The Society’s field meeting being held this weekend Saturday 17th October will see more than 30 members attending as we celebrate the great ‘Global Bird Weekend’. The link to our Field Meeting is here. We will be attempting to see as many bird species as possible, but up in the high mountains we will be limited. In fact, if we manage a species for every member we will be doing well.
The Global Bird Weekend is hoping to achieve the most bird species recorded on a single day and set a new world record. For us, we hope to add species unlikely to be seen by other teams, although who knows? We will be doing our best and with over 30 members more eyes should mean more birds!
Of course, timing is a little weighted against us. At this time of year most, if not all, summer visitors will have departed our shores, whilst we are still waiting for our winter birds to arrive. And yet, we have so many beautiful residents we hope to observe and add to our daily tally. High in our mountains we might chance upon Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear and Rock Bunting, all very special birds.
Our woodland areas should produce other beauties such as Woodlark, Hawfinch and Firecrest, with the odd Cirl Bunting and maybe an early winter arrival such as Siskin or Brambling. Higher still, we may well get our first winter Ring Ouzel. Song Thrush and Redwing are normally early, so we will need to be alert to the possibility of adding these fine thrushes. Of course, Mistle Thrush is resident and it would be disappointing not to get good
views of this large thrush.
Overhead we will see Griffon Vulture and we will certainly need to pay attention for other possible raptors such as Golden and Bonelli’s Eagle. Sparrowhawk and Kestrel should find their way onto our list, but maybe an odd late migrant such as Short-toed or Booted Eagle might help towards our day’s tally? Whatever our result, we intend to have a fun filled day and also hope members might donate a small sum towards our fundraising efforts towards
stopping the illegal trade in trafficking wild birds.
We’ll let you know how we get on and I for one am looking forward to sharing time in the company of so many good friends and members.
Article: Peter Jones
Photos: Peter Jones
Note: The views expressed in articles are those of the authors, and are not necessarily those of the Society.