on Frodsham Marsh and has given us interesting talks at our indoor meetings. Have a look at his blog at: https://tinyurl.com/yda8dfbd

There were 11 of us altogether, all wrapped up against the damp and cold, wellies and hats being the order of the day.

We started off walking through the wooded area of Hale Park. Here we saw a lovely song thrush and some discussion ensued on how to recognise the difference between a song and the larger mistle thrush, there were plenty of the usual woodland species as well.

Emerging from the woods we walked across farmland until we reached the path that runs alongside the river towards Hale Lighthouse at Hale Head. This area is alive with butterflies in the

summer but far too cold today. We spent some time watching wheatears, perching on grassy hillocks defending their territory. Above us several skylarks were displaying, so high we could hardly see them, continuously singing their liquid warbling song, the sound of spring.

Near the lighthouse, we had good views of a small flock of black-tailed godwit and the bigger curlew. The odd redshank was searching for molluscs and crustaceans and were tricky to spot as they blended in well with their environment.

Linnet ©Richard Sayle

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I saw my first swallow of the season darting over the cultivated fields feeding on early insects.

As we headed east past the lighthouse Bill heard a brambling and after some hunting, we all eventually got a view of it, perched in a bush by the side of the path.

There were some good views to be had over the Mersey towards Frodsham Marsh where there was a large flock of pink-footed geese.

Looking towards the industrial buildings of Western Point Bill tried to assure us that the tiny grey smudge in his scope was a peregrine on top of the blue chimney, we believed you Bill, thousands wouldn't! But when we got the chance to view the bird through a scope, the bird was gone.

On reaching the end of Within Way, looking towards Pickering Pasture, we spent some time looking at an unusual shelduck that was some sort of cross between an ordinary shelduck and a ruddy shelduck as it was rather ruddy in colour.

On the mudflats, we could see little egrets and black-backed gulls. The tide was well out so many birds had dispersed far and wide to feed on the mud flats.

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In the distance was the Silver Jubilee Bridge and on top of it was a peregrine, so said Bill. As the bridge is two miles away, the bird was rather small, even through a scope. Thanks again to Bill who gave us some interesting insights into the area and found us some great birds.

Dawn Chorus – 05 May 2018

By Norman Sadler

On Sat 05 May, fifteen stalwarts braved the “stupid o‟clock” start for a walk around the Countess of Chester Country Park. Even those that moaned about the inordinate hour seemed to enjoy it. Although planned as a “dawn chorus”, we started a good half hour after sun-up. The weather was calm but overcast, so supposedly good for a dawn walk. This was our start to “dawn chorus week”, a nationwide initiative to get folk to appreciate this wonderful time of the season.

This country park area of Chester is a wonderful jewel near to the heart of the city, right behind the hospital. If you have not been, it is well worth a visit. Paths are paved, so accessible for wheelchairs. There is a mix of woodland (short woodland stroll, not so friendly for wheelchairs), scrub, wetland, open fields and the canal stretch. Plenty of hedgerows and scrub and picnic tables for families. The area is enjoyed by dog lovers and joggers and even birders!

Highlights heard, if not necessarily seen, were swallow (even if the female was not, as promised, sitting on the nest under the bridge), sedge warbler, reed warbler, whitethroat, garden warbler, blackcap, chiffchaff.

Of course, the usual suspects that really make the dawn tuneful were out in force; robin, chaffinch, linnet, wren and our most underrated but still glorious, blackbird. I recorded 34 species, which for the short morning out, was not a bad haul.

Finally, most of us went to the pub next to the Premier Inn for a full English breakfast.

Whitethroat ©Richard Sayle

Impeckable GRP nest boxes and bird feeders. Now with grey squirrel proof inlaid laser cut stainless steel entrance hole rings: please ask for details:- Email: info@impeckable.co.uk www.impeckable.co.uk Tel:07554 385 878 www.swift-conservation.org Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/y7ds95lx actionforswifts.blogspot.co.uk

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Warburton’s Wood – 16 May 2018

By Roger Nutter

This little wood by the River Weaver was completely new to me, as it probably was for most of the dozen or so people that joined us on a sunny evening in mid-May. The way we advertised it online must have looked very appealing, as we were joined by two birders who had driven down especially from Bury!

A yellowhammer sang to us as we parked our cars at the end of a farm track and was still there when we got back two hours later. Other typical farmland species were seen while walking down the track to the river, notably nesting house martins and swallows at the farmhouse and nearby barn.

The track through the ancient woodland was an uphill climb away from the river, with some huge trees and thick

understorey in places. Plenty of birds were heard, although many were quite hard to see, e.g. chiffchaff, song thrush, coal tit and goldcrest. Unusually we didn‟t find any woodpeckers or nuthatch. The plant life in the woodland was rich, however. Among those, we found on the ground were; wild garlic, primrose, wood anemone, dog‟s mercury, bugle, red campion and yellow archangel, the trees included wild cherry and, we think, small-leafed lime. After crossing a poplar plantation that held very little wildlife, we started walking downhill to the river through more open scrubby woodland, where willow warbler and blackcap were singing and we saw swifts soaring above us. The river itself was very quiet, with only mallard and a heron on show.

Just after all the cars had left for home and I was closing our car door, a lesser whitethroat started singing in the field hedge next to us. We tried to stalk it without disturbing it but that‟s a tall order for this species, so we only got a very brief view as it dashed away over the next hedge.

Thanks to John Chapman for guiding us around such an interesting spot and to Liz McClure for coordination and her field notes.

