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The RSPB Macclesfield Local Group

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Thursday 12

Special Event: RSPB Coffee Morning Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee with biscuits at Gawsworth Community Hall. There will be a raffle together with homemade cakes, preserves and bird food on sale. Gawsworth Methodist Community Hall, Congleton Road, Gawsworth, Macclesfield, SK11 9QZ, 10:00 am to 12:00 noon Contact: Lydia Taylor 01260 275248 (please call if you can help in any way)

Sunday 15

WGBG Coach Trip: North Wales / RSPB Conwy Depart at 7:30 am from Wilmslow Guild, Bourne Street, Wilmslow, SK9 5HD Contact: Steve McGann 01625 533652

Gary is visiting our Group for the first time tonight and is also known as the ‘Biking Birder’. A keen birder, cyclist and promoter of environmental causes, the world of ‘Green Birding’ or not incurring a carbon footprint in the pursuit of birds, comes naturally to him. Cycling around the UK in 2010 he visited every RSPB and Wildfowl and Wetland Trust nature reserve – 209 reserves, over 9,000 miles and 251 species! He visited most of the reserves again in 2015 – this time clocking up 318 bird species.

Tonight’s talk, ‘Peruvian Birds - Pacific to Amazonia’, will cover his ‘biking birder’ activities in Peru in 2018. Starting from the richest oceanic coastline in the world, thanks to the Humboldt current in the Pacific Ocean off Peru and finishing in the immensely bio-diverse Amazonian rainforest. Between these two wonderful ecosystems he will be traversing a desert followed by the mighty Andes mountain range. Travel involving water will also be totally fossil-fuel free as he will be using pack-rafts in the Amazonian rainforest thus making the whole journey by bike and raft a truly ‘green’ adventure.

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40th Anniversary Dinner

Tuesday 21st April 2020

Tytherington Club 7:00 for 7:30 pm

Payment is now due if you have booked a place

or see Lydia Taylor if you would like to come

Cost excluding drinks - £25 per person for a three course meal

with speaker Professor David Norman

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Newsletter - March 2020

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: in England and Wales no. 207076, in Scotland no. SC037654

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Tuesday 7

Members Digital Images and Videos for the AGM: Deadline for submission of your contribution (25 images or 10 min video) for the AGM Contact: David Tolliday 01625 432105 or david@macclesfieldrspb.org.uk

Tuesday 14

Indoor Meeting: Birds: ‘Tracking Birds, Mapping the Marvels of Migration’ by Ieuan Evans Satellite tags, GPS tags and geo-locators are all helping the BTO and related organisations to unravel many of the mysteries surrounding bird migration. An update following on from his last talk in January 2017. Introduced by: Alan Brereton 01625 615628

Thursday 16

Walk with Nature: Northwich Flashes Join us for a morning walk around Neumann’s and Ashton’s Flashes searching for early spring migrants Meet at Witton Mill car park, off Old Warrington Road, Northwich, follow signs for ‘Household Waste Site’, then pass the waste site entrance to access the car park, over the bridge on your left. LR Grid Reference: SJ663747, WGS84 N 53.26864, W 2.50630 10:00 am to 12:30 pm Leader: Ian Taylor 01260 275248 and Alan Brereton 01625 615628

Tuesday 21

Special Event: 40th Anniversary Dinner with speaker Professor David Norman Tytherington Club 7:00 for 7:30 pm Cost (exc. drinks) £25 per person, booking essential Organiser: Lydia Taylor 01260 275248

Thursday 23

Walk with Nature: Three Shire Heads Join us to search for ring ouzel and summer plumaged golden plover where the counties of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire meet. Meet at Sparbent layby on the A54 Congleton to Buxton road. LR Grid Reference: SK001692, WGS84 N 53.21966 W 1.99952. 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Leaders: Ray Evans 01625 432635 and Alan Brereton 01625 615628

Sunday 26

WGBG Coach Trip: RSPB Fairburn Ings and RSPB St. Aiden's Depart at 7:30 am from Wilmslow Guild, Bourne Street, Wilmslow, SK9 5HD Contact: Steve McGann 01625 533652

