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1
Committee
Group Leader Martin Johnson
Treasurer Malcolm Ingram
Membership Secretary Penny Chatfield
Indoor Meetings Kathy Blackmore
Raffle Janet Southwood
Fundraising Colin Hawkins
Newsletter Editor Val Thompson
Publicity Helen Lumley
Member Jean Crystal
Editorial
Welcome to your latest newsletter.
A big thank you to everyone who has contributed an
article, keep them coming!
I hope you find the content varied and interesting.
Please let me have any articles you would like to
share with the group or any suggestions for topics
you would like covered.
Val
Female Smew Landing, Rutland Water (Martin Johnson)
Group Leader Welcome
Welcome to you all and, in particular, welcome to
those of you who are new to the Local Group. We
reach another milestone with our 20th newsletter
and once again many thanks are due to Val for
putting it all together. If you are reading a paper
copy, be aware that this newsletter will also be
available as an electronic (PDF) file, which can be
found on our web site
(www.rspb.org.uk/groups/hitchinandletchworth), until
the next issue of the newsletter is produced.
Receiving the newsletter in electronic form cuts
down on our overheads and reduces the amount of
paper used.
Our programme of indoor and outdoor meetings for
next season (2017-18) will, as usual, be available
for collection at the AGM (5 May) and these
meetings will also be listed on the ‘events’ page of
our web site by the time of the AGM. We have, I
believe, had an excellent season of talks and field
trips and I hope and expect that next season’s
programme will be at least as good!
I will, as always, be putting together a short
programme of spring walks for the months of May
and June, which will also be listed on the web site.
A ‘hard copy’ list of these walks (which will include
the traditional half day visit to Thetford Forest) will
also be available at the April and May indoor
meetings. Enough of me - now it’s time to enjoy the
newsletter!
Martin
RSPB HITCHIN AND
LETCHWORTH LOCAL GROUP
NEWSLETTER
Editor: Val Thompson April 2017: No 20
2
Fundraising and Publicity
We raise money for the RSPB in a variety of ways.
We are grateful to all of you who attend our indoor
meetings and help with fundraising by purchasing
second hand books, cards, sales goods, pin badges
and raffle tickets.
The “100 Club” for 2017 attracted 45 numbers,
meaning that we will be donating £270 to the RSPB
as well as handing out lots of prizes – if you
purchased a number we hope that you will be a
winner!
Great white egrets and heron, RSPB Dungeness (Martin Johnson)
Thanks to everybody who continues to bring in used
stamps – these all contribute to the “Save the
Albatross” appeal.
Publicity is very important to us for attracting new
members and raising the profile of our group in the
local community. In addition to publicising our
activities in newspapers and magazines and on the
internet we will again have a presence at both the
Letchworth Festival and the Shefford Fete this year
and we are always looking to break new ground in
similar local events in the future. If you know of or
are involved in other events to which we might be
invited, do alert committee members to the
possibilities!
Indoor Meetings
By the time you read this the indoor meetings
season will be nearly over and I hope that you’ll
agree that Kathy Blackmore put together a splendid
programme of speakers. Highlights are too many to
mention, but for sheer image quality Bill Coster’s
‘sound and light’ show in January, featuring The
Shetland Islands, will be hard to beat whilst Peter
Holden’s talk on migration at the February meeting
was a truly inspirational ‘tour de force’. Next
season’s programme of indoor meetings has
already been finalised – you can find out more
about it when the full programme is distributed at
the AGM, or look at the details on our web site then.
Outdoor Meetings
Whilst this season’s indoor meetings programme is
nearly over there are still many field trips left to
enjoy, including coach trips to Frensham Ponds
(April), RSPB Minsmere (May) and RSPB
Strumpshaw Fen (June), as well as the spring
walks. Please remember to bring your RSPB cards
with you when visiting RSPB reserves – otherwise
you may be charged as a member of the public. The
weather gods haven’t been too kind to us this
season, but we’ve put up with wind, rain, flooded
hides and motorway closures with good spirits and
made the best of whatever has been thrown at us.
The enthusiasm and optimism displayed by our
members on coach trips have been genuine and
heart-warming and we’re grateful to you all for your
good humour!
