1

Committee

Group Leader Martin Johnson

Treasurer Malcolm Ingram

Membership Secretary Penny Chatfield

Indoor Meetings Kathy Blackmore

Raffle Janet Southwood

Fundraising Colin Hawkins

Newsletter Editor Val Thompson

Publicity Helen Lumley

Member Jean Crystal

Editorial

Welcome to your latest newsletter.

A big thank you to everyone who has contributed an

article, keep them coming!

I hope you find the content varied and interesting.

Please let me have any articles you would like to

share with the group or any suggestions for topics

you would like covered.

Val

Female Smew Landing, Rutland Water (Martin Johnson)

Group Leader Welcome

Welcome to you all and, in particular, welcome to

those of you who are new to the Local Group. We

reach another milestone with our 20th newsletter

and once again many thanks are due to Val for

putting it all together. If you are reading a paper

copy, be aware that this newsletter will also be

available as an electronic (PDF) file, which can be

found on our web site

(www.rspb.org.uk/groups/hitchinandletchworth), until

the next issue of the newsletter is produced.

Receiving the newsletter in electronic form cuts

down on our overheads and reduces the amount of

paper used.

Our programme of indoor and outdoor meetings for

next season (2017-18) will, as usual, be available

for collection at the AGM (5 May) and these

meetings will also be listed on the ‘events’ page of

our web site by the time of the AGM. We have, I

believe, had an excellent season of talks and field

trips and I hope and expect that next season’s

programme will be at least as good!

I will, as always, be putting together a short

programme of spring walks for the months of May

and June, which will also be listed on the web site.

A ‘hard copy’ list of these walks (which will include

the traditional half day visit to Thetford Forest) will

also be available at the April and May indoor

meetings. Enough of me - now it’s time to enjoy the

newsletter!

Martin

RSPB HITCHIN AND

LETCHWORTH LOCAL GROUP

NEWSLETTER

Editor: Val Thompson April 2017: No 20

2

Fundraising and Publicity

We raise money for the RSPB in a variety of ways.

We are grateful to all of you who attend our indoor

meetings and help with fundraising by purchasing

second hand books, cards, sales goods, pin badges

and raffle tickets.

The “100 Club” for 2017 attracted 45 numbers,

meaning that we will be donating £270 to the RSPB

as well as handing out lots of prizes – if you

purchased a number we hope that you will be a

winner!

Great white egrets and heron, RSPB Dungeness (Martin Johnson)

Thanks to everybody who continues to bring in used

stamps – these all contribute to the “Save the

Albatross” appeal.

Publicity is very important to us for attracting new

members and raising the profile of our group in the

local community. In addition to publicising our

activities in newspapers and magazines and on the

internet we will again have a presence at both the

Letchworth Festival and the Shefford Fete this year

and we are always looking to break new ground in

similar local events in the future. If you know of or

are involved in other events to which we might be

invited, do alert committee members to the

possibilities!

Indoor Meetings

By the time you read this the indoor meetings

season will be nearly over and I hope that you’ll

agree that Kathy Blackmore put together a splendid

programme of speakers. Highlights are too many to

mention, but for sheer image quality Bill Coster’s

‘sound and light’ show in January, featuring The

Shetland Islands, will be hard to beat whilst Peter

Holden’s talk on migration at the February meeting

was a truly inspirational ‘tour de force’. Next

season’s programme of indoor meetings has

already been finalised – you can find out more

about it when the full programme is distributed at

the AGM, or look at the details on our web site then.

Outdoor Meetings

Whilst this season’s indoor meetings programme is

nearly over there are still many field trips left to

enjoy, including coach trips to Frensham Ponds

(April), RSPB Minsmere (May) and RSPB

Strumpshaw Fen (June), as well as the spring

walks. Please remember to bring your RSPB cards

with you when visiting RSPB reserves – otherwise

you may be charged as a member of the public. The

weather gods haven’t been too kind to us this

season, but we’ve put up with wind, rain, flooded

hides and motorway closures with good spirits and

made the best of whatever has been thrown at us.

The enthusiasm and optimism displayed by our

members on coach trips have been genuine and

heart-warming and we’re grateful to you all for your

good humour!

