17 Members present. Apologies received from C.Clyde-Watson, M & V Chamberlain, A & C Bridgewater, and M Woodward & M Curtis.
Chairman Norman Clyde-Watson welcomed members on a very cold & snow covered evening -
Notices
- Work Session – This was postponed due to the weather conditions.
- Summer Walk – A proposal to have a Summer Walk had been supported following the AGM & will be arranged later – watch for details.
- Walking Festival – Broxtowe BC is to hold a Walking Festival & the Friends of Bramcote Ridge will hold a ‘Guided Walk & Talk’ around the Nature Reserve on Sunday 10th June starting at 10:30 from the top of Sandy Lane – Make a note in your Diary now!
- Feeding Birds – John Appleton had prepared a sheet of information regarding ‘Feeding Birds in Winter from the British Trust for Ornithology & copies were distributed.
- Next Work Meeting – Sunday 4th March at 10:30am at top of Sandy Lane as usual
Next Meeting – Monday May 28th at 7:30pm at Bramcote Memorial Hall. The Speaker will be Graham Pierce who will give an illustrated talk on ‘Trees of the Area‘.
There were no other notices so Norman introduced & welcomed back Nigel Slater who gave a stunning & informative talk on...
‘Bird Migration’
Using numerous illustrations, he presented details of routes & factors affecting birds’ movements over the whole Globe. The ringing of birds enabled individual birds to be followed for years, taking their young with them & so establishing accurate Migration information.
Arctic Terns make the longest migratory journey travelling from pole to pole and back again, covering 50,000 miles a year.In their lifetime of about thirty years that is equivalent to travelling to the moon and back three times.
Swifts fly non-stop from the time they first leave their nests and fly to Africa and back again. They achieve this by sleeping with half their brain closed down at a time; they land only for a very short time to nest and even this is sometimes not until three years from the time they were born. They are without doubt the supreme aerial birds. Pairs stay together for life.
Goldcrests, our smallest bird, are largely sedentary, but each autumn our resident population is supplemented by birds that travel from Norway and the Baltic States. This means crossing the North Sea in weather that is at best unpredictable, at worst dreadful. An almost unbelievable journey for such a tiny scrap of a bird.
Even the smallest birds, using eyesight, smell, landmarks, temperature changes & the Earth’s Magnetic Field, can migrate thousands of miles each year – twice! Flying speeds reach 40 mph, non-stop in some cases.
Nigel’s personal love for a rescued Swift, illustrated his passion for the topic which the audience much enjoyed & appreciated.
Norman thanked Nigel for his interesting talk.
The meeting closed at 9:30pm
The Friends are always looking for extra pairs of hands to help out or to simply support their work, so...
- to find out when the next work session will take place, click here, or
- to find out about becoming a member please contact us here, or
- to discover what goes into managing the sites click here.