Of course we’ve seen plenty of sunshine and great
birds and other wildlife on these trips, examples
being red-necked grebe, Slavonian grebe, long-
tailed duck, ruddy duck, smew, goosander, water
rail and great white egret – and that was just on the
own transport trip to Rutland Water in December! Of
course we don’t just concentrate on the rarities on
these visits – everybody is encouraged to walk and
watch at their own pace and to learn from others or
simply from watching the behaviour of some of our
commoner species. The committee and trip leaders
are well aware that if you enjoy your trip you’ll come
back for more, but if you don’t…you won’t!
Marsh tit, Lynford Arboretum (Martin Johnson)
3
From Brown Owl to Barn Owls
By Kathy Blackmore
I am a Yorkshire lass and although I have not lived
there since I went to university (no dates given!) I
still feel a real affinity with the county. We regularly
visit Yorkshire to go to some of my favourite places
from my younger days including Bolton Abbey,
Haworth and the Yorkshire coast. Today I am
saddened when we visit the upland areas to see so
very few raptors, lots of red grouse on the moors but
only one kestrel to be seen on a visit last year. I
signed Mark Avery’s petition - did- did you?
Revisiting scenes of my youth is not all bad
however. In 2015 we went to Bempton Cliffs and far
from the windswept (both inside and out) wooden
hut that we knew and loved there is an extensive
visitor centre with retail opportunity and a café! The
birds are still stunning and if you haven’t been to
Bempton, make a date in your diary for the summer
months when breeding is in full swing. Of course
there is change in the birds there too, sadly far
fewer puffins than there used to be and the gannetry
has expanded in terms of numbers as well as
moving along the cliffs towards the visitor centre –
we used to have to do a bit of a hike to the far end
of the reserve to see a gannet in days of yore.
My first job was with ICL as a Personnel Officer but
after a bruising redundancy process I left to work as
an unqualified social worker in Berkshire. Children
came along, as they do, and I did what most of my
contemporaries did, I gave up work to have a family.
During this time I began my obsession with owls
becoming Brown Owl to prevent the local Brownie
pack closing down. My daughters and I loved pond
dipping (water scorpions a bit of a favourite) and
collecting all manner of natural bits and bobs. Most
notable of these being a scrapbook of bird feathers
collected on walks, gardens and zoos and a rather
heavier collection of fossils, most of which were
either found on the beach or dug out of the
Yorkshire clay cliffs with one of my Mum’s
teaspoons from her kitchen drawer. I am pleased to
say that my daughters still have their love of nature
and my granddaughter has also inherited the gene.
I did of course return to work when my children were
at school and nursery, first of all volunteering to
teach adults literacy and numeracy. This began a
career of over 25 years in adult education
sometimes referred to as the life-long learning
sector. As a tutor I worked with adults with specific
needs including mental health, learning difficulties
and physical disability. After some years I moved
within the local authority to specialise in providing
careers, education and training advice to the
general public and spent many satisfying years
providing advice and guidance to support individuals
to learn and develop career planning skills.
Education and learning are an essential part of our
human state and one of the things I love about
birding is that there is always so much more to
learn.
Although a member of the RSPB for many years it
was on retirement that I became what you would
recognise as a ‘birder’. Peter and I have thrown
ourselves into volunteering at The Lodge, hanging
round with better birders to improve our skills, going
on specific wildlife holidays and buying better kit to
support our ageing eyes. We have, of course,
continued to include birding in our regular walks
down the farm at the end of our road on which we
regularly see skylarks, corn buntings,
yellowhammers, reed-buntings, grey and yellow
wagtails and once an osprey carrying his dinner
towards Stanford Woods! And we often see barn
owls. We had the privilege of being able to go onto
the farmland and for a couple of summers staked
out a nest box which was very easily visible from a
rise a little distance away (sadly trees have now
grown to spoil the view). We were treated to views
of the adults hunting and returning with prey, we
could hear the hissing calls of the young as their
parents neared the box and later the three chicks
could be seen dancing on the ledge outside the box
in hungry anticipation. How lucky am I?
Kathy and new friend (Val Thompson)
4
Vultures – Saving Nature Abroad
By Steph Morran, RSPB Species Recovery Officer
In September 2016 I spent a month in India (Pinjore,
Haryana) working on the vulture project with my
colleague Nick Phillips. The project, to halt the
dramatic decline of three species of Gyps vultures,
has made huge strides in the last 15 years or so.