Yellowhammer

©Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)

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Anglesey – 03 June 2018

Pat Cameron

This was my first trip with the group to Anglesey and was a truly memorable day.

Our first stop was RSPB Valley Wetlands where our group of 11 met up. The first birds heard were wrens and Cetti's warblers as we walked from the car park. Whitethroat, reed and sedge warbler were both seen and heard as we walked along the paths followed by skylarks and meadow pipits.

Our Botanists in the group enthused over the orchids seen and even at this relatively early part of the day butterflies were plentiful with lots of small heath and common blues.

We then spent two hours at a very busy RSPB South Stack to see the guillemots, razorbills, gulls and puffins.

We all saw the famous Anglesey flower, spatulate fleawort, in full flower close to Ellin's Tower, as well as other interesting botanical specimens.

The party then split, some taking the coastal path (myself included) and we saw linnets and a stonechat and a few butterflies. The others went either to the lighthouse, to see the puffins from the steps or went to the top of South Stack.

Just as were leaving to go on to our next site, choughs were seen by Ian in his search for a missing member of the group!! Others in our group had already seen them!

Our next visit was to Cemlyn Bay to see the tern colony which reportedly had much-reduced numbers from last year due to predation (allegedly by otters) in 2017.

Only 328 sandwich tern nests were recorded this year compared to over 3,000 birds last year. Ian enthused over the sighting of a single black guillemot that Roger had first sighted in the bay. Sand martins were seen in the car park.

On the headland we saw the most stunning painted lady butterfly.

A decision was made to go to RSPB Cors Ddyga as no-one had been there before, again we were not disappointed. It has been developed recently with a circular trail walk and although we could hear Cetti's and reed warblers they weren‟t seen. There was not enough time to do the area justice.

Stonechat © Richard Sayle

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As the day drew to an end eight of us went into Conwy, on the recommendation of one of the party to the Archway Fish and Chips shop and dare I say it, again, we were not disappointed!!!!

An impressive 73 bird species were recorded as well as all the damselflies and butterflies mentioned above, together with wall brown and pearl-bordered fritillary. Cinnabar moth and a four spotted chaser dragonfly.

A wonderful full day was had by all. Many thanks to Roger for all his organisation.

Leighton Moss Coach Trip – 16 June 2018

By Richard Sayle

“I promise you sightings of marsh harriers”, said the nice man greeting us on arrival at Leighton Moss. And, for once, it was not a case of “you should have been here yesterday” or “you should try tomorrow” because there were, indeed, several sightings of this magnificent bird swooping and diving across the reserve, sometimes right in front of the hides. Indeed, Ian, Margaret and Liz got a view a little closer than expected when a marsh harrier was disturbed by them and flew just a few feet away. Too much of a surprise for a photo though…

The nice man also suggested otters and bitterns were about the reserve. Absolutely no luck with otters but Nick saw a nesting bittern fly by one of the hides; much less fortunate were the rest of us spending some patient time waiting, waiting, waiting.

Leighton Moss benefits from several features. There are seven hides in all, although two, closer to the coast, require a fairly long walk to reach them. On this occasion, many avocets and some shelduck were visible to those who ventured that far. The Skytower presents excellent views if you don‟t mind heights but during our visit, which was not blessed with great weather, lingering long with little to see apart from plastic decoy common terns (yes, really) may have induced frostbite.

Elsewhere, a longer walk out to the Lower Hide had little to commend it apart from close views of reed warblers nesting nearby and many reed buntings which seem to be proficient on this reserve.

The Public Hide gave views of gadwall and one persistent young great crested grebe which gave the parent bird no respite in its demands for food. Who‟d be a parent? Also, frequently observed were little egrets busy doing more flying than is often the case. Cetti‟s and sedge warblers were, as usual, wonderful to hear and lucky to be glimpsed.

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Perhaps the best place for views and budding photographers was the lookout right next to the visitor reception.

Here, relatively common birds such as great tits, blue tits and chaffinches could be seen and heard from just two or three yards away; no matter how often such birds are to be seen, it’s always a pleasure to get so close. In addition, scarcer marsh tits were present there and bullfinches of both sexes together with a juvenile, looking quite exotic with its golden-brown plumage.

On the whole, we visitors were not well served by the weather. After some weeks of warmth, this day was one for rain, especially further North, and, boy, did it bucket down in the afternoon! Nevertheless, Leighton Moss is blessed with a great cafe and food, which was a welcome relief to all of us at some stage in the day. It was also good to see that over half of trippers were not members, giving opportunities for conversations and recruitment. On the other hand, having a bus that was only half full makes it unlikely that there will be a coach trip next year, unfortunately.

Many thanks to Viv for organizing the trip which, despite the weather, was enjoyed by all.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to all the writers who provided articles for the newsletter. If readers are considering writing something for the newsletter then please contact me, Nick Carey via Tel: 01928 574 502 or RSPBChester@googlegroups.com

If you no longer wish to hear from RSPB Chester Local Group, please contact RSPBChester@googlegroups.com confirming your name and address and stating that you wish to unsubscribe from the RSPB Chester Local Group’s communications.

RSPB England is part of the RSPB, the UK’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home. Together with our partners, we protect threatened birds and wildlife so our towns, coast and countryside will teem with life once again. We also play a leading role in a worldwide partnership of nature conservation organisations.

The RSPB is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no.SC037654

Any advertisements enclosed with this newsletter are not specifically endorsed by the RSPB or the RSPB Chester Group.

Juvenile Bullfinch ©Richard Sayle