The Silent Spring – Conor Jameson

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Conor Jameson will describe what inspired him to write Silent Spring Revisited. He will look at the impact made by Rachel Carson’s momentous book Silent Spring in 1962, and what happened next, picking out the highlights year by year. This talk reveals the heroism of its author, the flak she took, and her lasting, inspirational legacy.

Conor is an author, conservationist and naturalist. He has written for the Guardian, BBC Wildlife, The Ecologist, the New Statesman, Birdwatch and Birdwatching magazines, and has been a scriptwriter for the BBC Natural History Unit.

 

Photographic Competition 2024

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Our annual photographic competition again and we are once more anticipating the high standard of  images that our members submit! Gift vouchers for the London Camera Exchange are awarded to the three category winners and runners-up, plus the Gordon Langsbury Cup is awarded to the overall winner.

The categories are Portrait, Flight/Action and Birds in Berkshire, so get snapping!

Nest Record Scheme – Lee Barber

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Monitoring nests for the Nest Record Scheme (NRS) is easy to do, with little prior experience required.  This talk will cover what the scheme is about, how to record the information needed, while prioritising the birds themselves.

Lee Barber works for the BTO, coordinating the NRS and several national ringing schemes such as the Constant Effort Site Scheme, Re-trapping Adults for Survival and the Winter Ringing Project. He trains trainee bird ringers to ring birds and monitor their nests safely, while collecting the best information they can.

 

How science can support species recovery – Kevin Cox

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Kevin Cox will talk about species recovery this evening. How science can support declining and endangered species to make a comeback. He’ll cover examples from the UK such as Bittern and Cirl Bunting but also overseas, including Vultures and Blue-throated Macaw. He will also talk about the importance of habitat creation and management as a condition for evidence-based species recovery.

 

Kevin is Chair of Council RSPB. His interest in international conservation led to his involvement with the World Land Trust where he is a Council member and Chair of its trading company.

He is a former Chair of Devon Birds and a member of the BTO, WWT and Devon Wildlife Trust amongst other conservation organisations. He lives in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor where he and his wife manage 150 acres of woodland and meadows as a nature reserve.

Svalbard/Lake Kerkini – Paul Alistair Collins

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

A photographic journey through some of Europe’s great birdwatching hotspots – from Greece’s wetlands and the Spanish Pyrenees, to the icy Arctic tundra. Paul will share the stories and creative process behind his favourite images.

He is a very successful wildlife photographer and camera man based in London. He has won and been highly commended in many competitions since 2005 as a junior entrant. Photography has taken him from the cobalt glaciers of Alaska and the mangrove swamps of Florida to the remote caves of Slovenia and the fierce winter seas of South Africa.

His work has featured in numerous publications including The Guardian, The Times and National Geographic Italy.

Conservation of the Houbara Bustard – Paul Goriup

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

The Asian Houbara is a species of bustard that has a largely migratory population moving between breeding grounds in Central Asia and wintering areas in the Middle East. The bird has been the traditional quarry for falconers who hunt it in winter for sport and also for consumption. However, since the 1960s the intensity of hunting has increased hugely as a result of the growing oil-based wealth of falconers so that hunting now takes place across the entire wintering range (principally Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and the Arabian peninsula). From the early 1990s, conservation organisations have been calling for an international agreement under the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species to put in place conservation measures that can assure the survival of the Houbara. This talk will trace the history of this initiative and the reasons why it has still not been achieved.
Paul is a Chartered Ecologist and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (UK). He holds a joint honours degree (BSc) in Botany and Zoology (Reading), and an MSc in Conservation Science (University College London). He has more than 40 years experience in nature conservation, working in government, international NGOs and the private sector. From 1982 to 1986 he directed the global conservation programme of ICBP – now BirdLife International. He is an invited member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (serving as Chairman of the Bustard Specialist Group for 18 years) and the World Commission on Protected Areas. In 1986, Paul founded and remains the managing director of NatureBureau, a company based in Newbury that carries out ecological research, planning and management projects as well as being one of the UK’s leading publishers of wildlife books under its Pisces brand. Paul is also a Trustee of the Great Bustard Group that has successfully reintroduced the great bustard to Wiltshire.

Birds of Southern Portugal – Jono Forgham

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Life long birder, author, newspaper contributor on natural history, amateur naturalist and leading authority of cheap red wine, Jonathan Forgham, will be returning to our group to give a presentation on The Birds of Southern Portugal.
Jonathan has visited this area on many occasions, most recently in May 2023, and has recorded over 250 species of birds along the Algarve coast as well as venturing further inland, into the hills for vultures, eagles and highland species such as Black-eared Wheatear and Lesser Kestrel.  He will give details of travel and accommodation as well as highlight the hotspots along the coast.
Jonathan gives over 30 presentations for the RSPB per year, whilst also being a tour leader around his favourite birding country, Sri Lanka, which he spoke about to us in early 2023.

BOC Christmas Social

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

It’s our annual Christmas social event with Christmas refreshments. We will entertain you with a quiz from Neil (a bit easier this time!) and one or two other little items! Please come!

What’s the difference between a Bittern and a Curlew? – Mike Coker

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

In this talk, Mike will tell the stories behind the attempted conservation of a number of bird species and look at whether project management is an unnecessary bureaucratic overhead or an essential tool when it comes to nature conservation.
Mike Coker is a conservationist and project manager. He has worked in project management for more than thirty years and conservation for more than ten. He set up and led the RSPB’s project management practice, and supported some of the RSPB’s largest projects.

AGM then Saving the Stone Curlew – Keith Betton

Please note – all our indoor meetings now start at 7.30 pm.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

The AGM will be held at the start of this evening’s meeting so we would like as many people as possible to attend please!

After the AGM, our talk will be presented by Keith Betton.  He has been involved in Stone Curlew conservation for fifteen years. He will tell us about this enigmatic bird and explain how farmers are helping to save it. He will also give us an update on how Peregrines are doing.

Keith is an author and occasional broadcaster on birds, and is Chairman of the Hampshire Ornithological Society.