The first step required scientists to identify the
cause of the vultures’ dramatic decline: a veterinary
drug called diclofenac which is given to cattle in
Asia. The next step was lobbying for a ban on the
veterinary use of diclofenac, which finally happened
in 2006. Multidose vials of human diclofenac were
also banned in 2015. In the meantime, successfully
breeding all three species in captivity has been
ground-breaking. Now the focus will be to take the
next steps to secure a sustainable population of
these magnificent birds. Below is an update on what
we got up to, and where the project is going next.
The breeding centre at Pinjore is an impressive
place! There are 240 captive vultures of the three
different, critically endangered, species: oriental
white-backed, slender-billed and long-billed. Human
contact is kept to a minimum and high quality cctv
cameras point to each of the main aviaries, so the
staff are able to observe the vultures from a safe
distance several times each day. Vultures are
remarkably clean, and after each feed they will
bathe and preen extensively! They also regularly
open their massive wings and flap, to keep their
pectoral muscles strong. You have to have a strong
stomach to witness feeding time. The vultures are
fed, twice a week, entirely on goats as cows are not
killed in this part of India.
Breeding aviary (Steph Morran)
Once a year around September, the vultures are
rounded up for a health check. Young birds are
fitted with a microchip and leg rings, and are sexed
using DNA analysis as it is impossible to tell males
and females apart by sight. As many adults as
possible are also caught and checked. This is a
huge undertaking as catching birds of that size and
strength is quite a feat! This annual event requires
all hands on deck to get it done as quickly as
possible to minimise the disturbance to the birds.
“Open wide” (Monomita Mukherjee)
The staff at the centre at Pinjore, and the other
breeding centres in India and Nepal, will continue to
breed and look after the birds, but in time the birds
will be released into the wild. In order to do this,
there is now a big focus on advocacy and
communications to stop the illegal use of diclofenac
for treating cattle.
Educating people on alternatives to diclofenac and
explaining that vultures are critical for human health
due to their natural and rapid removal of carcasses,
is vital. We hope that this will lead to people no
longer using diclofenac and therefore vulture safe
zones can be created for the birds to be released. In
2016 the Indian government pledged to donate
£200,000 per year to the programme which was
great news and will help RSPB, Bombay Natural
History Society and other partners to continue the
programme of work, and eventually be able to say
that the vultures are saved.
5
My Weekend on Stewart Island, New Zealand
By Janet Southwood
At the end of 2015 I went on an amazing three-
month trip to New Zealand visiting both North and
South islands and the lesser known Stewart Island.
Although it wasn’t strictly a bird watching trip I
managed to see a few New Zealand endemics
along the way, including kaka, kea and kiwi.
Kaka (Janet Southwood)
One of the highlights of my trip was spending a
weekend on Stewart Island which lies just off the
southern coast of South Island. After a rather stormy
night staying at the Southern Comfort Backpackers
in Invercargill, the most southerly city on South
Island, I drove down to Bluff to catch the 11am
passenger ferry to Oban, Stewart Island. After an
hour of rough seas we arrived safely in Oban and
after retrieving my luggage I made my way to the
Stewart Island Backpackers where I was staying for
the next two nights.
Oban harbour (Janet Southwood)
Stewart Island, or Rakiura as it is known by the
Maoris, has about 400 permanent residents, with
most people living in and around Oban. The small
township boasts a theatre, fish and chip shop and
two visitor centres as well as a few small shops. The
Department of Conservation visitor centre is the
best place to find out about the trails and wildlife on
the island. Picking up one of the local trail guides I
began to explore the small bays around the Oban
township. Following one of the coastal paths I
headed off to Golden Bay and up to Wohlers
Monument, passing the island’s golf course on the
way. Red and black billed gulls were common,
along with spotted shags and variable
oystercatchers. A few reminders of home were
present in the form of blackbird, redpoll and
chaffinch.
On Sunday morning I caught a water taxi to Ulva
Island, which lies within the Patterson Inlet of
Stewart Island. Ulva was designated as one of New
Zealand’s first nature reserves in 1899, and covers
an area of 260ha. In 1997 the island was finally
cleared of rats, a devastating predator of New
Zealand’s ground nesting birds. Now predator free
the island became a sanctuary for much of New
Zealand’s threatened wildlife, with birds such as
South Island saddleback (tieki), Stewart Island robin
(toutouwai) and Stewart Island kiwi being
transferred to the refuge.
Stewart Island robin (Janet Southwood)
6
A small group of us arrived on Ulva just after 10am
and had the island to ourselves for a short while. I
decided to follow one of the trails and was soon
rewarded with a Stewart Island robin; I then heard
something rustling in the leaf litter, wow! a South
Island saddleback, a bird I had really hoped to see.
