MEETINGS: Once or twice a month on various days to minimise recurrent clashes with members' other commitments.

We are always happy to welcome new members. None of us claim to be experts but try to puzzle our way to the names of the organisms we find. If you are interested in joining us or want more information please contact us.

We usually meet at the Co-op car park, Church Road, New Mills at 10 am. The number on walks is limited only by having enough seats in cars. Attendance varies with members’ diaries, inclinations and the weather (we are sensible people, not masochists).

Come and join us. There's no limit to the number on the mailing list.

NEXT VISIT

Martin Mere

(photos taken by David Pierce)

RSPB Old Moor
An exceptional visit - here's Liz's report

Bird watching can be a bit like waiting for a bus. Nothing comes for ages then three follow in quick succession. This is what happened on Wednesday at Old Moor, Barnsley.

"Kingfisher" said Dave and a blue flash streaked in front of the hide from right to left. The bird settled on the fourth of six fence posts half submerged in the gravel pool. It flew to the fifth and then the sixth post before returning to the third post where it turned 360 degrees to show its salmon breast and its iridescent blue back. It darted down to the water once or twice before it settled on the second post and then it was off .....all in the space of about ten seconds!

Ten white spoonbills treated us to some formation flying, splitting into a four and a six before joining up again (a bit like the Red Arrows!). They landed nearby on a spit of land like a pack of dazzling snowy white angels.

A grey shaggy heron waited motionlessly on the edge of a pool. I said "I'm going to wait for it to catch a fish". "See you on the way back" joked Dave! Then the bird drew its head back and stabbed into the water. "It's caught one" I said ..."it's a big one". And it was. We guessed it was a pike about twelve inches long.

The heron stalked on to the land and a little way up the beach before releasing it and stabbing it some more. The pike was injured and writhed about; then the heron took it back to the water and swished it about almost as if washing it before taking it back on land. The bird thrust its sharp beak just behind the pike's gills...and stabbed again. The pike was dead. The bird cleaned it again and then deftly turned it upside down and swallowed it whole in a single gulp. We had witnessed a murder!

The next evening I went to the theatre in Stratford on Avon to see Macbeth and just like the buses and the birds, the murders followed in quick succession.

Liz Wilson

Photographs taken by Jean Windsor
on a previou visit to Old Moor

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