The Vanishing Mew Gull – Ray Reedman

Ray combines his love of birds and travel with a deep understanding of language and history. As a retired Senior Master of a successful independent school Ray rekindled a life-long love of the natural world by teaching courses on ornithology and travelling the world to watch birds.

This is a unique resource for anyone interested in how the names have evolved, what they mean, and how errors and misunderstandings have sometimes been perpetuated in the names we now use.

Jono Forgham – Birds of the North Norfolk Coastal Path

The very entertaining Jono is returning for the third time to the club with a talk on the North Norfolk coast, somewhere most of us have been to.

He has completed this 47 mile wander on 3 occasions. It begins at Hunstanton and concludes on the pier at Cromer. The last time he completed this it was the final part of a fundraising walk for a centre in Sri Lanka. On this occasion Jono began the walk from his front door in East Herts and joined up with the coastal footpath after 105 miles of wandering over 6 days. This was in October 2019.
The footpath covers most of the good bird habitats along the coastline, but veers inland after Holme Next The Sea and returns to the coastal marshes at Brancaster. Therefore, an extra few miles will be added for those who may wish to visit RSPB Titchwell.
In 2011 he completed the walk in the usual 3 days, spotting 99 species of birds.
As well as looking at the birds, Jono will advise on accommodation, places to eat and drink and how to get the most out of the local bus route if staying at one place for the duration of the walk.

Bird Songs and Calls – Keith Betton

Keith devotes much of his summer to studying and helping to protect the small population of Stone Curlews that breed in remote locations on the downs in Hampshire. He has been the County Bird Recorder in Hampshire since 2010 and is currently Chair of the Hampshire Ornithological Society. When not birding locally, Keith is a keen world traveller having seen nearly 8600 species in over 100 countries. A past trustee of both the RSPB and BTO, he has also chaired OSME and the African Bird Club – and is Vice President of the latter. Having retired early from a career in the media he is now an advisor to BirdLife International, providing free media training to their worldwide staff. He has co-authored two books profiling prominent birdwatchers and has recently revised the popular guidebook ‘Where to Watch Birds in Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’.
Just at the time when you want to refresh your knowledge of bird vocalisations, Keith Betton takes us through a range of both common and scarcer species, with a mixture of sound and vision.

The Great Auk: It’s Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife – Professor Tim Birkhead

Tim Birkhead is emeritus professor of behaviour and evolution at the University of Sheffield. His research on promiscuity and sperm competition in birds helped to re-shape our understanding of bird mating systems. He initiated and has maintained a long-term population study of guillemots on Skomer since 1972. Tim has written 15 books, including Promiscuity (2000), the award-winning The Wisdom of Birds (2008), Bird Sense (2012) and The Most Perfect Thing (2016). His most recent book is on the guillemot’s closest relative, the great auk.

Few extinct birds are as instantly recogniseable as the great auk. After centuries of persecution the last great auks were killed in 1844, before any ornithologist or scientist ever saw one alive. Piecing to together this bird’s extraordinary life has been a challenge, but research by me and others, using the few surviving eggs and skins, in the last few years has revealed new information and exposed some old errors. It is these relics and the dodgy way they were sometimes acquired that constitute the great auk’s mysterious afterlife.

Photographic competition 2025

Now is the time to show us your expertise at photographing birds in three categories – Portrait, Flight/ Action and Birds in Berkshire.

Tree Sparrow Project – Matt Prior

‘Matt Tree Sparrow’ is a licenced bird ringer, passionate about conserving farmland birds in Wiltshire.

In 1999 he set up the Wiltshire Tree Sparrow Recovery Project as Conservation Officer for the Wiltshire Ornithological Society – with assistance from the RSPB. Since then it has grown to include over 1,100 nest boxes and 12 major feeding stations over across an area of 700 sq km!

Bird Ringing – Lee Barber

 

Note this event will take place in Room G44, Edith Morley Building

Lee Barber works for the BTO, coordinating structured ringing schemes including the Constant Effort Site Scheme (CES), Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) and the Winter Ringing Project. These schemes produce a wealth of information on how our British and Irish birds are fairing on an annual basis (see the BTO’s BirdFacts pages). Ringing is licensed and volunteers can train under the supervision of a ringing trainer, like Lee, to become a ringers themselves. The information generated from ringing is fascinating and shines a light on our best known species.

 

Southern Ecuador – David Massie

Note this event will take place in Room G44, Edith Morley Building

David has been a member of the BOC since the late 1970’s and was chairman for a while.

He has travelled and birded for more than 50 years and has developed a preference for SE Asia and South America. In South America, Ecuador has become a favourite and he have visited there 5 times now. The talk covers our most recent trip in October 23.

 

Xmas Social – quizzes and talks

Note this event will take place in Room G44, Edith Morley Building

It’s Christmas social time again! Seasonal nibbles, a quiz and Sally Wearing has promised us one of her wonderful illustrated talks!

 

AGM – then Panama and the Canopy Tower – Paul Alistair Collins

After Paul’s very good talk on Lake Kerkini in Greece and the Svalbard, he is returning to give us a talk on the spectacular wildlife to be found just outside Panama City in the Soberania National Park. Lying at the centre of the New World, linking North and South America, a spectacular 970+ species of bird have been recorded in this small area, not to mention a mouthwatering variety of other wildlife such as howler monkeys and glass frogs!