Venturing further on, I then saw kaka, Stewart
Island weka, yellowhead, brown creeper and the
lovely bellbird which became one of my favourite
birds of the trip along with tui.
Weka (Janet Southwood)
At one of the bays I met up with some French lads
who were staying at the same backpackers; they
had gathered some paua shells, a mollusc widely
eaten in New Zealand with its mother of pearl shell
used to make jewellery. They wanted to take them
back to cook later and asked if I had a carrier bag to
put them in, as luck would have it I did. That
evening they managed to prepare and cook them
with a little help, and offered me some to try. I
declined their kind offer as it didn’t look very
appealing. Even they weren’t that impressed with
them after all the trouble they had gone to.
Paua shells (Janet Southwood)
Whilst waiting for the water taxi to take us back to
Stewart Island I got chatting to a couple of
birdwatchers also staying at the same backpackers,
Carl, a Dutch guy, had been lucky enough to find
Stewart Island kiwi on Saturday night on the edge of
Oban. We arranged to meet up again and go
looking for kiwi that night.
After a very enjoyable quiz night held at the
backpackers (my team were joint first) we set off at
midnight to look for kiwi. We headed to the edge of
town where Carl had found the kiwi the night before.
After about an hour of searching and waiting we
heard a kiwi rustling through the grass verge at the
side of the road.
There was a slight glimmer from a street light further
up the road and we could just about make out its
shape. Carl said it was a female bird as she then
wandered out onto the road and circled round us.
She came very close and managed to tread on one
of the guys’ boots. It was a wonderful experience
and they were a great bunch of people to share the
moment with.
Walking back to the backpackers we heard several
morepork calling, one of New Zealand’s owls, which
I was to hear only once more on my trip at Piha on
the North Island.
At 8 the next morning we all caught the ferry back to
Bluff, we had a very smooth crossing unlike our
outward journey. Stewart Island is a great place to
see wildlife close up and has a great community
spirit, I hope to go back sometime soon.
Bellbird (Janet Southwood)
7
What’s in a name? By Val Thompson Most of us will have heard of Montagu’s harriers and
may have been lucky enough to see one but who
was Montagu?
He was George Montagu and he led an unusual,
controversial and scandalous life but at the same
time carried out a slow, methodical and exact study
of natural history of which birds and inshore marine
life were his particular interests.
Born at Lackham House in Wiltshire in 1753, he was
one of 13 children. Aged just 16 he was enrolled as
an Ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot and for the
next five years moved around Britain, mainly
northern England and Ireland. In 1773 he was
promoted to Lieutenant and then rose steadily
through the ranks.
Around 1773 George married Ann Courtenay.
About a year after their marriage he was sent
overseas to serve in the war against the American
Colonies. While there he collected birds and
preserved them as gifts for his wife.
George Montagu (Google Images)
When George’s father died in 1780 the estates and
Lackham House were left to George’s brother
James. He died unmarried in 1797 and left the
estate to George on condition that he lived in one of
the manor houses with Ann. Not only did he not live
there but he moved to Devon and lived with
someone else’s wife, Elizabeth Dorville.
In a plot straight out of a Dicken’s novel, George’s
eldest son, also George, filed a suit in Chancery
against the trustees of the estate because of his
father’s failure to comply with the terms of the will.
The years of legal wrangling led to the loss of most
of the family estate.
In addition to all this, in September 1799 George
was court-martialed on several charges of which he
was found guilty and expelled from the regiment.
This allowed him to concentrate on his natural
history interests and he published a two-volume
Ornithological Dictionary in 1802, with most of the
illustrations by Eliza Dorville.
In the book and its supplement published in 1813,
George showed that many accepted species were
incorrect, such as the “Greenwich sandpiper” which
was a ruff in winter plumage and that the “ash-
coloured sandpiper” was a knot. He refused to
accept the black woodpecker as a British species
because he had not seen it for himself.
Until the beginning of the nineteenth century it was
thought that the “ring-tail hawk” and the male hen
harrier were different species. George kept a young
male in captivity until it moulted from brown to grey
to prove they were the same species.
“Ring-tail” harrier (Google Images)
8
He then discovered a second species of harrier
which he called the ash-coloured falcon and in 1803
gave it the scientific name falco cineraceus but the
bird had already been described and named falco
pyargus by Linnaeus in 1758. William MacGillvray,
the Scottish naturalist, called the bird Montagu’s
harrier in 1836 and it was generally adopted as the
British name.
