Prudential Kennet Valley Park development update

We set out below the text of an article posted on The Southcote Website by a Southcote Councillor. This stresses the risks of development on flood plains in the light of recent and increasingly frequent severe weather conditions affecting not only the UK but elsewhere in the world.

We have been informed the Planning Application will be made in May and it will then be possible to respond with objections as appropriate. There may be some prior opportunity to consider and review the environmental impact assessment. In the meantime, local groups are co-operating together on the matter and preparing for the lodging of the application. It is not appropriate for us to publish all our views on our website but we do welcome any comments from members who feel they would like to help in fighting this proposal or have information or advice about any aspects of it. Please feel free to contact colin.wilson@theroc.org.uk concerning the matter with offers of help or matters of concern.

The ROC is in contact with BBOWT and the RSPB about the impact of the development on birdlife. All records of breeding birds and wildlife in the area concerned are important. Please submit them in the usual way to the ROC, County Recorder or to the other relevant wildlife groups for species other than birds.

Southcote Councillor calls on local residents to oppose water meadow development

Following recent weather reports in the last 24 hours, which have cited up to 80 severe weather warnings around the UK and massive flooding around Carlisle in Cumbria, Northumberland, North Wales and Scotland, Southcote Councillors have again called on local residents and the Council to seriously consider the affects of plans by the Prudential to build around the water meadows.

The plans, which have been drawn up by the Prudential, who have formed a consortium with other land-owners in Kennet Meadows [the land between Reading and the M4], are pressing ahead with their proposals to build 7,500 houses there. It is expected that they will submit a formal planning application by the summer of this year.

Southcote Councillor Chris Swaine, remains deeply concerned about the potential development and the impact it will have on Southcote residents. He says that the plans are fundamentally flawed by not addressing 3 major concerns around the environmental and ecological impact of the development and the sustainability of the development once the developers, who stand to make millions of pounds worth of profit have disappeared off into the night, with their pockets bulging full of loot.

He said “Over the last few years, we have seen increasing devastation caused by flooding around the country – presumably local Councils and residents were coaxed into approving these developments based on developer promises and they are now paying the price.

Residents must be under no illusion that in a few years time, they might well find their houses flooded because of this development. Our meadows are called ‘water meadows’ for a very good reason and they should not be tampered with at the expense of false promises of land and honey.”

Colin Wilson –

Back issues of Ibis for sale

Michael Pallas-Clarke has just given the ROC a set of IBIS from 1991 (vol 133 (i)) to 2004 (vol 146 (4)), which we are offering in return for a donation to the Club’s Conservation Fund. If anyone is interested, please contact me or phone 0787 981 2564). For those unfamiliar with it, IBIS is the journal of the British Ornithologists Union and is one of the major journals of avian science.

Renton Righelato –

Fobney Island: news update, December 2004

With the help of Reading Borough Council – many thanks to Adrian Lawson and his team in Parks & Open Spaces – work has started on Fobney Island to explore how it could be developed into a wetland reserve: reed-beds, shallow pools and wet meadow. The island is the land between the Kennett and Avon Canal and the River Kennett, just to the West of Fobney lock at SU706711. Over the next year we will be doing exploratory work to determine the most practicable ways of creating wet habitats.

In order to monitor flooding more easily and to provide surfaces that may attract gulls, waders and ducks, part of the site has been mown and some areas rotivated. We also drilled a number of holes to get a picture of the subsoil structure and will be monitoring the water table at five spots through the next year. November and December have been relatively dry and so far the water table is well below the soil surface. During this winter we also hope to plant a willow screen between the Kennett bank and the interior of the island and to install owl boxes on the South bank of the river.

It is important to start now building up a database of the wintering, passage and breeding birds using the site, before any changes are carried out. Current wintering species include reed bunting, meadow pipit, stonechat on the rough grassland and good numbers of goldfinches, greenfinches, bullfinches in the scrub and trees along the banks. Little Egrets are seen in the area and I would expect many more wetland species when the site floods, as I am confidently informed it will, over the next month or so.

We need help in building up records of all bird species so do please visit and keep a note of what you see. Help is also wanted to monitor other fauna and the flora of the site. If you can help, please contact me or send in your records.

Try the walk along the Canal bank that takes you on from Fobney through wet meadowland on to the gravel pits at Burghfield and Theale, with the Cunning Man pub conveniently placed for refreshment. There is a car park at Fobney Lock, but beware! It is subject to a lot of vandalism; I often park by the roundabout on the A33 (SU712714) and take the footpath along the river.

Renton Righelato

Hon. Secretary, Reading Ornithological Club
renton.righelato@theroc.org.uk

63 Hamilton Road, Reading, RG1 5RA

tel 0787 981 2564

Renton Righelato –

Photographic Competition 2005 ? Entries invited

The Photographic competition continues this year, on 23 February, with the introduction of a new category for digital images. Additionally, we will have 3 slightly changed categories for slides. Full details are on the attached note with the full details and rules for the competition. Prizes will be announced closer to the time.

