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.

This talk will look at the pressures affecting woodlands and woodland birds, work being done to understand and reduce these pressures including woodland management, and finally look at projects to identify causes of declines and turn this into conservation action for some of our priority species including Hawfinch, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Willow Tit.

Paul Bellamy is a Senior Conservation Scientist at RSPB specialising in research into Lowland Broadleaved woodland and Forestry. Current projects include monitoring woodland management grants for biodiversity, causes of declines in UK Hawfinch, habitat restoration for Willow Tit, and ways of increasing breeding success for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. The results of his work lead directly into RSPB land management advice and policy. It also feeds directly in to Defra, Forestry Commission and Natural England policies and practice as co-funders and project partners for many projects.

This is our annual joint lecture with the University of Reading.  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.

Ken did his PhD at Oxford, joined Reading University in 2005, becoming a research professor in the Centre for Agri-Environmental Research. In 2014 he left to become the Director of Science at ZSL (Zoological Society of London), then moved to the Natural History Museum (NHM) as Head of Life Sciences in 2020, becoming its Deputy Director in April 2022.

His current research interests span a range of individual, population, community and ecosystem approaches to understanding how biodiversity responds to environmental change. This work has included a long-term interest in basic and applied avian ecology, which currently involves using individual-based datasets from endangered birds in Mauritius as ‘model’ systems to explore environmental change impacts from individuals to populations. His work is increasingly focusing on the links between biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem services, particularly through studies in tropical forest and agro-forestry ecosystems in Africa.

He will focus on improving our understanding of how biodiversity responds to environmental change by looking in particular at how the evolutionary ecology of individual organisms affects population and community dynamics and secondly, improving our understanding of how biodiversity change affects ecosystem services and the values/benefits people derive from these services across a range of ecosystems – urban, agricultural, tropical forests and marine.

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.

Dr Mark Eaton is the Secretary of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, as well as being Chair of the European Bird Census Council, and was until recently Principal Conservation Scientist in Monitoring Science in the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. As this would suggest, his expertise lies in developing the monitoring and reporting on the status of birds and other biodiversity both in the UK and overseas. When not doing this, he’s usually to be found birding in the Northumberland countryside.

Monitoring rare breeding birds in the UK: the Rare Breeding Birds Panel was established in 1972 as independent body to collate data and report on the status of the country’s rarest breeding birds. Mark will give an overview of the work of the RBBP, share some of its most recent findings on rare breeding birds across the UK, and show how birdwatchers can help the work of the Panel.

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.