Carsington Bird Club – Page 15 – Carsington Bird Club

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulations

Please read the important statement below.

Data Privacy Policy

Carsington Bird Club (CBC) respects the privacy of its membership and is committed to protecting any and all personal data held.

Responsibility for overseeing data is taken by the Managing Committee and the Officers of the Club.

Data Held

– Identity Data includes title, first name, last name and user name (if different).

– Contact Data includes postal address, email address, and telephone numbers.

Data is collected when a individual(s) applies for membership of the Club and is amended / updated as necessary, usually on annual renewal.

Name and email address is collected on any individual submitting sightings to the Club’s online website www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk (see also “ Privacy “ statement on CBC’s website).

Use of Personal Data

– As a Register of membership of Carsington Bird Club.

– For Communication purposes which typically involves a regular activity/news Bulletin ?and Annual Report or to contact individuals about their sightings, if required.

– As a Record of subscriptions paid and donations to the Club’s finances.

– The club may use personal information to alert membership to the expiry of subscriptions.

CBC do not use any personal information for marketing, promoting or advertising the Club.

CBC do not sell, share or divulge members personal data with any outside organisation or third party, nor do we share such data within the Club’s membership (other than the Managing Committee) without the express consent of the individual.

Security

All data is stored on private computer equipment which is protected by appropriate security software.

Data Removal

Data is deleted when any individual ceases their Membership of the Club.

Rights

Under the European Union’s General Data Protection Act (GDPR), individuals have a number of important rights.

A summary of your rights in relation to the personal data we hold is given as:

a. The right to be informed..

– A copy of the Club’s Privacy Policy will be provided to individuals at the time we collect their data. ie. On becoming a Member.

b. The right of access

– This gives the individual the right to obtain a copy of their personal data.

c. The right to rectification.

– This gives the individual the right to have inaccurate personal data rectified or ?completed if incomplete.

d. The right to erasure in certain circumstances.

e. The right to complain to the regulatory body.

f. The right to object to processing.

– An individual may be able to limit the way an organisation uses their data.

g. The right to data portability.

h. The right to withdraw consent.

It is suggested that for further information reference should be made to official documentation from the bodies involved, which for the UK is the Information Commissioners Office. https://ico.org.uk

Contact

Any concerns regarding this Policy should be made to one of CBC’s Managing Committee / Officers.

WARBLERS PUT ON A SHOW … OR MOST OF THEM!

A group of nine assembled at the Visitor Centre at 9am last Sunday (20 May) for the club’s Warbler Walk. As well as the lovely sunny weather, we also benefited from the expertise of Roger Carrington, one of the club’s most experienced recorders at Carsington Water, who led the walk and was able to pick up many of the species we saw simply from their songs and calls.

Setting off from the Visitor Centre towards Stones Island we soon encountered the scratchy song of a Whitethroat, which flew across the path on its song flight and perched obligingly at the top of a bush to give us good views.

Further on we heard the descending trill of a Willow Warbler, which again we managed to see very well as it flitted around the bushes. We then had the challenge of trying to differentiate between the song of a Garden Warbler and a Blackcap, but fortunately the bird obliged by showing itself as a Garden Warbler. We heard the same song a number of times moving around Stones Island before picking up faintly the song of a Sedge Warbler on the edge of Sailing Club Island.

It wasn’t just about warblers of course and as we were walking we did of course see and hear the songs and calls of many ‘non-warblers’ – birds such as Blackbird, Wren, Dunnock and Robin, and we had brief views of a Willow Tit.

Earlier in the morning two Turnstones had been spotted on Sailing Club Island, but had moved on by the time we had got there (shame – as three were seen there the following day!). The water itself was very calm and we saw a number of Mallard families with young chicks, as well as Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Great-Crested Grebes in pairs displaying to each other.

Moving off Stones Island, we walked along Wildlife Centre Creek where we were hoping to catch sight or sound of a Spotted Flycatcher or Lesser Whitethroat, both of which had been seen or heard in that area in the previous 24 hours … but they were not playing ball as we stared into the trees, eyes and ears primed.

Surprisingly it wasn’t until this point that we heard our first Chiffchaff, singing its name at the top of a tree by the path, and Roger strongly suspected we identified a Blackcap, though it remained heard but not seen! Finishing up at the Wildlife Centre we got good close-up views of the usual ducks, geese and gulls to be seen there, as well as a distant Little Grebe.

It was a pleasure to welcome some recently joined members of the club to our walk and we hope everyone who came along enjoyed themselves. A big thank you must go to Roger for all his advice in helping us to identify the warbler songs and calls, as well as passing on some of his tips on where to find the birds around the site.

That time of year – but definitely NOT a warbler!

The species seen during the walk (or, at least, those we could remember!) were: Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Blackbird, Canada Goose, Great Tit, Robin, Wren, Cormorant, Black-headed Gull, Coot, Magpie, Grey Heron, Jackdaw, Chaffinch, Woodpigeon, Willow Warbler, Swallow, Mute Swan, Mallard, Long-tailed Tit, Carrion Crow, Garden Warbler, Gt Crested Grebe, Gadwall, Redshank, Willow Tit, Reed Bunting, Goldfinch, Sedge Warbler (heard), Blackcap (heard), Pied Wagtail, Blue Tit, House Martin, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Greylag Goose and Little Grebe

Chris Lamb

Carsington Bird Club Events Member Reports

Spring visitors on show at Carr Vale for CBC visitors

SPRING VISITORS ON SHOW AT CARR VALE FOR CBC VISITORS

Our latest CBC outing took us to the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Carr Vale Flash near Bolsover on Sunday 29 April.