Tuesday 28

Walk with Nature: Tegg’s Nose Country Park A morning walk in the woodland and scrub around Tegg’s Nose looking for the area’s spring migrants especially pied flycatcher and common redstart. Meet at Tegg’s Nose Reservoir car park, Holehouse Lane, Langley. LR Grid Reference SJ945718; WGS84 N 53.24349, W 2.08290 9:30 am to 12:30 pm Leaders: Ian Taylor 01260 275248 and Alan Brereton 01625 615628 with Cheshire East Ranger, Martin James

Thursday 30

Walk with Nature: Dawn Chorus at Styal Country Park Join us for a Dawn Chorus walk around the woodlands at Styal Country Park. We will be listening for spring migrants including chiffchaff and willow warbler. Meet at Twinnies Bridge car park, entrance on Styal Road, Wilmslow, SK9 4HW LR Grid Reference SJ840822, WGS84: N 53.33639, W 2.24174 6:00 am to 8:00 am. Leaders: Ray Evans 01625 432635, Ian Taylor 01260 275248

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Do you or do you know somebody who could help The RSPB Macclesfield Local Group?

The Committee are looking to welcome a Local Group Treasurer and a Local Group Committee Secretary to the team from April 2020. The roles are five year commitments and would involve four to six hours a month or less depending on the time of year. The Treasurer role is subject to RSPB Head Office approval and full training is provided. This role involves collecting and banking money from indoor meetings and events, although attendance isn’t essential on every occasion. If this role isn’t filled by September 2020 The RSPB Macclesfield Local Group will close. The Local Group Committee Secretary role involves organising dates for four committee meetings a year, taking minutes and maintaining the Local Group’s records. In addition, the Secretary will respond to correspondence directing queries to the appropriate committee member if they are unable to handle it themselves. Full support as required from other committee members will be given. These roles are a great opportunity for you to make a valuable contribution to the behind-the-scenes work of the Local Group.

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T hursday 12 March, 10 am until 12 noon will see the Local Group hosting the Gawsworth Community Hall Coffee morning.

We will be selling homemade cakes, biscuits, fruit pies, scones etc. as well as jams and preserves together with bird food, home made greeting cards and jewellery. If you are not able to join us on the day but would like to donate some homemade produce your contribution would be very welcome. We can arrange pick up of any items on Wednesday (tomorrow) should you not be able to make the event, please contact Lydia Taylor 01260 275248. Thank you

Photograph Ian Taylor

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A t the December 2019 meeting we managed to sell over a further 21

packs of Christmas cards to bring our total of packs sold for

Christmas 2019 to over 1,000.

David and Jen Tolliday now have the sales statistics for the Library Christmas

Charity card Shops. There were forty-seven charities selling cards and we

were ranked seventh and top for cards supporting a Wildlife Charity based on

overall sales figures. For the record we came fourth at Macclesfield, eighth at

Wilmslow and tenth at Altrincham. Total sales at the three libraries amounted

to £3,369, thanks to all who supported the library charity card shops.

Editor Photograph Ian Taylor

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News from our Wildlife Explorers

Wildlife Explorers at Swimathon 2020

O n Sunday the 15 March, Macclesfield RSPB Wildlife Explorers have entered a team into the Macclesfield Castle Rotary Club Swimathon. They are raising money for the group, to continue to inspire the next generation of naturalists, plus local Rotary Club

charities. Leader Martin plus Junior Leader Natasha & Wildlife Explorer Oliver will take part in the 45 minute swimming relay. Last year (see picture below) the team completed an incredible 300 lengths, swimming a distance of 4.5 miles! Sponsorship forms will be available during this evening’s meeting if you would like to support the group and their team - ‘The Wildlife Explorer Water Bears’ .

