Back to Work

Wow, had an amazing response to my last blog on finding two suspiciously dead badgers on a trip out. It also confirmed to me what an amazingly small world conservation is, I had a brief chat on twitter with one of the country’s premier badger campaigners who I found out later to be the step-mother of one of my dearest friends.

I’ve been back in paid employment this month for the first time since early September and it feels fantastic, again re-enforcing my belief that 5 years of hard graft volunteering was worth it in the end! I briefly mentioned what I do in my post ‘The Year it all Happened (part 2)’  but I’ll go into a tad more detail now.

I’m currently working for the RSPB and my job is surveying Ring Ouzels and their habitat in two neighbouring Peak District valleys, one valley, Crowden, where the breeding population has remained stable, and the other, Dove Stone, where the population has crashed in the last 25 years. The first thing to do once I got all my kit was to start surveying the habitat, arguably the most important element of my job. This is to see if there are any differences in vegetation and vegetation density between the two valleys.

Pic 1. A solid mass of bilberry

I have two different elements to survey, habitat structure and habitat composition. Composition involves looking at what plants are living at a set point, and structure involves looking at the height and density of the vegetation in the same set point. All my survey points are on 500 metre intervals placed in and around the respective valleys. Each survey point has 16 individual plots within it to survey so it’s pretty comprehensive.

Pic 2: Checking the density

Pic 3. A more mixed plot

It’s probably easier to demonstrate with pictures. So picture 1 demonstrates an individual plot. The metal square is called a quadrat and this particular quadrat is half a metre square in size. In picture 1 the vegetation in 100% bilberry. In picture 2 I’m checking the structure of the same plot, I have to count the white stripes on the pole, there are 9 in total, the less stripes I can see the more dense the vegetation is. In this case I saw 7 stripes out of 9 which means it is relatively dense. Picture 3 shows a more typical plot which is more varied in composition, it looks something like 25% sedge, 50% bilberry and the rest a mix of grass and moss (sorry the photo quality on the work’s phone is terrible!).

It’s pretty tough work to be honest, there’s a lot of hill walking and a lot of kit to carry. I’ve been blessed with good weather so far and I’ve been able to leave some of my waterproofs in the car to save on weight (rather foolishly some may argue!). The first week in particular reminded me how much fitness I lost over the winter, my legs ceasing to work by the end of it but I’m over the ring rust stage and am enjoying the walking.

I’ve now completed the first round (of four) of vegetation surveying and now I’m onto the good bit, the surveying for the Ring Ouzels themselves. More of which another time, but I’ll leave with a pic of the first Ouzel I saw this year (you’ll have to believe me, it is there I promise!).

Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone 22nd April 2015. Photo: Author

 

Badgers, wildlife crime, and being a good citizen

Well it’s been a roller-coaster of a fortnight for me! I’m now back in gainful employment, working as a Research Assistant for the RSPB where amongst other things I realised how much fitness I’ve lost over the winter (the answer: a lot!). Today I heard the angering news that the vote to end spring hunting in Malta had failed, 51% of the voting public said ‘Yes’ the wanted to keep spring hunting and thus consigning the Turtle Dove to the annals of history. Malta is very dear to my heart and I spend two weeks volunteering every September monitoring the illegal hunting and bird migration.

However what I want to write about today is the subject of badgers. A few days before I started my new contract I decided to go birding at a local heronry, where herons have nested in trees since time immemorial. I got lost though, I took a wrong turn and ended up on the wrong road. To get on to the correct road I turned onto the next country lane which I knew would take me to the right place. However not long after I had taken this road I came across a dead badger on the side of the road. Actually hold on a minute, it was two dead badgers of the side of the road. I quickly double checked my mirror and it was confirmed. Two dead badgers at the side of the road. I stuck my car in reverse and parked just behind the two brocks.

Two dead Badgers at Langley, Cheshire. 27/3/15

So what a curious sight. The two badgers had clearly been placed next to each other, nose to tail and facing each other. There was no sign of them being run over, no obvious broken limbs and they were obviously not squished. It was clear that crows had got to them before I had. It looked terribly suspicious. I had some idea about what to do, being both an amateur and now a professional conservationist I tried to get in contact with as many channels as possible. First, the Badger Trust who told me to ring the local Cheshire representative. I did so but it just rang out but I left a message. Next I rang the Cheshire Wildlife Trust, again it just rang out. I then rang a friend who works for the Wildlife Trust who was eager to help. She told me that the Wildlife Crime Officer from Cheshire Police was eager for people to report any suspected wildlife crime, badgers in particular. I rang the police. I got put through to Nantwich station, no use, Nantwich is 50 miles away. I tried again. I got through to Macclesfield (bingo! 3 miles). They said it wasn’t a police matter and I try the RSPCA. I’ll write that again. It wasn’t a police matter. The police who are keen for people to report wildlife crime. It wasn’t a police matter.