It was a slow start to the morning and we thought at first we might see more dogs and horses than birds, but soon we picked up the songs of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, as well as Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Dunnocks, Wrens and Robins.

A single ‘yaffle’ of a Green Woodpecker was heard in the distance, but this proved to be the only time we heard it. Arriving at the lakes we added ducks and geese to the list, and a Great-crested Grebe was seen catching fish. A single Grey Heron flew over, also the only one of the day.

The lookout point at The Mound was a very good place to scan the lakes and a single Oystercatcher was seen in a distant field, along with a couple of Common Terns and handful of Lapwing among the large number of Black-headed Gulls circling above the water. A Reed Warbler was also heard singing but, as is so often the case, not seen.

Great close-up views were, however, to be had at the feeding tables here which attracted two pairs of Bullfinches, with the males looking particularly resplendent, a pair of Reed Buntings, a male Yellowhammer that dropped in briefly and a Willow Tit.

A birder we spoke to earlier in the morning had reported hearing a Lesser Whitethroat at this location and we were fairly sure we heard onemoving away from us. Moving further round the reserve, a Skylark was picked out singing high in the sky, followed by at least 2-3 singing Blackcaps which did offer fleeting views as they flew across the path.

All in all a good morning’s walk with a total of 39 species seen or heard, and the weather stayed fine which was an added bonus.

Following is the full list of species seen:

Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Great-crested Grebe, Coot, Grey Heron, Buzzard, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Black-headed Gull, Common Tern, Woodpigeon, Green Woodpecker, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Skylark, Swallow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Willow Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Reed Warbler, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch, Bullfinch .

Chris Lamb.

Carsington Bird Club Member Reports

At last – overseas and I see some raptors!

It’s usually guaranteed when I travel to mainland Europe that I’ll struggle to see even the odd buzzard, kestrel and, if I’m lucky, kite or harrier … but my latest trip (accompanied by my wife Meryl and sister Corinne) was to Portugal and turned out to be something of a raptor-fest.

Not that raptors were the only birds of interest on my ‘seen’ list. For the first time in Europe I topped the 100 mark, and notched several ‘lifers’ which was particularly pleasing.

We’d been to Portugal two years earlier, using the lovely eastern Algarve town of Tavira as our base, and saw plenty of waders, gulls, herons and other species befitting a coastal area with plenty of marshes and lagoons. In 2016 we made only one sortie inland, as far as Mertola on the edge of the Alentejo region, but realised that this was an equally rich area for birdlife and worth investigating.

So, this time we followed a week in Tavira with six nights ‘up country’ – two in Alcoutim and four in Mertola, both pretty whitewashed towns on the banks of the River Guadiana that for 30-40 miles north of its mouth in the Med represents the border with Spain.

From Tavira, Corinne and I (Meryl isn’t really interested in birding, so we have to choose our moments!) made two morning trips to specific locations – the Ria Formosa HQ reserve on the edge of Olhao and the Castro Marim reserve just a few miles from the Spanish border – the rest of the time footling around the varied coastal highlights around nearby Tavira itself.

All the old favourites were in the ‘salinas’ (salt marshes), just a few hundred yards from our apartment – Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Black- and Bar-tailed Godwits, Whimbrel, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Little Stint, Dunlin, Common and Curlew Sandpipers, and Ringed and Grey Plovers – while Crested Larks, Corn Buntings and Serin were everywhere and Fan-tailed Warblers pinged above our heads.

Colourful Hoopoes were seen most days and wherever there was water combined with tall reeds and compact vegetation, those consummate songsters the Nightingales trotted out their flutey, non-stop signature tunes (I woke up one night and heard one singing at 3.45am!) – and in Alcoutim it was quite a sight to see 40-50 Bee-eaters swarming over the exact same fields I’d seen them two years earlier.

A regional specialist is the attractive Azure-winged Magpie, which ironically was one of the most common birds where we explored, along with House and Spanish Sparrows and Collared Doves. Another daily sighting was White Storks: these are impressive birds, often seen soaring high in the sky and mistaken at a glance for raptors. We had seen them regularly enough during the first week, but inland they were on virtually every roadside pole and chimney as well as many precarious rooftop positions.

Though we didn’t see quite so many birds in total during the second half of the holiday, there were some spectacular sights in the Alentejo, where Corinne and I spent two mornings scouring the rolling, green and often sparsely vegetated planes of this distinctive area.

Among the big birding prizes in the Alentejo are Great and Little Bustards, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Calandra Larks, Spanish Imperial Eagles and Rollers – none of which we’d seen before our final full day, but all of which we’d notched by the end of it.

Our earlier sortie a couple of days before had included Black and Egyptian Vultures, Black Kite, Lesser Kestrel and Montagu’s Harriers, which offered superb close views as they quartered farmland just yards from the road we were travelling along.

So, along with a Short-toed Eagle and Buzzards and Common Kestrels seen early in the holiday, this late rush raised my raptor total to nine!

In Mertola, a quick stroll to the castle revealed Blue Rock Thrush and occasional short-lived views of Lesser Kestrel, together with smaller birds such as Blue and Great Tits, which are much scarcer in southern Portugal.

Gosney’s guide to this area was a useful aid to finding the best sites (we’d never have found the Bustards without going to one of his more out-of-the-way suggestions), and it’s always worth reading up other people’s birding reports from similar times of the year. Another informative place was the headquarters of the LPN – Portugal’s organisation for protecting nature that maintains a number of large reserves in the area – which is situated a few miles north of Castro Verde (albeit tricky to find!).

Gary Atkins.