Of course we’ve seen plenty of sunshine and great

birds and other wildlife on these trips, examples

being red-necked grebe, Slavonian grebe, long-

tailed duck, ruddy duck, smew, goosander, water

rail and great white egret – and that was just on the

own transport trip to Rutland Water in December! Of

course we don’t just concentrate on the rarities on

these visits – everybody is encouraged to walk and

watch at their own pace and to learn from others or

simply from watching the behaviour of some of our

commoner species. The committee and trip leaders

are well aware that if you enjoy your trip you’ll come

back for more, but if you don’t…you won’t!

Marsh tit, Lynford Arboretum (Martin Johnson)

3

From Brown Owl to Barn Owls

By Kathy Blackmore

I am a Yorkshire lass and although I have not lived

there since I went to university (no dates given!) I

still feel a real affinity with the county. We regularly

visit Yorkshire to go to some of my favourite places

from my younger days including Bolton Abbey,

Haworth and the Yorkshire coast. Today I am

saddened when we visit the upland areas to see so

very few raptors, lots of red grouse on the moors but

only one kestrel to be seen on a visit last year. I

signed Mark Avery’s petition - did- did you?

Revisiting scenes of my youth is not all bad

however. In 2015 we went to Bempton Cliffs and far

from the windswept (both inside and out) wooden

hut that we knew and loved there is an extensive

visitor centre with retail opportunity and a café! The

birds are still stunning and if you haven’t been to

Bempton, make a date in your diary for the summer

months when breeding is in full swing. Of course

there is change in the birds there too, sadly far

fewer puffins than there used to be and the gannetry

has expanded in terms of numbers as well as

moving along the cliffs towards the visitor centre –

we used to have to do a bit of a hike to the far end

of the reserve to see a gannet in days of yore.

My first job was with ICL as a Personnel Officer but

after a bruising redundancy process I left to work as

an unqualified social worker in Berkshire. Children

came along, as they do, and I did what most of my

contemporaries did, I gave up work to have a family.

During this time I began my obsession with owls

becoming Brown Owl to prevent the local Brownie

pack closing down. My daughters and I loved pond

dipping (water scorpions a bit of a favourite) and

collecting all manner of natural bits and bobs. Most

notable of these being a scrapbook of bird feathers

collected on walks, gardens and zoos and a rather

heavier collection of fossils, most of which were

either found on the beach or dug out of the

Yorkshire clay cliffs with one of my Mum’s

teaspoons from her kitchen drawer. I am pleased to

say that my daughters still have their love of nature

and my granddaughter has also inherited the gene.

I did of course return to work when my children were

at school and nursery, first of all volunteering to

teach adults literacy and numeracy. This began a

career of over 25 years in adult education

sometimes referred to as the life-long learning

sector. As a tutor I worked with adults with specific

needs including mental health, learning difficulties

and physical disability. After some years I moved

within the local authority to specialise in providing

careers, education and training advice to the

general public and spent many satisfying years

providing advice and guidance to support individuals

to learn and develop career planning skills.

Education and learning are an essential part of our

human state and one of the things I love about

birding is that there is always so much more to

learn.

Although a member of the RSPB for many years it

was on retirement that I became what you would

recognise as a ‘birder’. Peter and I have thrown

ourselves into volunteering at The Lodge, hanging

round with better birders to improve our skills, going

on specific wildlife holidays and buying better kit to

support our ageing eyes. We have, of course,

continued to include birding in our regular walks

down the farm at the end of our road on which we

regularly see skylarks, corn buntings,

yellowhammers, reed-buntings, grey and yellow

wagtails and once an osprey carrying his dinner

towards Stanford Woods! And we often see barn

owls. We had the privilege of being able to go onto

the farmland and for a couple of summers staked

out a nest box which was very easily visible from a

rise a little distance away (sadly trees have now

grown to spoil the view). We were treated to views

of the adults hunting and returning with prey, we

could hear the hissing calls of the young as their

parents neared the box and later the three chicks

could be seen dancing on the ledge outside the box

in hungry anticipation. How lucky am I?

Kathy and new friend (Val Thompson)

4

Vultures – Saving Nature Abroad

By Steph Morran, RSPB Species Recovery Officer

In September 2016 I spent a month in India (Pinjore,

Haryana) working on the vulture project with my

colleague Nick Phillips. The project, to halt the

dramatic decline of three species of Gyps vultures,

has made huge strides in the last 15 years or so.