In the meantime the Badger Trust rep had left a message. She lived in Warrington so could do little to help. I explained the situation, she agreed it sounded suspicious, was hacked off at the police but said it was typical. She did give a more local member of the Badger Trust who lived close by, I rang her, she wasn’t in but left a message telling her where the badgers were. The RSPCA were really helpful. They wanted all the details, including my location, the description of the badgers etc etc. They said an officer would be out shortly. I got a call 20 minutes later. The officer probably wouldn’t be there until after dark. I reluctantly left the scene having promised to give copies of the photographs I took to the RSPCA.

And that’s where the trail runs cold. Not heard a thing since. Not from the RSPCA, the police, the local Badger Trust member. Nothing. No idea what happened to the badgers, whether it was foul play or just a really odd coincidence that two badgers died at the same spot at the same time. It seems that everyone is working against each other.

So we are told to do our bit for wildlife crime. Volunteer our time if we see something awry. We are told that if we see a dead badger report it to the Badger Trust so they can remove it and thus remove clues to the nearest sett. We are told to report any suspected crime to authorities. On my experience it seems like we’re crying against the wind. At the moment I’m not entirely sure if me calling the authorities made a blind bit of difference.

What gets my goat (moth)

I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of a new blog post. Basically nothing interesting has happened since my last post. Sure spring is in the air now, although to me it hasn’t started until I hear my first singing Chiffchaff, so it is now the vague period in my mind before spring and after winter. It’s also the vague period for me in between job searching and employment. I’m going to be an RSPB employee again in just under a month but I’ve still got to look for work (that’s the government’s ‘wonderful’ Universal Credit scheme for you!). So what to write?

How about a tongue in cheek not-at-all-serious look at the things I find irritating or infuriating about wildlife conservation and volunteering? Yeah I think that’ll do, to amuse myself perhaps.. No moths involved..

OK number one: Cliques: I found this highly irritating when I was starting out doing voluntary work. There’s nothing worse than turning up on your first day as a volunteer for a new organisation or at a new site to find there are a bunch of middle-aged men who have volunteered there for decades who treat any newcomers with suspicion and like to do things a certain way thank you very much. Add to this the paid staff who treat these cliques with kid gloves and try little as possible to assimilate any new volunteer into the group.

Two: Plurals or singular? : Let me explain by paraphrasing a tweet I read yesterday. “Nice news piece on how a woodland reserve is helping willow tit.” What? Is the woodland reserve helping just one willow tit? Or many willow tits? It should read either “Nice news piece on how a woodland reserve is helping willow tits,” or “Nice piece on how a woodland reserve is helping a willow tit.” You see it all the time, especially in bird magazines “come to this nice coastal reserve to see Avocet” it might say. OK I know what it means but gods it irritates me!

Three: Bandwagons: As nature conservationists we should be concerned about all native wildlife, big little common or endangered. The little stuff feeds the big stuff (in general) and the common could become endangered if we carry on the way we are going (again, in general). But, as conservationists we like to have flavours of the month, all very worthy I may add. Be it whales, tigers, giant pandas, hen harriers etc. Now as I was involved with Hen Harrier conservation last year and am heavily aware of their persecution, but other raptors are also persecuted, Golden Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, Merlins etc. Kestrels are also in decline but I don’t see kestrel twibbons on twitter adorning profile pics, where’s the high profile Pearl-bordered Fritillary campaigns? Swifts are rapidly declining. I’m aware of the vagaries of money and prioritising but it is true in my mind that certain species feature prominently for a while before the next big things come along to take over the twitterspace.

Four: Blog posts that don’t go anywhere and are only there to keep the blog active in between more meaningful posts! (See here for details!)

Five: The ‘I know best’ volunteer: We all must have seen these. Volunteers (usually within the clique) who have their own set way of doing things and have the greatest ideas about what and more importantly (in their mind) what not to do. For instance a work party leader will organise a work party and the said ‘I know best vol’ wants to do it his/her way, and if they can’t do it won’t do it or will do it their way.

