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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Julia is a Senior Lecturer for Ecology and Evolution at Imperial College London.  Her research primarily focuses on the evolutionary basis of social traits, with studies focused on a wild population of house sparrows living on Lundy Island. Her interest in Ornithology has been kindled in Germany, where she grew up.

She later moved to Sheffield University where she put together the genetic pedigree of the sparrows living on Lundy Island and continues working on this population to this day. She also led a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, where she set up a captive population of house sparrows, that she moved with her when she accepted the position of Lecturer at Imperial.

She will present her research on mate choice, animal personality and social networks in House Sparrows.

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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

We are as usual holding our Christmas social to mark the end of the first half of the season’s talks.

Matt Eade from Naturetrek will be giving us a short Zoom talk on the Birds of Paradise of Papua New Guinea! These fabulous birds have fascinated the minds of wildlife enthusiasts since their discoveries yet few have ventured to these remote lands in search of them.

Matt will be taking us on a whistle-stop journey through some of the more remote regions of this country and explain the hidden secrets of some of our most recently discovered Birds of Paradise and other avian delights!

After this, Neil will provide a quiz that all members at home and present can participate in after which we in the room will enjoy some festive fare.

We hope that we will see lots of you there!

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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Neil started working in nature conservation in 1983 in the Farne Islands.  Two years in South Africa/ the Sub-Antarctic and Minsmere amongst others were followed by a move to the RSPB’s Arne reserve in 1991. After 15 years there he decided to go freelance.  He now runs Calluna Books and takes people bird and wildlife walking in Dorset and further afield. He is the author of The Best Birdwatching Sites in Dorset and in 2015 took over the Birdwatchers Yearbook, which he now edits and publishes.

The Prince Edward Islands are one of a number of Sub-Arctic island groups found in the southern hemisphere. In 1986/87 Neil was employed as a field research assistant there. His main task was to collect a variety of data and observations on the ‘predatory’ birds found there – the two species of giant petrels and the Sub-Antarctic Skua.

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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 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 this evening so we would like as many people as possible to attend please!

After the AGM, Neil will look at the results of some of the surveys that have been carried out in recent years, and some of the opportunities and threats to downland birds.

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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Andrew Cleave MBE

Formerly the head of Bramley Frith Environmental Education Centre, in retirement Andrew is busy with writing, lecturing, photography and tour leading in the UK and abroad. He is a committee member of the Lundy Field Society and is involved with a study of the island’s flora. Andrew’s most recent book, co-authored with Dr Paul Sterry, is the Coastal Wildflowers of Britain, Ireland and NW Europe.

Back from the Brink

The remarkable story of the recovery of the Bermuda Petrel from near-extinction to a small but viable population today. This very rare seabird once lived in vast colonies on Bermuda but after the islands were colonised by humans the population plummeted. Due to some remarkable conservation work, the numbers have now slowly built up and the future does not look so bleak. Bermuda has a dense human population and very little natural habitat is left, but there is still plenty of wildlife there, above and below the waves, and it is a good destination for a winter wildlife holiday.

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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 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 Mark Jameson is a writer and naturalist. He is author of the books Silent Spring Revisited, Shrewdunnit, and Looking for the Goshawk. His current project is a book about the life and times of W H Hudson. Conor is also a feature writer and has written for television and radio.

He worked for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and BirdLife International for 25 years, and has also worked for the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

W H Hudson, a one-time author and naturalist was very influential in the founding of the RSPB.

He lived out his days in London, the base from which he explored the southern counties. His first British nature book, Birds in a Village, was published in 1893, based on his explorations of Berkshire.

This evening, Conor links his life and legacy to today and compares then and now in a costume drama with plenty of birds! The talk reveals how this unschooled, impoverished, battle-scarred immigrant came to be so influential in the creation of the RSPB by its founding women, and in the rise of the modern day conservation movement.

Conor travels to Hudson’s homeland and discovers that he is very well remembered and celebrated there, including by the RSPB’s partner organisation, Aves Argentina. He links Hudson’s life and legacy to today, and compares then and now. It’s a costume drama, with plenty of birds.

Nick Davies FRS is a British field naturalist and zoologist, and Professor of Behavioural Ecology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Pembroke College. We are delighted that he is giving the third in our series of joint University of Reading – BOC Annual Lectures.

His work on brood parasitism in the Dunnock and on cuckoos and cowbirds has revealed fascinating insights into their behaviour – an evolutionary arms race between the bood parasite and its host.

He has twice won the “Best Book of the Year” award from the BTO, for his books Cuckoos, cowbirds and other cheats and  Cuckoo – Cheating by Nature. His writing is erudite – examining how our perception of Cuckoos has evolved over the centuries – and scientifically enthralling.

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but if you prefer to join remotely, please click on this link to join the meeting.  You can join from 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Andy has been photographing wildlife for over 30 years specialising in British subjects, he has had a life long interest in natural history and his subject knowledge will come across in the presentation.  His work has been extensively published in books and magazines and is marketed with Nature Picture Library.

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 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

We are anticipating the usual high quality photographs of birds in the categories Portrait, Flight/Action and a new category – Attention to Detail.  For more details, including how to enter, see Photo Competition.