Posts for May, 2022

Over the past 30 years, it has become possible to document the geographical movements and activities of seabirds when they are out of sight and beyond the horizon of the land-bound observer. This has been achieved via electronic devices attached to the birds. It is these findings that form the basis of Michael Brooke’s talk; the depths (up to 500m) reached by diving penguins, the 10,000 km loops undertaken in 20 days by petrels during incubation while the mate incubates, the speeds (130 km/hr) attained by albatrosses blasted across the Southern Ocean by a tailwind.

In this engrossing talk, Conor describes how his search in the archives for 19th Century traces of the goshawk led him to W H Hudson. A life-size oil painting of Hudson hangs above the fireplace in the main meeting room at RSPB HQ in Sandy. The more Conor finds out, the more intrigued he becomes that this once celebrated author and naturalist has been largely forgotten. Delving deeper, Conor discovers an unschooled, impoverished, battle-scarred immigrant who befriended the ‘Bird Society’s’ founding women – the only man in the room when they first gathered in a Croydon drawing room in 1889. By the end, Hudson was so revered that a bird sanctuary and sculpture was created in his memory in Hyde Park, and unveiled by the Prime Minister. Conor’s journey of discovery also takes him on a pilgrimage to Hudson’s South American homeland, to find that Senor Hudson is still revered there, including by the RSPB’s partner organisation. And a project close to Hudson’s childhood home, to create a vast national park, were funded by the British Birdwatching Fair. Conor links Hudson’s life and legacy to today, and compares then and now. A costume drama, with plenty of birds.

Conor had always been intrigued by the mysterious, elusive goshawk. This developed into a fixation, following an unexpected encounter. In this talk he describes heading to the forests of Scotland, and as far afield as New York state and Belorus to find and understand more about this fabled raptor: how it lives, where it lives, and why it might be missing from our lives here in the UK. His search takes him to some unexpected places, at home and abroad. The talk focuses on how this adventure turned into the essay with which he won the BBC Wildlife Nature Writer of the Year award, and then the book, which received a Roger Deakin Award. He will update us on what happened since the book, with some dramatic discoveries thanks to radio-tracking – and some news from Speyside!

We will explore the fascinating wildlife and ecology of this England’s only Natural World Heritage Site. Probably the most biodiverse area in the whole of the British Isles. Its stunning landscapes and geological features, together with an amazing variety of plants and animals, above and below the water will be featured. This presentation is a journey of discovery from its beginning at Exmouth in Devon to Old Harry Rocks in Dorset, we will be travelling through 185 million years of Earth’s history in just 95 miles.

Laurence Rose is a naturalist, writer and conservationist. He first visited India because he was desperate to see a tiger. He was drawn back by the sheer diversity of wildlife and culture, only to return for a third and a fourth time, to research the interaction between the two. This talk combines birds, big cats and people, as witnessed by someone who describes himself as ‘an expert in how little I know about India’. He is the author of Leopard Moon Rising – distant views of India.

This presentation is about my work over the past thirty years and my study of forests around the world. I have travelled from the Arctic through the temperate forests of Britain and Europe. Then on into the tropics and way down into the southern hemisphere. The presentation is about what forest actually is, how it works and how it keeps us all alive. The presentation is about biodiversity and the fascinating ecology which surrounds it. It is about the consequences of long term decline in diversity and what that implies. The presentation begins with a question. Why do trees, woodpeckers, sperm whales, salmon, bears, flies and hummingbirds need each other? The presentation will end with a question. Can we survive without that connection?

Join Alan Davies and Ruth Miller of Birdwatching Trips as they share some of their favourite birds and locations in North Wales which offers exciting birdwatching all year round.

Join Alan Davies and Ruth Miller of Birdwatching Trips as they explore the best birdwatching locations on this Caribbean island packed with endemics.

This area needs no introduction being the capital of eagles in Britain. An amazing 32 pairs of Golden and 22 pairs of White-tailed Eagle not forgetting all those immature birds floating around! But there is a lot more from Corncrake to Puffins to Britain’s best cetacean boat trips to see Minke and Basking Sharks not forgetting getting to grips with skuas and a host of seabirds like Manx Shearwater to Storm Petrels. Mull is now a 12 month of the year destination.

Fifty years ago Blackcaps were regarded as a ‘summer visitor’. Now they are regularly reported in winter from sheltered gardens and river valleys across England. These birds have been shown to be regular migrants from central Europe that appear to have evolved a novel migration and wingtering strategy. Chiffchaffs, too, are increasingly recorded in winter. With milder (really!) winters, birds are able to survive that in earlier times would have perished. Now, an exciting study by French ornithologists has uncovered another newly evolving migration, but this time at a trans-continental level. These, and other, discoveries will be described and discussed in the light of responses to climatic change.