Tina Hanak Wildlife Explorers Leader

Photographs Wildlife Explorers Archive

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T wenty six birdwatchers joined the walk around Astbury Mere in Congleton for the first outdoor event of 2020 for The RSPB Macclesfield Local Group. The temperature was a mild 12’C with little wind and no rain which was a surprise

considering the weather a few days before. Setting off from the visitor centre we walked anti-clockwise around the lake to make the best of the sun as we soon found redwing and blackbirds but no fieldfare stripping berries off the cotoneaster bushes. Walking along the top of the grassed area the going was a soft and boggy in places and almost immediately we found bullfinch, greenfinch, blue tit, great tit and long-tailed tit foraging for food. We could hear a song thrush and robins singing with house sparrows chattering away in the bushes. Corvids (jackdaw, magpie and carrion crow) were flying overhead. We found dunnocks, wrens and more robins dashing ahead of us in the undergrowth. At one point a very brave robin was taking sunflower seeds out of the hand of one of the party. Looking across the Mere we could see rafts of black-headed gulls with the occasional herring and lesser black-backed gulls with beautifully plumaged waterfowl - tufted ducks, common pochard, coots and great-crested grebes together with male and female goosander. While watching the water birds three buzzards paid us a visit swopping down and circling above our heads. On returning to the car park everybody said their goodbyes and some ventured over to the café for a coffee before leaving. In total the group recorded twenty-seven different species which prepares us for the spring ’Walk with Nature’ programme.

Ian and Lydia Taylor

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Photograph Abercrombie

Wildlife Explorers support National Nest Box Week

M acclesfield RSPB Phoenix volunteer Louis Mayo-Jarvis has been busy with a paintbrush. During National Nest Box Week (February 14 - 21) he prepared a selection of nestboxes for installation by Cheshire East Countryside Ranger Services

at Tegg's Nose Country Park. All the nestboxes will be in place for the 2020 nesting season. National Nest Box Week is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and aims to encourage everyone to put up a bird nest box in their local area in order to promote and enhance biodiversity and the conservation of breeding birds and wildlife.

Martin James Wildlife Explorer Leader

Photographs Y. Mayo-Jarvis

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Health and Safety

In the event of fire or other emergency necessitating evacuation of the building, please leave in an orderly manner via

the nearest available Emergency Exit or as instructed by a designated Committee member. Emergency Exits are indicated by the internationally recognised symbol of a ‘running man’ on a green background.

If required, there is a first aid kit in the kitchen. (If you do have an accident, however minor, while here tonight please

report it directly to a Committee member who, amongst other things, will ensure that details are logged in the Accident Report Book.)

The Annual General Meeting of The RSPB Macclesfield Local Group

Tuesday 12 May 2020 at 7:45 pm

Senior Citizens’ Hall, Duke Street Car Park, Macclesfield, SK11 6UR

Nominations are invited for Committee Membership

Derek Bailey, Treasurer and Daryll Bailey, Committee Secretary are not seeking re-election

and their terms of office end 12 May 2020.

Lydia Taylor, Membership Secretary and Graham Palmer General Duties are seeking re-election

for a further 5 year term

Please consider joining the Committee to help the Group

if we do not find a Treasurer the Group will close

The closing date for nominations for Committee is Tuesday 5 May 2020.

For details of submission rules and procedures please contact any member of the Committee.

Nominations should be submitted by signed letter or e-mail to the Secretary, Daryll Bailey

(secretary@macclesfieldrspb.org.uk) from those proposing and seconding the nominee.

Please speak to any Committee Member if your are interested in volunteering, training and

support is available. We hold just four Committee Meetings per year.

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A reminder that the fifth annual Breeding Bird Survey at Cheshire Wildlife Trust Danes Moss Reserve starts on Monday 16 March and continues with five further Monday visits until the end of July. All visits start at 06.45 am from the Lyme Green Business Park by the Home Bargains store (which recently replaced Homebase) for a prompt 07.00 am

start from the picnic area at the entrance to Danes Moss Reserve alongside the Macclesfield Canal, and should finish no later than 09.30 am. If you would like to take part or require further information please see me (Alan Brereton) at the March Indoor meeting or contact me directly. Further details including survey dates and directions can also be found on the Local Group website – www.macclesfieldrspb.org.uk

Alan Brereton T 01625 615628 M 07760 156153

publicity@macclesfieldrspb.org.uk

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