Hertford Swifts NEED YOU!
Herts ecologist and conservationist Jenny Sherwen has recently set up a Hertford Swift Group. Read about it below including details of their first Hertford Swift Walk on Tuesday 16th July:
Do you love watching screaming swifts over our town? Perhaps you?ve seen these birds but you?d like to know more about them
Join us on our first Hertford Swift walk on Tuesday 16th July
Meet at 8pm at the Stag, Parliament Square. We hope to see you there!
Swift photo ? Andy Johnson
Tyttenhanger Bird Report 2016 & 2017
The Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits Bird Report for 2016 and 2017 is now available.
Go to Tyttenhanger 2016 & 2017 to download a copy.
Edited and produced by Ricky Flesher and Peter Christian the excellent 72 page report includes accounts for all of the 139 and 144 species recorded at Tyttenhanger in 2016 and 2017 respectively, along with photos, many interesting tables and graphs, species year lists back to 2004, and finder accounts for 2017's Iceland Gull and White-winged Black Tern.
Go to Tyttenhanger Site Guide to download reports back to 2011.
Herts Bird Club / BTO Conference 2019
The 2019 Herts Bird Club/BTO Conference took place in Hatfield on Saturday 2nd March. It was well-attended and kindly hosted and supported by Affinity Water at their headquarters.
Go to Bird Conference 2019 to read all about it!
Herts Little Egret recorded in the Azores!
Since 2014 Little Egrets have bred within the heronry at Verulamium Park with one nest then increasing to four nests there in 2018. Barry Trevis and his team have been ringing and colour-ringing the young there during this time with 34 birds ringed. A further 10 Little Egret chicks have been ringed at Stanborough Lakes since 2016. Also some full-grown Little Egrets are ringed at Lemsford Springs. The main purpose of the ringing is to monitor the movements, distribution and survival rates of this recently colonized species to the UK.
Herts Bird Photo of the Year 2018 - Winner!
Many congratulations to Derek Girvan whose excellent image of a Black-Headed Gull at Marsworth Reservoir was voted Herts Bird Photo of the Year 2018 at the Herts/BTO?Bird Conference on 2 March 2019.
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HNHS News
Optimow 2024 – citizen science to help garden pollinators
Scientists are inviting gardeners interested in helping bees, butterflies and other pollinators to take part in a study to discover how grass mowing can be timed to maximise their impact.
Participants in the Optimow 2024 project, organised by the Brown Lab at Royal Holloway, University of London will be asked to follow a mowing frequency plan, while submitting weekly counts of the key pollinators sighted in their gardens.
Conference highlights varying fortunes of wildfowl and wetland birds in Herts
The 2024 Hertfordshire Bird Conference drew a capacity audience at Affinity Water’s headquarters in Hatfield on Sat 2nd March 2024. The theme was wetlands and especially gravel pits with talks by Graham White on the fortunes of waterbirds on the restored gravel pits of the Colne Valley and a talk by Herts. Bird Club Chair, Rupert Evershed, on the birds of Stanborough Gravel Pits.
This report includes links to videos allowing those who missed the conference to catch-up with the main presentations.
Lecturer explains how beavers can bring benefits for wildlife and humans
Bringing Eurasian Beavers to an estate in Essex has delivered improvements in biodiversity while helping prevent flooding in a nearby village.
The positive consequences of reintroducing a species that became extinct in Britain in the late 18th century were described by Sarah Brockless, ecologist at the Spains Hall Estate, when she gave the Gerald Salisbury Memorial Lecture in Welwyn Civic Centre on Wednesday 28 February.
Photo: Eurasian Beaver at Spains Hall Estate © Russell Savory