The first step required scientists to identify the

cause of the vultures’ dramatic decline: a veterinary

drug called diclofenac which is given to cattle in

Asia. The next step was lobbying for a ban on the

veterinary use of diclofenac, which finally happened

in 2006. Multidose vials of human diclofenac were

also banned in 2015. In the meantime, successfully

breeding all three species in captivity has been

ground-breaking. Now the focus will be to take the

next steps to secure a sustainable population of

these magnificent birds. Below is an update on what

we got up to, and where the project is going next.

The breeding centre at Pinjore is an impressive

place! There are 240 captive vultures of the three

different, critically endangered, species: oriental

white-backed, slender-billed and long-billed. Human

contact is kept to a minimum and high quality cctv

cameras point to each of the main aviaries, so the

staff are able to observe the vultures from a safe

distance several times each day. Vultures are

remarkably clean, and after each feed they will

bathe and preen extensively! They also regularly

open their massive wings and flap, to keep their

pectoral muscles strong. You have to have a strong

stomach to witness feeding time. The vultures are

fed, twice a week, entirely on goats as cows are not

killed in this part of India.

Breeding aviary (Steph Morran)

Once a year around September, the vultures are

rounded up for a health check. Young birds are

fitted with a microchip and leg rings, and are sexed

using DNA analysis as it is impossible to tell males

and females apart by sight. As many adults as

possible are also caught and checked. This is a

huge undertaking as catching birds of that size and

strength is quite a feat! This annual event requires

all hands on deck to get it done as quickly as

possible to minimise the disturbance to the birds.

“Open wide” (Monomita Mukherjee)

The staff at the centre at Pinjore, and the other

breeding centres in India and Nepal, will continue to

breed and look after the birds, but in time the birds

will be released into the wild. In order to do this,

there is now a big focus on advocacy and

communications to stop the illegal use of diclofenac

for treating cattle.

Educating people on alternatives to diclofenac and

explaining that vultures are critical for human health

due to their natural and rapid removal of carcasses,

is vital. We hope that this will lead to people no

longer using diclofenac and therefore vulture safe

zones can be created for the birds to be released. In

2016 the Indian government pledged to donate

£200,000 per year to the programme which was

great news and will help RSPB, Bombay Natural

History Society and other partners to continue the

programme of work, and eventually be able to say

that the vultures are saved.

5

My Weekend on Stewart Island, New Zealand

By Janet Southwood

At the end of 2015 I went on an amazing three-

month trip to New Zealand visiting both North and

South islands and the lesser known Stewart Island.

Although it wasn’t strictly a bird watching trip I

managed to see a few New Zealand endemics

along the way, including kaka, kea and kiwi.

Kaka (Janet Southwood)

One of the highlights of my trip was spending a

weekend on Stewart Island which lies just off the

southern coast of South Island. After a rather stormy

night staying at the Southern Comfort Backpackers

in Invercargill, the most southerly city on South

Island, I drove down to Bluff to catch the 11am

passenger ferry to Oban, Stewart Island. After an

hour of rough seas we arrived safely in Oban and

after retrieving my luggage I made my way to the

Stewart Island Backpackers where I was staying for

the next two nights.

Oban harbour (Janet Southwood)

Stewart Island, or Rakiura as it is known by the

Maoris, has about 400 permanent residents, with

most people living in and around Oban. The small

township boasts a theatre, fish and chip shop and

two visitor centres as well as a few small shops. The

Department of Conservation visitor centre is the

best place to find out about the trails and wildlife on

the island. Picking up one of the local trail guides I

began to explore the small bays around the Oban

township. Following one of the coastal paths I

headed off to Golden Bay and up to Wohlers

Monument, passing the island’s golf course on the

way. Red and black billed gulls were common,

along with spotted shags and variable

oystercatchers. A few reminders of home were

present in the form of blackbird, redpoll and

chaffinch.

On Sunday morning I caught a water taxi to Ulva

Island, which lies within the Patterson Inlet of

Stewart Island. Ulva was designated as one of New

Zealand’s first nature reserves in 1899, and covers

an area of 260ha. In 1997 the island was finally

cleared of rats, a devastating predator of New

Zealand’s ground nesting birds. Now predator free

the island became a sanctuary for much of New

Zealand’s threatened wildlife, with birds such as

South Island saddleback (tieki), Stewart Island robin

(toutouwai) and Stewart Island kiwi being

transferred to the refuge.

Stewart Island robin (Janet Southwood)

6

A small group of us arrived on Ulva just after 10am

and had the island to ourselves for a short while. I

decided to follow one of the trails and was soon

rewarded with a Stewart Island robin; I then heard

something rustling in the leaf litter, wow! a South

Island saddleback, a bird I had really hoped to see.

