North West Surrey RSPB at Papercourt Sailing Club

SAILING BY - Alan Pugh ( North West Surrey RSPB Local Group.)

“Can you deal with this Alan, I’m going on holiday” were the words in Dave’s message.  It turned out to be an enquiry from Papercourt Sailing Club via our website asking for some help with providing an interpretation board and some posters to go in their club house.  No problem I thought, sadly it turned out to be a little more difficult than I imagined.

The obvious first step was to find out a little bit more about exactly what the sailing club were after. It transpired that the club had been given some money by Volvo to spend on providing something to show their support for the local wildlife.  After some discussion with the Club, it was concluded that a couple of interpretation boards located on the grass in front of the clubhouse, a couple of posters inside and a few nest boxes would fit the bill.  Still quite easy I thought especially as we already had some nest boxes which Ron had made earlier.

A few phone calls later and I was beginning to become a little concerned, there weren’t any readily available posters and no interpretation boards to fix them on to that came anywhere near fitting within the budget.  Clearly, this was going to become a DIY project.  Quietly panicking, I phoned the RSPB’s Media Services who arranged for me to have access to the line drawing database, another phone call to Pulborough Brooks staff resulted in some extremely helpful advice.

The next step was make a list of the birds that are likely to be seen in the area.  Having done this, one poster became two! I sent my bird list to Peter Hambrook to check. Peter very politely pointed out that I’d missed out a significant number of species and so, two posters suddenly became three!  After a couple of hours playing on my new computer, the result was 3 A3 size posters showing all the likely species.  These were subsequently printed A1 size by a local printer viz. Blue Mushroom.  They looked so good, I was almost impressed with my efforts!

One problem down and another to go i.e. where could I get the interpretation boards from?  The answer, ask Ron “I can make anything” Jackson!  As always Ron’s response was “no problem, just send me a drawing of what you want”. 

The final step was installing the interpretation boards and locating the nest boxes at Papercourt Sailing Club which we did on a Saturday in late November.  As no suitable post holes were available locally, it was another d-i-y job!  The gang of labourers consisted of Dave Braddock, Ken Sutton, Peter Hambrook, Graham Horsburgh and myself all supervised by Ron and photographed by Mary Braddock. 

The location of the interpretation boards in front of the clubhouse is a very attractive area not just for homo-sapiens but also for numerous Canada geese who had left enough deposits for a Chris Packham “poo-fest”. 

So what have we achieved with this little project?  We’ve stepped up for nature (or should that be dug down?)  The Group has been able to raise a modest amount of money for its’ funds but, much more importantly, we have established a good relationship with Papercourt Sailing Club.  In the future, we plan to take some of their members on wildlife walks and hope that we can encourage some to join the RSPB and also our Group.  For myself, it has reminded me how unfailingly generous the Group members are with their time and expertise.  Lastly, I’ve also learned the need to synchronise my holidays with Dave Braddock!!!

Oare Marshes October 2011

Oare Marshes in North Kent on a sunny day with a rising tide has to be a great place for close views of waders. Flocks of golden plovers, avocets, dunlins, lapwings and black-tailed godwits gave fantastic views in the autumn sun. With no signs of predator activity, these birds seemed to fly just for the sake of it. The golden plovers looked almost electric as they turned this way and that, the sun catching the gold, then the white contrasting with the lapwings that joined them. “Scar-face” a regular little egret was most confiding at the edge of the tide while the avocets stayed slightly further out in the scrape.

Deer of Autumn 2011 - pictures include Red Deer stags and Fallow Deer

Bushy Park has been the site of some very busy Red Deer stags this autumn. The weather has been dry and not particularly cold although the temperatures on one or two mornings have been low enough for a foggy start. This makes for an unnerving time, listening to the baying of the stags as the dawn begins to break behind a curtain of fog… in other words it is really difficult to work out where these creatures actually are. A high level of caution is required to maintain safety but the draw of that ever elusive picture can have photographers going one step too close to these magnificent animals. As the Red Stags begin to quieten at the end of October so the Fallow deer take over and provide their own spectacle.

