SUTTON CONSERVATON SOCIETY

Transcription

1 SUTTON CONSERVATON SOCIETY Newsletter February 2017 Committee Members Peter Saunders President Tel: Sally White Treasurer Vera Wesbroom Joy Owen Secretary Liz Hawkins Speaker Organiser Alan Revill Angie Ware Bill Prenzlau Jane Logan Several members renewed their subscriptions at the AGM, if this is something you need to do please use the form at the end of this newsletter. If on the other hand you have decided for whatever reason that you no longer wish to be a member of the Society please do let us know by ing us at sallywhite21@hotmail.com, we will then remove your name from our mailing list. Many thanks. Notelets As previously announced, we now have sets of notelets for sale packs of 10 consisting of two each of 5 designs, 4 photos of areas managed by the Society, and a general view of Sutton from the Fen. The photos are lovely, and are very good value at only 5.00 for a set of 10 notelets. We hope that you can support the Society by purchasing the notelets, perhaps using them for small gifts for friends who live far away? Please contact Vera on if you would like to buy some. Tree Planting already completed! We took advantage of a sale opportunity to buy some replacement fruit trees for the orchard in the paddock between the recreation ground and Station Road. These have now been planted thanks to a few members of the Committee. See elsewhere in the newsletter for news of further works being done. As a note of interest, Alex Goodall who is a member of St Andrew s church congregation, has also done sterling work in the churchyard trimming back the base of the lime trees and work at the back section of the churchyard which the Society do not manage, so many thanks to Alex. MAKE SUTTON SPECIAL 1 P a g e

2 Bird Feeding Wreath event December 2016 Vera gave a quick demonstration with lengths of willow (collected from the Recreation Ground), making them into circles, held together with string. Various other pieces were added to the wreath, e.g. mistletoe, ivy, peanuts, apples and teasels. There was no set pattern and everyone seemed to enjoy this exercise, some of the designs were spectacular. The evening was helped along with wine, or tea and coffee, cakes, and Christmas music in the background. Vera reports that her wreath has been in the garden since the evening, and she can report it looks very similar to when she put it there, minus the peanuts and 1 apple! Five new members joined the Society that evening! We have since been asked if we can help with a demonstration at a local WI group and we will be happy to assist in whatever way we can, although the proposed date is the day of our AGM. I am sure will be able to help somehow though. Non Christmas Quiz held on 19 th January 2017 Dil Owen did a marvellous job of keeping 8 teams of participants in order during our annual quiz, and we are indebted to both him and Bill Prenzlau for setting the questions. Great fun was had by all, with the eventual winners The Black Crows pipping the other teams at the post. Angie Ware deserves special mention for bringing along 3 teams! 2 P a g e

3 As you may recall, Kim Osborne and Gae Matthews emigrated to north of the Border in December, but they promised to keep in touch and send us a report for our newsletters. Whilst they have been very busy settling into their new life and thorough enjoying themselves in the process Kim has found time to send us the following report: News from over the border. Greetings from Scotland. The winter weather up here has been very mild so far, as we are continually being told by our new friends and neighbours. We have had one or two days where the snow settled briefly and it looked very beautiful on the hills. The walking here is wonderful. We have to go up these things called hills or sometimes mountains. It's a bit like walking in the Fens but it makes your legs ache. Out on our walks we have seen buzzards, grey squirrels (not a red squirrel yet unfortunately), and we have seen evidence of beavers at a small local loch. Lots of felled trees brought down by their keen teeth. Plenty of bird life about with visitors to the garden including great tits, blue tits, coal tits, robins, blackbirds, jackdaws, bull finches and we have even seen a goldcrest. Not a lot else happening in the garden except the snowdrops, aconites and croci. We are looking forward to the arrival of spring and the changes that will bring. Kim and Gae Did any of you undertake the RSPC BirdWatch event this year I am afraid we didn t, but it would be interesting to hear of any unusual visitors to your garden, do let us know what you spotted. 3 P a g e

4 Future Events: SATURDAY 11 th February Tree planting yes more! at Recreation Ground at the bottom of Lawn Lane. 10 Alder trees to be planted, and we will also be attending to the Planatation Wood trees, doing some lopping and trimming back. Usual meet time of a.m. THURSDAY 16 th February Two members of the Friends of Mill Road Cemetery in Cambridge will be coming to give an illustrated talk on the natural wildlife to be found there. SATURDAY 4 TH March The Parish Council have written to the Society as follows: The Great British Spring Clean - Sutton Parish Council Good afternoon all members of Sutton Conservation Society, After the success of Clean for the Queen last year, Sutton Parish Council is participating in The Great British Clean on the Saturday 4 th March. We are contacting you, to see if you would like to participate in spring cleaning our village and keeping Sutton Tidy. Our base this year will be the Community Room, The Brook, Sutton and we will have equipment and bags ready for collection from 10am and drop off by 3pm. We would love to expand on the success of last year and get more groups and village residents involved, therefore increasing the amount of litter collected. SATURDAY 11 th March our working party this time will focus on cutting back the dogwoods in the Old Play Copse at the back of the pumping station in the Recreation Ground. Perhaps some tidying up at the churchyard as well. Again a.m. meet. THURSDAY 16 th March Jane Logan will be giving what promises to be an interesting talk entitled 'St Kilda: one million birds and a centenarian called Bessie Ellen' Sick and injured Birds part 2. The story of Klick Below is a story about a injured Tawny owl I looked after in the early 80 s as part of my sick and injured centre for birds in Cambridge. The story starts with Klick the juvenile Tawny owl sitting on a draining board in a kitchen after he had been found by a member of the public. Nothing unusual about that, you often see young Tawny owls hanging about in all sorts of odd places. I was certainly not going to be impressed by this seven inch ball of fluff sitting looking at me with two of the biggest blackest eyes I have ever seen and six little toes peeping out from under the soft downy feathers. The first job was to find his nest and return him to mum, who by now must be worried sick. Not that I think a birds worry, I mean who s ever seen a worried Owl, they always look that way. I spent several days (and nights) looking for the nest but no luck, so I had to take him home. He spent the first few days in the house in the warm as he was quite weak and I had no idea just how long he had been out of the nest, or if the parents had had chance to feed him. I had to force feed him every two hours but after three days he was much stronger so I moved him into a cage in the garage. He had by now begun to feed himself which was a big step from my point of view because it meant that I did not have to handle him any more and he would not get used to me, which also meant that I was not going to get too fond of him. 4 P a g e