Venturing further on, I then saw kaka, Stewart

Island weka, yellowhead, brown creeper and the

lovely bellbird which became one of my favourite

birds of the trip along with tui.

Weka (Janet Southwood)

At one of the bays I met up with some French lads

who were staying at the same backpackers; they

had gathered some paua shells, a mollusc widely

eaten in New Zealand with its mother of pearl shell

used to make jewellery. They wanted to take them

back to cook later and asked if I had a carrier bag to

put them in, as luck would have it I did. That

evening they managed to prepare and cook them

with a little help, and offered me some to try. I

declined their kind offer as it didn’t look very

appealing. Even they weren’t that impressed with

them after all the trouble they had gone to.

Paua shells (Janet Southwood)

Whilst waiting for the water taxi to take us back to

Stewart Island I got chatting to a couple of

birdwatchers also staying at the same backpackers,

Carl, a Dutch guy, had been lucky enough to find

Stewart Island kiwi on Saturday night on the edge of

Oban. We arranged to meet up again and go

looking for kiwi that night.

After a very enjoyable quiz night held at the

backpackers (my team were joint first) we set off at

midnight to look for kiwi. We headed to the edge of

town where Carl had found the kiwi the night before.

After about an hour of searching and waiting we

heard a kiwi rustling through the grass verge at the

side of the road.

There was a slight glimmer from a street light further

up the road and we could just about make out its

shape. Carl said it was a female bird as she then

wandered out onto the road and circled round us.

She came very close and managed to tread on one

of the guys’ boots. It was a wonderful experience

and they were a great bunch of people to share the

moment with.

Walking back to the backpackers we heard several

morepork calling, one of New Zealand’s owls, which

I was to hear only once more on my trip at Piha on

the North Island.

At 8 the next morning we all caught the ferry back to

Bluff, we had a very smooth crossing unlike our

outward journey. Stewart Island is a great place to

see wildlife close up and has a great community

spirit, I hope to go back sometime soon.

Bellbird (Janet Southwood)

7

What’s in a name? By Val Thompson Most of us will have heard of Montagu’s harriers and

may have been lucky enough to see one but who

was Montagu?

He was George Montagu and he led an unusual,

controversial and scandalous life but at the same

time carried out a slow, methodical and exact study

of natural history of which birds and inshore marine

life were his particular interests.

Born at Lackham House in Wiltshire in 1753, he was

one of 13 children. Aged just 16 he was enrolled as

an Ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot and for the

next five years moved around Britain, mainly

northern England and Ireland. In 1773 he was

promoted to Lieutenant and then rose steadily

through the ranks.

Around 1773 George married Ann Courtenay.

About a year after their marriage he was sent

overseas to serve in the war against the American

Colonies. While there he collected birds and

preserved them as gifts for his wife.

George Montagu (Google Images)

When George’s father died in 1780 the estates and

Lackham House were left to George’s brother

James. He died unmarried in 1797 and left the

estate to George on condition that he lived in one of

the manor houses with Ann. Not only did he not live

there but he moved to Devon and lived with

someone else’s wife, Elizabeth Dorville.

In a plot straight out of a Dicken’s novel, George’s

eldest son, also George, filed a suit in Chancery

against the trustees of the estate because of his

father’s failure to comply with the terms of the will.

The years of legal wrangling led to the loss of most

of the family estate.

In addition to all this, in September 1799 George

was court-martialed on several charges of which he

was found guilty and expelled from the regiment.

This allowed him to concentrate on his natural

history interests and he published a two-volume

Ornithological Dictionary in 1802, with most of the

illustrations by Eliza Dorville.

In the book and its supplement published in 1813,

George showed that many accepted species were

incorrect, such as the “Greenwich sandpiper” which

was a ruff in winter plumage and that the “ash-

coloured sandpiper” was a knot. He refused to

accept the black woodpecker as a British species

because he had not seen it for himself.

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century it was

thought that the “ring-tail hawk” and the male hen

harrier were different species. George kept a young

male in captivity until it moulted from brown to grey

to prove they were the same species.

“Ring-tail” harrier (Google Images)

8

He then discovered a second species of harrier

which he called the ash-coloured falcon and in 1803

gave it the scientific name falco cineraceus but the

bird had already been described and named falco

pyargus by Linnaeus in 1758. William MacGillvray,

the Scottish naturalist, called the bird Montagu’s

harrier in 1836 and it was generally adopted as the

British name.

