SPEAKER ON 1ST FEBRUARY 2017 – CARL FELTHAM
The speaker at the meeting of the Society on February 1st was Carl Feltham, whose subject was Birds
of Berkshire 2, which concentrated on farmlands and waterways. This was a follow-up to a previous
talk last season and was given at short notice because the scheduled speaker was unable to attend.
Carl is an ardent member of the RSPB and he recommended the RSPB website www.readingrspb.org.uk for information on the local RSPB group.
There are around 250 breeding bird species which can be seen in the Berkshire area. Farmland is a
man-made habitat which is good for insect life, which forms much of the food chain for birds, and
farmers want to encourage bird life. Set-aside is good for wild flowers, which in turn encourages
insect life.
The bulk of Carl’s talk consisted of showing a superb set of photographs of different birds, each
photograph being accompanied by a recording of the bird’s song. He gave us much interesting
background information on each one. Many of the birds migrate to and from Berkshire at different
times of the year; for example the house martin returns year after year to Africa while the Arctic tern
migrates between the Arctic and Antarctic each year and can often be seen in this area.
Many local species, such as the swallow, have experienced drops in numbers over the years, and the
house sparrow is now an endangered species because their habitat has been gradually destroyed.
Interestingly they never stray more than 250 yards from where they were born. The song thrush is
also a ‘red-listed’ bird, but its population is thought to have bottomed out. The crow is a very
intelligent bird, able to solve problems and the linnet, a popular cage bird in the Mediterranean area,
is also falling in numbers locally.
The real success story is the red kite which, since its re-introduction some years ago, now has a higher
concentration in the Chilterns than anywhere else in the world! Of other birds that Carl mentioned
the corn bunting apparently has regional dialects, birds from even neighbouring areas sounding
different from one another; the turtle dove is also a critically endangered species while the lapwing
population is increasing. The raven, a scavenger, is also regularly seen in Berkshire.
Carl then showed many pictures of birds found near waterways, such as the heron, the kingfisher,
which is very common, and many types of duck, swans, geese and others too numerous to mention.
He closed his talk by showing a picture of a ‘murmuration’ of starlings filling the sky with patterns
which can quickly change.
This was an absolutely fascinating talk, lavishly illustrated by superb pictures, which was of interest to
both seasoned birdwatchers and newcomers to the subject.