In the winter of 1800 George discovered cirl
buntings breeding in Devon, a first for Britain but
Linnaeus beat him to the name again. Montagu
was involved with the first British records of cattle
egret, little gull and gull-billed terns. He did write the
first description of roseate tern and is credited with
the first description of American bittern. In his
Ornithological Dictionary he describes wryneck and
red-backed shrike as not uncommon. He also
predicted that the great bustard would be extinct in
Wiltshire in “a few years”.
Montagu described 470 species of molluscs, 100 of
which were new to the British list, he recorded many
species of fish and described the lesser-horseshoe
bat for the first time. He also wrote a Sportsman’s
Directory where he advised would-be duellists how
to stand as they fired!
George Montagu died in 1815 of tetanus after
treading on a rusty nail. He never forgave his eldest
son and left him nothing in his will. His other three
sons had all predeceased him in military action. He
did make bequests to his wife and two daughters
but the main beneficiaries were Eliza Dorville and
the three children they had together.
Two hundred of his bird specimens are in the
Natural History Museum in Tring.
Montagu’s harrier pair (Google Images)
The Thames and Chilterns Bird Atlas By Jane Havercroft
This is a website that covers Bedfordshire,
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and
Oxfordshire, an area of 9000 square kilometres. It
enables distribution maps to be created for bird
species within the area.
The information has been sourced from BTO
surveys such as the breeding bird survey and the
national Bird Atlas 2007-11 surveys. County bird
clubs have also contributed.
When you access the site you can choose a species
and then select from a drop down menu to show
distribution, abundance etc. There is another drop
down menu to choose the date range. Once the
map is displayed there are options to add habitat
features such as water or woodland.
An example is below.
The website address is http://thamesandchilternbirdatlas.org.uk
Give it a go, it’s addictive!
9
Vine House Farm
By Kathy Blackmore
In mid-August last year Val, Peter and I went to
one of the regular open days at Vine House Farm
in Deeping St Nicholas near Spalding. Vine
House Farm is a traditional arable farm passed
down from one generation to the next, and
situated in the Lincolnshire Fenlands.
A wide variety of crops are grown including
potatoes and sugar beet, with some of the land
also farmed organically. Whether organic or not,
all the land is farmed in a way that is sympathetic
to the wildlife that shares our environment with
us. What better foundation is there for a business
that sells bird food? They have won a number of
prestigious awards including the Silver Lapwing
Award for long term commitment to farmland
conservation.
The morning began with a talk by Nicholas Watts
the current patriarch. It was back in 1982 that he
wanted to know what birds were breeding on his
farm, and so he walked his land and recorded all
the birds he saw and heard – something he has
done every year since.
By 1992 he realised there had been a big drop in
numbers so he started to implement ideas to stop
their decline. One of his actions was to feed birds
on a large scale in his farm yards. The results
were spectacular, so he had an open day for
people to come and see the birds that were
feeding. Two or three people asked him if he
could sell them some bird seed, so he duly
obliged. The following year the same happened
the next year and so, largely by accident, the bird
food business started. Momentum has grown
over the years and Vine House Farm now grows
over 400 acres of bird food including black
sunflowers, red millet, white millet, canary seed,
naked oats, wheat and oil seed rape.
For many years Nicholas has been carrying out
systematic research into farmland birds, he
continues to do bird surveys and through these
surveys is able to assess what is needed to
enhance his farm, the activities of the local
drainage board and other farms in the area. He is
always willing to give advice to people interested
in birds and through his work on farmland birds
and conservation, was awarded the MBE in 2006.
The talk was followed by a trip round the farm on
a trailer behind a tractor, with lots of stops to look
at birds and to get more information about
farming methods. The key species for the day
had to be the tree sparrows. There were dozens
of boxes along a hedgerow and the numbers of
tree sparrows had almost to be seen to be
believed. Nest boxes were opened so that we
could see young in the nest and the numbers of
young and numbers of broods are carefully
recorded year on year showing a steady rise in
the population. Interestingly the nest boxes were
at waist height so that monitoring can be carried
out easily even by Tim Nicholas’ grandson who
also had lots he wanted to tell us about the farm,
its birds and his family.