In the winter of 1800 George discovered cirl

buntings breeding in Devon, a first for Britain but

Linnaeus beat him to the name again. Montagu

was involved with the first British records of cattle

egret, little gull and gull-billed terns. He did write the

first description of roseate tern and is credited with

the first description of American bittern. In his

Ornithological Dictionary he describes wryneck and

red-backed shrike as not uncommon. He also

predicted that the great bustard would be extinct in

Wiltshire in “a few years”.

Montagu described 470 species of molluscs, 100 of

which were new to the British list, he recorded many

species of fish and described the lesser-horseshoe

bat for the first time. He also wrote a Sportsman’s

Directory where he advised would-be duellists how

to stand as they fired!

George Montagu died in 1815 of tetanus after

treading on a rusty nail. He never forgave his eldest

son and left him nothing in his will. His other three

sons had all predeceased him in military action. He

did make bequests to his wife and two daughters

but the main beneficiaries were Eliza Dorville and

the three children they had together.

Two hundred of his bird specimens are in the

Natural History Museum in Tring.

Montagu’s harrier pair (Google Images)

The Thames and Chilterns Bird Atlas By Jane Havercroft

This is a website that covers Bedfordshire,

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and

Oxfordshire, an area of 9000 square kilometres. It

enables distribution maps to be created for bird

species within the area.

The information has been sourced from BTO

surveys such as the breeding bird survey and the

national Bird Atlas 2007-11 surveys. County bird

clubs have also contributed.

When you access the site you can choose a species

and then select from a drop down menu to show

distribution, abundance etc. There is another drop

down menu to choose the date range. Once the

map is displayed there are options to add habitat

features such as water or woodland.

An example is below.

The website address is http://thamesandchilternbirdatlas.org.uk

Give it a go, it’s addictive!

9

Vine House Farm

By Kathy Blackmore

In mid-August last year Val, Peter and I went to

one of the regular open days at Vine House Farm

in Deeping St Nicholas near Spalding. Vine

House Farm is a traditional arable farm passed

down from one generation to the next, and

situated in the Lincolnshire Fenlands.

A wide variety of crops are grown including

potatoes and sugar beet, with some of the land

also farmed organically. Whether organic or not,

all the land is farmed in a way that is sympathetic

to the wildlife that shares our environment with

us. What better foundation is there for a business

that sells bird food? They have won a number of

prestigious awards including the Silver Lapwing

Award for long term commitment to farmland

conservation.

The morning began with a talk by Nicholas Watts

the current patriarch. It was back in 1982 that he

wanted to know what birds were breeding on his

farm, and so he walked his land and recorded all

the birds he saw and heard – something he has

done every year since.

By 1992 he realised there had been a big drop in

numbers so he started to implement ideas to stop

their decline. One of his actions was to feed birds

on a large scale in his farm yards. The results

were spectacular, so he had an open day for

people to come and see the birds that were

feeding. Two or three people asked him if he

could sell them some bird seed, so he duly

obliged. The following year the same happened

the next year and so, largely by accident, the bird

food business started. Momentum has grown

over the years and Vine House Farm now grows

over 400 acres of bird food including black

sunflowers, red millet, white millet, canary seed,

naked oats, wheat and oil seed rape.

For many years Nicholas has been carrying out

systematic research into farmland birds, he

continues to do bird surveys and through these

surveys is able to assess what is needed to

enhance his farm, the activities of the local

drainage board and other farms in the area. He is

always willing to give advice to people interested

in birds and through his work on farmland birds

and conservation, was awarded the MBE in 2006.

The talk was followed by a trip round the farm on

a trailer behind a tractor, with lots of stops to look

at birds and to get more information about

farming methods. The key species for the day

had to be the tree sparrows. There were dozens

of boxes along a hedgerow and the numbers of

tree sparrows had almost to be seen to be

believed. Nest boxes were opened so that we

could see young in the nest and the numbers of

young and numbers of broods are carefully

recorded year on year showing a steady rise in

the population. Interestingly the nest boxes were

at waist height so that monitoring can be carried

out easily even by Tim Nicholas’ grandson who

also had lots he wanted to tell us about the farm,

its birds and his family.

