Hertfordshire News, Comment and Bulletin articles

This month

BTO/HBC Annual Conference 2003

It's that time again! The details of our annual conference have been finalised and supplied by Tim Hill. The title of our 2003 conference is

BIRDS OF PREY

The programme consists of four talks as follows:

• Bird Detectives: The work of the RSPB Investigations Unit
  Duncan McNiven
• Barn Owls in Britain
  Peter Beaven
• The Red Kite in England - history and future prospects
  Ian Carter
• Population Trends of Raptors in Hertfordshire and the UK
  Rob Clements

This half-day conference is your chance to meet other birdwatchers from Hertfordshire and our neighbouring counties, discover what is going on in the county and listen to topical talks. There will be plenty to do before the talks start at 2:00pm and during the tea interval, including displays, sales tables, a competition and a raffle.

The cost, inclusive of afternoon tea, is #6 (#4 for those under-18, unemployed or in full-time education). Tickets are available now from Tim Hill, 82 Pentley Park, Welwyn Garden City, Herts, AL8 7SG, by completing the printable booking form here. Refunds (less 50p administration fee) will be available up to 7 days prior to the conference.

Book early to avoid disappointment!

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Feral Whooper Swans in Hertfordshire

This small article has been written to inform Hertfordshire birdwatchers to the potential problems that may be being caused by feral Whooper Swans originating in Bedfordshire. The problems involve free-flying swan that are currently wandering and making a mess of personal and annual county records from around at least three local counties. There may well be other sources of feral Whooper Swans in the area but these seem to be the ones that appear regularly at Tring reservoirs. The 1999 bird report recognized that the origin of the birds was uncertain. If anyone else can provide additional information please let me know and I will include the information in a later bulletin.

The story goes as follows;

Around ten years ago two pair of Whooper Swan were purchased by the Luton Borough Council and released on to the small lake at Wardown Park, just to the north of Luton at TL 088 227. All four birds were unable to fly and over subsequent years one pair died. The remaining pair continued to get ‘acquainted’ and during the summer of 1997 they bred and raised three young. Over the next three years the pair experienced further breeding success and failures and by the end of the 2000 season the pair had raised a further six young resulting in a total family count of eleven birds.

During 2001 two pairs attempted to breed; the original pair and an additional attempt by the young of which both failed. This year the adults again nested but following two attempts no young were raised.

So now eleven Whooper Swans now exist at Wardown Park. Up until two years ago, three of the original offspring proved highly mobile and could regularly be found up and down the Lea Valley anywhere between the Luton Hoo Estate down to East Hyde and Stanborough Lakes, near Welwyn Garden City. However, over the following two years the travelling bug has struck all nine offspring and any visit to the park could find differing combinations of swan around the vicinity. For the first time ever, on the 20/7/02, all nine offspring had departed the site leaving the site empty bar apart from the parents

I don’t really want to sound too gloomy but I do think it would take a brave person to claim wild Whooper Swan from Herts, Beds and Bucks (especially since 1999), and for it to be accepted by the relevant rarities panels. (Unless of course it was Darvic leg or neck ringed). Sites like Wilstone Reservoir and College Lake continue to report birds regularly. Now I guess there will be a number of sceptics, who will disagree with my ramblings, (and I really don’t blame you, my wife frequently does). However, when you witness six swans taking off from Wardown, then hear that six birds were then seen flying west over the Luton & Dunstable Hospital, and later hear that birds were seen near Tring, then I kind of put two and two together.

As an aside, an interesting behavioural characteristic noted is that when the swans are at Wardown, they are very tolerant of humans often taking bread from the hand. When seen visiting larger water bodies as mentioned above, they become very wary and prefer to stay mid-water with limited human contact, giving fine performances of wild swans!

The reason I first became interested in these birds was when I noticed that one of the original adults was sporting a BTO leg ring. Following much head scratching and discussion with the BTO (and I must add sterling detective work by Peter Wilkinson), it was found that the bird had been ringed by a now retired West Herts ringer. The personal circumstances concerning this ringing record remain a mystery. In addition, I do believe that a second Whooper was ringed last year at Stanborough Lakes but again details are unknown. I cannot really suggest a way around this swan problem other than colour ringing the Luton birds in some way. At the end of the day however, apart from being a real nuisance with bird records, they really do brighten up this otherwise drab part of Luton when they’re at home!

Mike Russell

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Tyttenhanger restoration update

Regular visitors to Tyttenhanger over the past 18 months have witnessed considerable changes to the areas of land and water below Tyttenhanger Farm, brought about by the removal of the causeway and the diversion of the bridleway upon it.

The major landscaping and attendant earthmoving has now been completed by Lafarge working to a plan agreed at meetings with the Herts County Council ecology team and other interested parties. However there remains some important work to be completed itemized as follows.

• Diversion of the footpath that at present runs on its original line from Garden Wood across the pit direct to Tyttenhanger Farm, this diversion is intended to follow the line of the bridleway towards Coursers Road and then with a left turn to follow the bridleway until a point is reached along the bridleway where it will leave it and head to rejoin the original footpath line near to the Sand Martin face. This diversion which will take walkers away from the scrape to the benefit of migrant and breeding waders is being opposed by other interested parties; until such opposition is resolved and the footpath is moved work on the next phase can not take place i.e.
• The raising of the water levels to the planed 67 meters AOD - the level will be regulated by a weir that will need approval by the Environment Agency, to be sited at the Southwest corner of the smaller lake to discharge back surplus water into the river. When pumping out the surplus water the (the present situation) is discontinued and water levels are allowed to rise, the planned level will be to the base of the sited yellow stakes (now faded) this will mean that the bund that separates the larger lake from the smaller will be submerged and effectively a single water body will exist. It also means that the present footpath will be flooded and the scrape area will be more attractive to the waders and dabblers. This cannot be allowed to happen until the footpath line is resolved and progress in this direction has been halted.
• The areas around the reshaped pit have now been graded and cultivated to wait reseeding at a suitable time; this will be of an approved grass / herb mixture and will be managed over the long term to provide habitat for insects and their predator species.

The pumping operations taking place at the moment are for four reasons

• The maintaining of the water level by selective on/off according to rainfall and ground water levels into the river Colne.
• The extraction of water to the washing plant at the ballast processing area
• The pumping of sand washings back into the lake, this last process that will result in eventually an area of shallows is subject to a two-year agreement and can be renewed if thought desirable by the parties responsible.
• The pumping of water into the lake from adjacent gravel workings, this is needed to maintain working conditions at such sites, when eventually the Bowmans Farm workings are closed down further extraction is planned to take place to the south of the Coursers Road, so the conveyors and some pumping operations are likely to be in place for some years into the future.

It is hoped that this update has gone some way into explaining what is happening. If there are still questions that need answering please contact Hertfordshire County Council at County Hall, Hertford SG13 8DN. The telephone numbers are 01992 556225 (County Development Unit) or 01992 555285 (Definitive Map Office).

Jim Terry

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2002 Mute Swan survey request

This is a request for information of records for breeding Mute Swans or territorial pairs on the River Stort and Stort Naviagtion between Bishops Stortford and Royden Mill for 2002. Also for similar records for lakes etc in adjacent 10km sq (TL41). This information is required to fill a gap in coverage of the 2002 Mute Swan survey. I would be very grateful for any such records that could be sent direct to me via email jim@jayjoy.fsnet.co.uk. Grid references or accurate place names will enable plotting to be possible and give a more meaningful distribution picture.