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.

Professor Juliet Vickery is a distinguished ornithological research scientist and conservation leader. Until recently, she was Head of International Conservation Science at the RSPB, then two years ago became the CEO of the British Trust for Ornithology. She will talk to us about her seminal work on Wood Warblers in the UK and Africa.

The phenomenon of bird migration has fascinated and inspired for generations – thousands of birds travelling astonishing distances across ecological barriers of deserts mountains and seas. But for many species life is getting tougher on their wintering, breeding or staging grounds, resulting in long term declines in numbers. By focusing on work on one species, the Wood Warbler, in one of the main global flyways, the African Eurasian flyway, this talk will illustrate the challenge of understanding the drivers of declines of migrant birds. Professor Vickery will describe the results of work on their breeding grounds in UK and and wintering and staging grounds in Sub Saharan West Africa, and she will consider how we can use these results to inform future action to address declines of these widespread long-distance travellers and to what extent this action may benefit other migrant birds in the same flyway.

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.

David has been working at Otmoor for the past 17 years. He worked for various environmental organisations before working for the RSPB, including BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) in Bucks and Oxon, as a Park Ranger in Hants, Recreation Ranger for the Forestry Commission in the New Forest and as a National Park Ranger in the North Cascades National Park USA.

The talk will cover the history of Otmoor and how the RSPB has turned arable fields into an incredible wetland oasis – home to breeding bittern, marsh harrier, crane and snipe.  It will then take a journey through the seasons looking at wildlife and the work which is undertaken to maintain this amazing place.

The Reading Ornithological Club, which went on to become the BOC, was founded seventy five years ago, in 1947. To mark the event, two of our past Presidents, Andy Swash and Neil Bucknell, and our current President, Renton Righelato, will celebrate some of the highlights of the Club’s history and its contributions to ornithology.

Renton will review the changes in our landscapes and the bird assemblages they support that have occurred since 1947, from the exigences of post-war reconstruction, to the effects of agricultural intensification in the 1960s-80s and on to today’s growing environmental awareness.

Neil will present an “alternative” history of the avifaunas, the theme being the changes (particularly in technology) that have revolutionised the way we record the birdlife of the county.

He will also read a few words on Andy Swash’s behalf where he shares memories of his time as Chairman and President of the BOC.

Birthday cake and soft drinks will be provided!

Member or non-member, all are welcome. To enjoy the cake, come in person to the meeting at the University of reading, Palmer Building, room 109, at 8pm, or you can join on Zoom by clicking on this link.

Will is a Professor of Biology at St Andrews University and has been studying the ecology of migrant birds for the last 25 years. Current research priorities are to understand the factors determining the density and distribution of Palearctic migrants wintering in West Africa so that we can address their continuing declines in the face of anthropogenic habitat and climate change. As part of the solution he is involved with capacity building in the region through helping to run the AP Leventis Ornithological Research Institute that trains future African ornithologists. But he is a bird watcher first having been birding for 42 years.

To understand what happens to our summer migrants when they are not with us, you need to track them and follow them to Africa. Will will talk about some of the challenges they face migrating and wintering in Africa, some recent discoveries we have made that allow us to understand why migrant birds are declining and what we might be able to do about migrant bird declines.

The Christmas Social is back!

Please come along to the university for an evening of talks and festive refreshments!

We will have a couple of speakers  –  Rose-Ann Movsovic – on those fascinating flying mammals – bats, and another on our local Peregrines by Patrick Crowley.

Gwyn has worked for the RSPB for over four decades in a range of conservation roles, trying to ‘green’ agriculture and water policy & practice, organising species recovery work and safeguarding protected areas. He has lead the RSPB’s land acquisition work for nature reserves since 2006.

The talk will set out how the acquisition of land for nature became a core part of the RSPB’s work, and how the current network is managed now it numbers 222 sites covering over half of one percent of the UK’s land area, and supporting over 18,500 species as well as 3m+ visits per year. Then, we’ll explore the future, and how the acquisition and management of nature reserves is being geared to help address the twin climate and nature crises.

Join us for the Club’s Annual General Meeting, incuding highlights of the year’s birding.  This will be followed by a presentation of the BTO’s Project Owl by Hugh Hanmer.

  

Hugh Hanmer is a BTO Research Ecologist working primarily on urban ecology and avian demography research projects in addition to research on owls. A bird ringer from a young age, he did a PhD at the University of Reading on urban birds and bird feeding with Professor Mark Fellowes and Dr Becky Thomas with a number of BOC members helping with his research prior to joining the BTO.

Neil is a freelance writer and bird tour guide ever since he was made redundant as a laboratory manager! He has written for numerous magazines including BBC Wildlife, Bird Watching and BirdWatch. Neil leads bird tours for Avian Adventures, Oriole Birding and Naturetrek. He is Chair of Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers and also a Patron of Birding For All, a charity encouraging reserve managers to ensure access is open to everyone.

 We’ll take a look at spring migration through Ohio and Michigan, including the world famous Magee Marsh, which is famous for attracting many species warblers. We then travel to Michigan for wildfowl, waders and home of the Endangered Kirtland’s Warbler.

Ian has been a keen photographer for many years and has had considerable success in photographic competitions all over the world. His main interests are photographing wildlife and steam trains.

The travelogue is about a journey from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth in South Africa to watch the cricket Test Match!  He hired a guide and travelled  from Johannesburg – on South Africa’s interior plateaux – down to the south-eastern coast. The trip was designed to traverse a variety of different birding habitats with an array of photographic opportunities on offer. They visited grassy Karoo locations, thornveld, high altitude mountains, Afromontane forest, coastal estuaries, coastal bush and grasslands. The journey took 7 days and we covered 1000 miles and the objective was good photographs rather than maximum number of species, but he saw many endemic and rare birds.

Jeff has enjoyed bird-watching all of his life. He worked as a teacher of Information Technology and has been lecturing about wildlife since 1980 on such topics as Ecuador, New Zealand, Australia and Bird Families. He has travelled widely and his concentration on South America in the 90’s led him to be one of the founder committee members of the Neotropical Bird Club. His interests broadened to all aspects of wildlife and more recently he has been recording wildlife in Finnmark.

This talk highlights the superb birds seen on a trip to south-west China in the winter. Yunnan has a varied landscape with snow-capped mountains, lakes, deep gorges and rich sub-tropical forest in the south. At first, visiting in winter, would appear an unusual idea, but the lowland forests along the Burmese border hold a strong resident avifauna and the region is the wintering ground for migrants from nearly all points of the compass. Many of the miss-placed eastern rarities that reach the UK shores in the autumn were headed for the forests of Yunnan to join the laughing-thrushes and pheasants that grace the remaining forests.