This is one of our most eagerly awaited evenings and we hope many of our members, including digiscopers, will take the opportunity to enter their pictures. Digital images need to be sent by email or CD at least two weeks before the event but slides may be delivered on the evening but please bring them as early as possible to assist administration of the event. Good luck to all taking part ? let?s hope 2005 will find yet another wonderful selection of new images to delight us all.

Colin Wilson –

ROC Photographic Competition 2005

This year, 2005, we are continuing our successful competition for slides but will have just three categories: Bird Portrait (perched or in flight); Birds in their habitats (e.g a small bird image in a relevant habitat); Composition and form (not necessarily birds but wildlife or nature subjects).

In addition, we are including for the first time, a digital photography section with a single category for best bird picture.

Each of the four categories will be judged and winners chosen by Gordon Langsbury. The meeting will then, on a show of hands, choose the overall winner who will win the Gordon Langsbury Cup, currently held by Richard Chaplin for his Maribou Storks winner in 2004.

Overall rules

1. The competition is open to paid up members of the ROC. New members may join on the night if they wish.
2. No more than three entries per category per entrant.
3. Entrants agree to winner and runner up photographs being displayed by the ROC on it?s website and used for publicity purposes, at the Club?s discretion. The ROC will make reasonable attempts to ensure acknowledgement is given to photographers whose work is used in this way.
4. Photographs will be judged by Gordon Langsbury based on all factors including exposure, colour cast, focus, composition and form.
5. Photography related prizes will be given in all categories for first place and second place and the overall winner will also win the Gordon Langsbury Cup.

Digital section

1. Photographs will be of birds only ( including ?in habitat? images).
2. Limited image manipulation is permissible but no cloning of the bird image itself. Accordingly, adjustment to exposure, sharpening, colour correction, sensor dust spotting and cropping and resizing is acceptable. It is not permissible to clone any part of bird images, or copy or pass off other people?s work.
3. Images should be resized if possible to 1024×768 and 72dpi. If images are not of this size they will be adapted by the ROC without responsibility for the results.
4. Closing date for entries is 9 February 2005. No changes or additions can be considered after that time. Images should be emailed to colin.wilson@theroc.org.uk or sent on a CD to his home address: Blakeney, St. Catherine?s Road. Frimley Green, Surrey, GU16 9NP. Any questions please telephone 01252 837411.
5. The pictures will be placed in Microsoft Powerpoint and shown as a slide show. Portrait pictures will be expanded to full page height.

Colin Wilson –

Addendum to the Christmas Social

While it makes no difference to the outcome of the result at the ROC Social, the debate about a bird in the identification section raged on after the night and expert views were sought. Gordon Langsbury had taken a lovely image of an immature bird which he recollected was in a flock of Twite. When the picture was shown the assembled throng?s views were split between a Twite and a Linnet. The answers were marked on the basis it was a Twite but after a little banter between the participants expert views were sought. See the bird for yourself here!

The bird was found in October 2003 on Islay and Gordon consulted Malcolm Ogilvie the local Recorder, who after a short while came back with his view it was a Linnet. Our own new County Recorder Chris Heard, was also consulted. He also concluded it was a Linnet. Chris commented ?The extensive grey tones to the head do not occur on Twite, which shows a warm brownish-buff head and breast, with long dark streaks on the flanks. Plus the bill is the wrong colour (in Twite it is conspicuously yellowish-buff with a darker tip in winter; and more-or-less all dark in summer).?

So, we now know the answer and those who chose Twite can remove a point and those who chose Linnet can add one! The outcome will only be that the winning team won by an even bigger margin! I suggest you read the ?Story of the Christmas Social? to find out who they were!

Colin Wilson –

The story of the Christmas Social

For various reasons, I had never previously attended one of these evenings, but I am so glad that I broke that habit! It turned out to be great fun and not a little challenging?

In informal teams of about four, we settled with drinks and snacks to a quiz that challenged knowledge, wit and ingenuity in a series of topic-based rounds, presented by a genial and ingenious quizmaster, Neil Bucknell. Having unravelled folksy and archaic bird names like Stormcock and Dishwasher, we then had to recall the colours of intimate bits of assorted birds: few, it seemed had peered into a Guillemot?s gape! If this was not sufficiently esoteric, plumage parts and European breeding ranges furrowed more than a few brows. By sheer luck I had just been reading an Ian Wallace article on sub-species and was on firm ground (for once!) with the Irish Red Grouse as the most westerly of the three game birds on offer. Of the bird-themed film titles, the one made in 1991 concerning an East-Midlands petty criminal was so neatly and swiftly translated by our team-leader, Martin Sell, into Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves that he left us open-mouthed in admiration! By this time several teams were creeping out into open space ahead of the rest.