5 The weeks that followed saw great improvements not only to Klick but also to my garden and a small deterioration to the car (which I will explain). I had managed to acquire a supply of dead mice and Klick was now eating two to three a day. He was also flying around the garage and because of this the car had to stand in the street, hence the small deterioration. This meant that I had to build an aviary for him in the garden. Are you still with me? Any way where was I, oh yes, Klick was now installed in the new aviary and improving rapidly.. You might have wondered why I called him Klick?. Was it my vivid imagination and way with words? Hardly, it was the sound he made with his beak (Mandibles if you are an Ornithologist) which was a loud clicking noise whenever I approached him. He had been with me for about six weeks now and his plumage seemed to change every day. Klick s wings were almost all adult feathers and all that was left of his chick plumage was a small tuft on the head and a little on the chest.. This was all that now remained of the little ball of fluff I had first brought home with me. He did spend a lot of time watching his down blowing around the aviary and sometimes tried to catch it. He was now watching anything and everything, and as you can tell I spent a lot of time watching him, hidden in the garage. I am forever grateful for the chance to do this observation and for the hours of entertainment he gave both me and May. Plus I was amazed that I did not receive some complaints from my neighbours with his hooting at night (causing May and myself some sleepless nights). What was worse however was the two local owls came into the garden to see him off, with loud screeches, hoots and clicks half the night! One day he was sitting on his perch when about twenty or thirty Gull s flew over the aviary, Klick eyes locked onto them like a guided missile, over and over they flew and Klick leant farther and farther backwards with his head bent right back until gravity began to take control. As he fell backwards from his perch (and much to my amazement) about halfway to the floor he twisted himself around, flew back up and landed on the perch. Such agility Dr Chris Thorn from the BTO came around once again to fit a leg ring on him and it was getting near for him to be released. I asked the R.S.P.B if it was ok to release him at the Fowlmere reserve, yes the answer came back. Off we went with all the family to let him go. Graham Weaver was the Summer Warden at the reserve, and he said he would keep an eye out for him. Klick was now free, I kept away, not that I was worried or anything like that.. When the news came from Graham that two male Tawny Owls had had a fight in the wood where we had let him go. Graham saw him a few days later and that made me a lot happier. How did he know it was Klick? Because of an upturned feather on the left wing, this gave him his trade mark, otherwise one owl looks just like any other (and we never did discover whether he was male or female). A week later I went over with, Simon my son. The chances of seeing him were not good and after a few hours I was ready to give up Why don t you call Simon said. I had never called him while he was in the aviary, I did talk to him a little, and he would always cock his head on one side as if he was listening. So I called, nothing we waited. I turned to go when Simon said look Dad, and there coming towards us through the trees was a Tawny Owl. Was it Klick? Yes it was, he came to within 15 feet of us. He looked at me and I looked at him Your looking well old Chap I said. Simon said he s come to say hello Children do have some silly ideas; I mean everyone knows birds can t talk! Can they? What happened to Klick afterwards? Well he s got himself into the R.S.P.B magazine Birds. Under Fowlmere reserve news. The report reads The most bizarre incident of the day belongs to this reserve (Fowlmere), where a Tawny Owl was witnessed chasing a fully grown 5 P a g e

6 hare across some adjacent field in broad daylight He didn t catch it by the way, There s also a picture of a Tawny Owl in the magazine. It s not Klick, he was better looking! He was an unusual owl and I hope he made a go of it, even with his big ideas and I hope over at Fowlmere now that there s a great, great, great, great (I could go on) relative of Klick s flying about the place. All this happened a long time ago, but like a lot of things in life it seems like only yesterday and is fresh and clear to recall, I even get the sounds and the smells that went with it, and it is nice to be able to share some of these memories with you. Of the dozens of birds that passed through my hands there were lots of Kestrels, and several amusing Little Owls. I only had one Short-Eared Owl, several Sparrow Hawks and one Male Hobby with a broken wing, which the Vet School tried to help with but it would not mend. This Hobby I took to Reg Smith who owned and ran the Hawk Conservatory Trust at Weyhill Hill, Hampshire (Well worth a visit) who were doing a captive breed and release programme with the London Zoological Society and yes it was successful but it took two years to produce young Hobby s and these were released back into the wild. My success rate got to 70% with mending broken wing and legs. I like to think that the whole effort was a small contribution to a few of nature s creations. Colin William SUTTON CONSERVATION SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP FORM Name: Address: Fees: 7.50 per person Children FREE Please make cheques out to : Sutton Conservation Society Please return to: Sally White, 10 lawn Lane, Sutton as soon as possible. 6 P a g e