Tree sparrow nest box (Val Thompson

The trip round the farm was followed by a

barbecue of locally sourced products and there

was the opportunity to look round the highly

automated barn in which seed is bagged ready

for dispatch to the many customers.

All in all a good day out and an experience which

demonstrated clearly the possibilities for even

large-scale farming to be done in a way in which

can work with the environment and enhance the

wildlife without being detrimental to business.

10

On a grey blustery day at RSPB The Lodge

By Mags Bailey

They are often heard and not seen

Long-tailed tits weaving through the trees

Now before us on the spreading bracken

Blushing pink, long black tails flicking

Acrobatically feeding on the russet stalks.

And with them tiny round goldcrests

Sporting caps of bright yellow gold

Edged in black, ever exploring,

Beady eye glimpsed, pale, buff green,

Thin whistling contact calling.

Over the field, battered leaves swirling,

Yellowhammer, chaffinch, brambling flocks

Rising, drifting, settling, flashing yellow,

Apricot, brown, black and white hues.

Then speckled fieldfare and redwing scurrying.

Goldcrest (RSPB Images)

Scudding clouds over black corvid shapes,

Erratically flying, excitedly calling, chaotically

Descending to stab the damp earth.

Sky surfing red kite bravely rides the gusts,

Kestrel valiantly hovers to be whisked away.

Moss green woodpecker flies straight and low

Alighting in the branches of a gnarled oak

Its dagger beak silhouetted against the grey light.

Great spotted woodpecker clings to a trunk

Wearing its scarlet lined cloak of black and white.

A patch of glowing orange red in woodland

Belies the robin low down in the branches.

Darkly spotted mistle thrush lies along a branch

Then with short rattling call makes a quick exit,

And all the while the wind turbine is going up.

Green woodpecker (RSPB Images)

11

Lemsford Springs – a hidden gem

By Val Thompson

Arriving at the entrance, it is easy to think that you

must be in the wrong place. Right on a roundabout

with the slip road of the A1M and the old Great

North Road it doesn’t look like the site of a nature

reserve, but in the middle of the row of houses is a

gate. Step through and you are in woodland, with

ponds, marsh and meadow.

Old watercress beds (Betty Cooke)

This 11-acre site used to be a watercress farm and

market garden. From 1860 until 1966, watercress

was harvested all year round and sold at Covent

Garden and local markets. Watercress still grows in

the lagoons which fill from underground springs and

provide a home for shrimps, snail and fish; these

provide food for two of Lemsford Spring’s regular

species, green sandpiper and water rail.

Green sandpiper (Betty Cooke)

There are two hides overlooking the lagoons and we

had very close views of green sandpipers, water

rails, teal and a little egret that was shaking each leg

in turn under the water to disturb the fish.

Little egret (Betty Cooke)

While we were watching the little egret, a fox

crossed the water further down but luckily we

caught sight of it. We waited to see if he

reappeared out of the reedbed but the water rails

and teals that were feeding close by didn’t react so

it must have carried on through.

Mr Tod (Betty Cooke)

As well as the water birds there were lots of

woodland birds including siskins, goldcrests and

tree-creeper. In a visit of two hours we saw 38

species of bird, not bad for a motorway service

area!

The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654

12

Bird Brain Corner

Can you identify the bird in the picture below? No

prizes, but you could get your name in the next

edition of the newsletter.

Thank you to all who submitted a caption, they were

all good but this one from Jane Havercroft just had

the edge.

“Come on Martin! We’ve got to perfectly synchronise

our routine if we’re to get on Strictly...”

My favourite things

Chosen by Andy Lickfold

Most memorable wildlife moment - Sitting down for a rest at the Circle B reserve at Lakeland, Florida, only to find there’s an alligator some 15 feet away. I didn’t know I could move so fast. It was a strange feeling, not being top of the food chain. Favourite bird - Tufted duck. I reckon they have wonderfully expressive faces. I took a picture of two at the London Wetlands Centre. The front one is looking at me quite menacingly, the one behind has an expression which says “Don’t mess with him, he’s not happy!” Favourite reserve – Fowlmere. Although sometimes quiet for birds still a lovely walk. It’s even better when there’s an airshow at Duxford as the planes formate over the reserve. Favourite wildlife book – Simon Barnes ‘How to be a bad birdwatcher’ because I am! Favourite railway loco – A Deltic. My other hobby - nothing to do with wildlife! (I think it should have been the Mallard, Editor)

Ducks with attitude (Andy Lickfold)