We replenished plates and settled back for Gordon Langsbury?s decisive photo round, with all to play for?

This is the evening when the maestro of the camera loves to underline that there is a lot of ?error? in ?trial and error?, because he intersperses the wonderful shots of rarities and more accessible birds with some of those that resemble what most of us take. We all recognised the syndrome, if not the bird, in the shot of the Red Grouse?s inelegant posterior: it might easily have been the Guillemot?s tonsils! Likewise an apparently headless and tailless Hen Harrier filmed in rich and colour-distorting light gave rise to intense – and mostly inaccurate – speculation. Among the rarity shots, even an Isabelline Shrike didn?t fool some. However, it was a most intimate and well-lit picture that engendered some of the hottest debate: was that Twite a Linnet after all? Opinion was sharply divided.

From the point of view of the competition it didn?t matter a lot. Marek Walford, Fraser Cottington, Paul Bright-Thomas and Chris Robinson had been too strong for the rest of us and had a clear six-point win, though the next few teams were close enough to each other for honour to be satisfied.

The inter-round snack-breaks threw down a different sort of challenge, as John Roberts had furnished a celebrities picture quiz that was eventually closely contested by Mike Taylor and Paul Cropper. A raffle added to the bottles and boxes of chocolates that were borne off at the end of the evening by the winners.

It had been a wonderful ?no fuss? evening, smoothly hosted by Colin Wilson and the quizmasters, whose efforts we all appreciated greatly. For Carole White, her committee swan-song had been to organise the booking and catering for the evening, for which she and her aides deserved our thanks.

As for me, I enjoyed myself immensely and shall not be missing the most interactive meeting of the year in future.

Ray Reedman –

Renewable energy and wildlife conservation

An article about the threat to the North Lewis peatlands is attached for you to read. As you can see the RSPB is keen to have help on the rejection of the plan to build a wind farm on what they have explained is a critically important bird habitat. Whatever your views on the difficult choices we face to combat global warming this article should be read and you need to decide which side of the fence you sit upon!

RSPB Scotland have released the following briefing:-

An application has been submitted for an industrial wind farm on the NorthLewis Peatlands SPA. We believe the proposal will have a damaging impact ona huge number of important bird populations including golden eagle,black-throated diver, red-throated diver, dunlin, merlin and greenshank.This is a site of International importance, will you write an objection tothe Scottish Executive to help us save it?

The RSPB’s Position on Wind Power and Other Renewables

The RSPB views climate change as the most serious long-term threat towildlife in the UK and globally. If we are to avert serious disruption tonatural, social and economic systems we need to act now to limit the use offossil fuels that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We thereforesupport the increased use of wind power, as long as wind farms are sited,designed and managed so they do not significantly harm birds or theirhabitats.

The Development Proposal

The proposal by Amec and British Energy is for a 234 turbine, 702MW windfarm on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland. The turbineswill be 140m high to the tip of the blade and be supported by a largeconcrete foundation (approximately 22mx22mx1.5m). The application alsoincludes 167km of roads, nine electrical substations, a control building,nine wind monitoring masts, 210 pylons supporting a network of overheadlines, five rock quarries, eight temporary compounds and four concretebatching plants. All this will take roughly three years to build.

Impacts On Birds

The Lewis Peatlands Special Protection Area (SPA) was classified under theEuropean Council Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (79/409/EEC);the site encompasses an area of 58,984 hectares. The qualifying species are:

• Red-throated diver 80 pairs (9% British breeding population)
• Black-throated diver 13 pairs (8% British breeding population)
• Golden eagle 5 pairs (1% British breeding population)
• Merlin 20 pairs (1% British breeding population)
• Golden plover 1800 pairs (8% British breeding population)
• Dunlin 3400 pairs (37% British breeding population)
• Greenshank 140 pairs (10% British breeding population)

Of all the British SPAs, this has the largest population of golden plover atthe highest densities;it also has the largest population of dunlin. It isalso almost certainly the ‘best’ site in Europe in terms of golden ploverand dunlin.

The developers have attempted to define ‘critical’ areas within the SPA byidentifying those areas most frequently used by red-throated divers,black-throat divers, golden eagle and merlin – it is not possible to do sofor golden plover and dunlin because they occur in such high densitiesacross the entire survey area.

The Environmental Statement (ES) produced by the developer states that:

• 50 golden eagles;and
• 16 red-throated divers are at risk of colliding with the developmentthroughout its 25-year lifetime.

The ES also concludes that:

• 352 golden plover territories;and
• 314 dunlin territories could be displaced during the operation of the windfarm, hundreds more will be affected during construction.
• Merlin, greenshank, whooper swans, greylag geese and corncrakes may alsobe affected by displacement, disturbance or collision.