Tree sparrow nest box (Val Thompson
The trip round the farm was followed by a
barbecue of locally sourced products and there
was the opportunity to look round the highly
automated barn in which seed is bagged ready
for dispatch to the many customers.
All in all a good day out and an experience which
demonstrated clearly the possibilities for even
large-scale farming to be done in a way in which
can work with the environment and enhance the
wildlife without being detrimental to business.
10
On a grey blustery day at RSPB The Lodge
By Mags Bailey
They are often heard and not seen
Long-tailed tits weaving through the trees
Now before us on the spreading bracken
Blushing pink, long black tails flicking
Acrobatically feeding on the russet stalks.
And with them tiny round goldcrests
Sporting caps of bright yellow gold
Edged in black, ever exploring,
Beady eye glimpsed, pale, buff green,
Thin whistling contact calling.
Over the field, battered leaves swirling,
Yellowhammer, chaffinch, brambling flocks
Rising, drifting, settling, flashing yellow,
Apricot, brown, black and white hues.
Then speckled fieldfare and redwing scurrying.
Goldcrest (RSPB Images)
Scudding clouds over black corvid shapes,
Erratically flying, excitedly calling, chaotically
Descending to stab the damp earth.
Sky surfing red kite bravely rides the gusts,
Kestrel valiantly hovers to be whisked away.
Moss green woodpecker flies straight and low
Alighting in the branches of a gnarled oak
Its dagger beak silhouetted against the grey light.
Great spotted woodpecker clings to a trunk
Wearing its scarlet lined cloak of black and white.
A patch of glowing orange red in woodland
Belies the robin low down in the branches.
Darkly spotted mistle thrush lies along a branch
Then with short rattling call makes a quick exit,
And all the while the wind turbine is going up.
Green woodpecker (RSPB Images)
11
Lemsford Springs – a hidden gem
By Val Thompson
Arriving at the entrance, it is easy to think that you
must be in the wrong place. Right on a roundabout
with the slip road of the A1M and the old Great
North Road it doesn’t look like the site of a nature
reserve, but in the middle of the row of houses is a
gate. Step through and you are in woodland, with
ponds, marsh and meadow.
Old watercress beds (Betty Cooke)
This 11-acre site used to be a watercress farm and
market garden. From 1860 until 1966, watercress
was harvested all year round and sold at Covent
Garden and local markets. Watercress still grows in
the lagoons which fill from underground springs and
provide a home for shrimps, snail and fish; these
provide food for two of Lemsford Spring’s regular
species, green sandpiper and water rail.
Green sandpiper (Betty Cooke)
There are two hides overlooking the lagoons and we
had very close views of green sandpipers, water
rails, teal and a little egret that was shaking each leg
in turn under the water to disturb the fish.
Little egret (Betty Cooke)
While we were watching the little egret, a fox
crossed the water further down but luckily we
caught sight of it. We waited to see if he
reappeared out of the reedbed but the water rails
and teals that were feeding close by didn’t react so
it must have carried on through.
Mr Tod (Betty Cooke)
As well as the water birds there were lots of
woodland birds including siskins, goldcrests and
tree-creeper. In a visit of two hours we saw 38
species of bird, not bad for a motorway service
area!
The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654
12
Bird Brain Corner
Can you identify the bird in the picture below? No
prizes, but you could get your name in the next
edition of the newsletter.
Thank you to all who submitted a caption, they were
all good but this one from Jane Havercroft just had
the edge.
“Come on Martin! We’ve got to perfectly synchronise
our routine if we’re to get on Strictly...”
My favourite things
Chosen by Andy Lickfold
Most memorable wildlife moment - Sitting down for a rest at the Circle B reserve at Lakeland, Florida, only to find there’s an alligator some 15 feet away. I didn’t know I could move so fast. It was a strange feeling, not being top of the food chain. Favourite bird - Tufted duck. I reckon they have wonderfully expressive faces. I took a picture of two at the London Wetlands Centre. The front one is looking at me quite menacingly, the one behind has an expression which says “Don’t mess with him, he’s not happy!” Favourite reserve – Fowlmere. Although sometimes quiet for birds still a lovely walk. It’s even better when there’s an airshow at Duxford as the planes formate over the reserve. Favourite wildlife book – Simon Barnes ‘How to be a bad birdwatcher’ because I am! Favourite railway loco – A Deltic. My other hobby - nothing to do with wildlife! (I think it should have been the Mallard, Editor)
Ducks with attitude (Andy Lickfold)