Helping Swifts in South East Herts
Following the success of the David Attenborough’s ‘Wild Isles’ series earlier this year, Aviva, in partnership with the WWF and the RSPB, is making £1 million pounds available to support community wildlife projects. Aviva will ‘double match’ donations made, so for every £1 donated £2 will be added to it.
The South East Herts RSPB Group have created a crowdfunding project and would appreciate your support. They are hoping to raise £5,000 which will enable the purchase 100 Swift nest boxes, callers to attract the birds and to pay the cost of the boxes being erected.
2022 Rare Birds Decisions
The Rare Birds in Herts page has been updated with 2022 rarity decisions. Go to Herts Bird Club | Rare Bird Decisions
The page shows records of county rarities which have been assessed by the Herts Bird Club | Herts Rare Birds Panel since 2008. To be assessed a description must be submitted.
Focus on...Glossy Ibis
On 7 October this year a Glossy Ibis was found at Rye Meads. It was there the following day, again on 13-14 Oct and has since been located on a flooded field off Marsh Lane Stanstead Abbotts, still present as of 18 Oct.
Once a rare vagrant to the UK, numbers have increased significantly since the mid 2000s mirroring the increase in their breeding population in southwest Europe. It is still, however, a major rarity in Herts; this is just the fourth sighting since 1887! Excluding the three 19th historical records, the previous accepted Herts records are :
Swift Mapper records
With the welcome return of Swifts to our skies, once again we encourage you to enter your Swift nesting records on Swift Mapper rather than submit them to the bird club website
Swift Mapper is a website and an app created by the RSPB and Swift conservation groups to map Swifts and their nesting sites. Full details can be found on the website: Swift Mapper where the app can be downloaded and interactive maps can be found.
The 2nd Herts Local Patch Big Weekend – Sat 29th Apr – Mon 1st May
Three whole days of local birding over the early May Bank Holiday weekend gave Herts birders the chance to focus intently on their patches and see what they could find. Falling in the peak period of Spring migration the weekend proved largely dry with easterlies dominating Saturday and then a stronger southerly breeze on Sunday.
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HNHS News
Optimow 2024 – citizen science to help garden pollinators
Scientists are inviting gardeners interested in helping bees, butterflies and other pollinators to take part in a study to discover how grass mowing can be timed to maximise their impact.
Participants in the Optimow 2024 project, organised by the Brown Lab at Royal Holloway, University of London will be asked to follow a mowing frequency plan, while submitting weekly counts of the key pollinators sighted in their gardens.
Conference highlights varying fortunes of wildfowl and wetland birds in Herts
The 2024 Hertfordshire Bird Conference drew a capacity audience at Affinity Water’s headquarters in Hatfield on Sat 2nd March 2024. The theme was wetlands and especially gravel pits with talks by Graham White on the fortunes of waterbirds on the restored gravel pits of the Colne Valley and a talk by Herts. Bird Club Chair, Rupert Evershed, on the birds of Stanborough Gravel Pits.
This report includes links to videos allowing those who missed the conference to catch-up with the main presentations.
Lecturer explains how beavers can bring benefits for wildlife and humans
Bringing Eurasian Beavers to an estate in Essex has delivered improvements in biodiversity while helping prevent flooding in a nearby village.
The positive consequences of reintroducing a species that became extinct in Britain in the late 18th century were described by Sarah Brockless, ecologist at the Spains Hall Estate, when she gave the Gerald Salisbury Memorial Lecture in Welwyn Civic Centre on Wednesday 28 February.
Photo: Eurasian Beaver at Spains Hall Estate © Russell Savory