Bushy Park – 2nd October 2011

I decided on the spur of the moment to go for photos of the Red Deer in Bushy Park… it was 5.00 am Sunday! The air was still and the sky clear, I felt that there could well be some good atmospheric conditions around the lake and with the deer in full rut, I might get a few shots. I was not disappointed, the colours changed every moment and the light on the deer varied depending on the directions they were facing. It was a great morning and by the time the cyclists and dog walkers were up, I was heading home for coffee!

British Columbia September 2011 - pictures inc wolf, sea otter, black bear, orca, Gray jay, Juvvie bald eagle

We took the ferry to Vancouver Island where we spent the first fortnight of September enjoying warm breezes, calm seas and the fantastic wildlife that this amazing place has to offer. We were travelling with Speyside Wildlife International, with 2 great guides Roy and Julian. The Pacific temperate Rainforest is a magnificent place where trees grow huge, lichens drip off every branch and ferns grow high and bears witness to the usual amount of rainfall that falls in this location. Birdlife was spectacular with ospreys giving competition to bald eagles and their young while out at sea the sooty shearwaters flashed past tufted puffin, black oystercatchers, Heerman’s gulls, Rhinoceros auklet and the like. Grey whales, Humpback and Orcas jostled for attention while the Sea Otters played it cool lying on the surface of the ocean. Steller’s sea lions honked on the rocks and Californian sea lions played in the kelp while the fast moving Dall’s porpoise leapt through the waters. On the beach the Black bears taught their cubs how to forage and Grey wolves looked for meals. Inland the Douglas firs grow to immense heights and salmon run the waterfalls. The mountains are spectacular with snow caps still in September and the summer flowers carpet the alpine meadows. The water that cascades from these mountains is crystal clear and provides fantastic environments for creatures like beaver and River otters that also use the inlets that are fed by these rivers. Returning to the mainland a walk around the Riefel Migratory Bird Sanctuary gave us views of some great birds and we caught up on some species we had missed out on the trip including a most confiding great horned owl. A fantastic trip – “Beat that Speyside”

Quick Weekend Trip to Norfolk - pictures include Morston, Leafcutter bee, Sunflower, woodpigeon, Roe Deer

A weekend journey to North Norfolk in August does not usually go without traffic jams and long queues, but having left Surrey at 6.30pm on the Friday we were at our destination by 9.45pm – amazing! Even more startling was that we were still on Wells-next-the-Sea at 6.30pm on the Sunday and walked in home at 9.40pm! A lovely weekend in warm weather with long coastal walks and all spent in great company. The next morning I found the Roe Deer asleep in the field…

Local Patch 12th August 2011 pictures include Roe Deer, Willow Warbler and black arches moth

Out walking around the Patch recently, I came across the Roe Deer buck. Roe deer are one of Britain's native deer species and have become the most widespread. They became largely extinct in the 1700s and were only later reintroduced. Before 1960 they were treated as vermin owing to the damage they cause to the forestry industry. Unlike other deer, they do not live in herds, but are most often seen as solitary individuals or as a family group of a mother and her offspring. Does gives birth to one to three fawns in May or June. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Roe_Deer accessed 12/8/2011) They are notoriously difficult to get close to but as the weeks have gone by I feel that this particular buck has got used to seeing me as I wander around the area. I was able to walk towards him without him running, as you can see from the photographs he was well aware of my presence. The rutting season is between mid July and the end of August and there was a female just behind the hedge, she was far more skittish and ran off for cover before I could get a picture. They were both looking in the peak of condition. The juvenile willow warbler was seen on the same morning and compared nicely to the chiff chaff that was in the same piece of hedgerow, the chiff chaff was displaying the downward tail with the characteristic “bob”. The black arches moth has been included because I like the way it looks like a sheep’s face with horns!