The ES clearly accepts that for many of the species the level of uncertaintyis simply to high too reach any confident conclusions regarding impacts. Forexample, we know that large numbers of whooper swans regularly migrate overnorth Lewis and may be at risk of collision. We do not believe that such ahigh level of anticipated risk combined with such high levels of uncertaintyis acceptable in an internationally important site.

Impacts On The Peatland

Peat bogs act as an effective mechanism for fixing and storing carbon or’carbon sinks’. The bulk of carbon associated with peat bogs is stored inthe organic soil (peat). Construction on peat bogs can cause erosion of thepeat and a release of stored carbon. The network of roads, turbine bases,pylons and compounds across the site will lead to direct habitat loss, adisruption to the hydrology of the peatland, erosion and potentialpeatslides.

The ES concludes that 577hectares of SPA habitat will be lost or disturbedincluding 152ha of active blanket bog, a priority habitat under the ECHabitats Directive.

The Process

Because this development will affect a European site, the Scottish Executiveare required to consider a series of legal tests as set down in Article 6 ofthe EC Directive on The Conservation of Natural Habitats and Wild Fauna andFlora (EC Directive 92/43/EEC – The Habitats Directive) before consent canbe issued. From our analysis above it is clear that we believe the proposalwill have a significant and adverse effect on the integrity of the site(Test 1). If the Executive agrees, they must then consider whether there areany alternative solutions to this proposal – including other locations ortechnologies (Test 2). They must also consider whether there are ‘imperativereasons of overriding public interest’ which justify allowing such adevelopment (Test 3).

We believe that there are many alternatives to this proposal, which wouldcontribute to both the economy of the Western Isles and to Executiverenewables targets, without damaging an internationally important site.

An International Context

The success of this application would set a damaging precedent for allinternationally important sites. We need to make the Scottish Executiveaware that this application is subject to the widest possible scrutiny.

Further information and the Environmental Statement are available on thedevelopers website:

www.lewiswind.com/es/ES%20Text%20Main.htm

Please Act Now – We need your help

Please read this briefing or have a look at the ES on the web and send anobjection to the Scottish Executive before the 13 December 2004.

Objections received after this date may still be considered at thediscretion of the Executive.

Please send your objections to:

Lesley Thomson, The Scottish Executive, Consents and Emergency PlanningUnit, 2nd Floor, Meridian Court, 5 Cadogan Street, Glasgow G2 6AT

Email: lesley.thomson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

For further information, please contact:Anne McCall, Planning and Development Manager or Andy Myles, Head ofAdvocacy & MediaRSPB Scotland, 25 Ravelston Terrace, Edinburgh EH4 3TP Tel: 0131 311 6500Fax: 0131 311 6569Email: anne.mccall@rspb.org.ukandy.myles@rspb.org.uk Registered CharityNumber: 207076 – August 2003

Thanks very much for taking the time to read this long post.

Colin Wilson –

Golden Oriole bonus for ROC

The exquisite painting by Robert Gillmor of the star bird of 2002 sold last night to Brian Bennet, the finder of the bird, for a handsome sum of £251.

Brian commented that he felt the bird was very special to him having found it in Clayfield Copse, Caversham. It stayed for only 24 hours but he was able to alert many local birders who managed to see this very rare visitor to Berkshire.

Robert Gillmor donated the painting, from which the cover of the 2002 Report was produced, to raise funds towards future Reports. Our sincere thanks go to Robert and Brian for their generosity and support of the ROC.

Colin Wilson –

Where and what to buy for birders at Christmas?

What does the birder want for Christmas? Is it new bins, a scope, a carbon fibre tripod, or maybe a hide clamp? Or for photographers, a new digital camera, an adaptor or an eyepiece, a compact flash card or new camera battery? Local birders have the advantage of London Camera Exchange on their doorstep, in Station Road, Reading. Even more relevant is that LCE offer a discount to all ROC members. Just make sure you mention the ROC when you visit the shop.

If you fancy the discount but haven?t yet joined the ROC just consider the benefits of joining, regular indoor and outdoor meetings, newsletters, the annual Birds of Berkshire reports are free, and discounts are available plus you have the largest Club community of birdwatchers in Berkshire. The additional benefit is also that you will be supporting the Club that pays for the retention and publication of the full records of Berkshire birds on behalf of the County Recorders, something all birders should all care about. And the cost is incredibly small ? just £15 a year and £20 for a family ? maybe this is the gift you want for Christmas!

The ROC is indebted to LCE for many years of sponsorship of the Birds of Berkshire annual reports and they are currently stocking and selling the 2002 Report for us ? you can see it in the window. Please go along and check out their product range this Christmas ? a recent purchase, not in stock, was still available to me the very next day at a fabulous price!

Colin Wilson –