Six: We’re all a bit weird really. You never get any cool kids signing up to be conservation volunteers. We’re all a bit left field, all like a woolly jumper, we all have a political or green-organisation car sticker, fashion consists of free t-shirt acquired from various projects, we’re all a bit too geeky for our own good. How can we appeal to the general public and get everyone enthused about the world we inhabit when we appear to be in a specialist niche and proud of it?!

Seven: Pay. When you finish volunteering and decide to get a career in wildlife conservation you soon start to realise you get paid a relative pittance to do one of the most important jobs in the planet. I know people who have gone down the academic route, paid thousands for undergrads, masters, and even PHDs to then apply for a far less than £20k job. I know we do the job for love not money but the money sure helps to live off!

Anyway, rants over. I’ll add again that none of this is serious, I quite like high profile campaigns that grabs people’s attention and can provide a focus for wider areas if done properly. Also none of this is in a particular order, just the order in which it came into my head than down onto the keyboard.

Wading Inspiration

A couple of weeks ago I attended a talk at CAWOS, my local ornithological society (see an earlier post about my take on traditional societies) and my mind was opened, again! The talk was by Rick and Elis Simpson on the subject of wading birds (or shorebirds depending on where you live!).

Now, I’ve attended a few talks in this winter season already, one was about Derbyshire wildlife, another was about Oystercatchers, but I missed one on my specialist subject of upland Pennine wildlife (D’oh!). None of my attended talks, though very well researched and presented particularly inspired me to further action. Until now.

Ringed Plovers, Leasowe, Merseyside. Photo: Alex Cropper

Rick and Elis, to cut a long story short, decided to take a round the world trip to see as many wading birds as possible for charity. This was done initially to raise money for the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) to help the fortunes of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. The focus soon changed however. They began realising that many species of wader they were seeing were in trouble and were in need of help. Again to cut the story down again they then saw that many organisations and individuals were putting in a lot of effort into reversing population declines by running low-cost conservation programs. For instance, to help protect some beach breeding waders in Australia leaflets were printed out along with some larger posters to create awareness within the beach using public. This cost less than £1000. Other projects include providing farmers with training and the means to work around breeding waders in their crop fields (for instance getting marker flags/poles to mark the nests out to avoid destroying them), and purchasing mist nets to assist local research projects, both projects that wouldn’t cost a lot of money. An idea for a charity was born – Wader Quest. A charity that helps fund small and cheap to run shorebird projects, and raises funds for wader conservation. A wonderful idea, many conservation charities spent tens of thousands of pounds/dollars on gargantuan and intensive research projects and nature reserve running costs; which is fantastic but doesn’t leave much room for the little guy. I joined the charity as a sponsor almost immediately.

A mixed wader flock at Leasowe, Merseyside (Look hard, they’re there believe me!). Photo: Alex Cropper

Now, I have a confession, my knowledge of waders is pretty poor and I prefer birds of prey and seabirds, but don’t tell anyone! But I love the idea of funding grass-roots projects – I firmly believe that if the grass roots are sorted out than the people and organisations further up the ladder will have a lot easier job ahead of them (like in the rest of life). I’d definitely urge everyone to think about joining Wader Quest as a sponsor, they’re fantastic! (And no, I don’t work for them I’m just completely inspired by them!). Now, I’m going to stop writing at start swatting up on wading birds…..

Here’s their website: http://www.waderquest.org/

Common Micro-moths of Berkshire – a review

I’ve decided in 2015 to try and learn a different taxon group. I may even put birds on the back burner (in a non-professional sense) to concentrate on something else. A bit drastic I know but I don’t really want to be a one trick pony (who lets face it can’t always get the trick right!) and would love to broaden my naturalist horizon. Fungi appealed to me towards the end of last year and is a group I’ll take more interest in for sure. How about molluscs? More specifically slugs and snails, it’s niche and I’ve got two excellent books on them but they don’t really get me going if I’m honest. Now I’ve had a moth trap for coming up to five years which I’ve used most weeks in the summer months. Bingo! Moths it is, I’ve got the gear, I’ve some field guides, the local county recorder lives in my town, and the moths can come to you, not the other way around!

My local county recorder is Steve Hind (more specifically, the micro-moth recorder) and I paid him a visit before Christmas. He is a font of knowledge and provided great help, put me in contact with a local forum, and recommended me a load of books and journals. One of which was the ‘Common Micro-moths of Berkshire.’ This is slightly odd as I live in Cheshire, but I was assured only 6 of the moths in the book don’t occur in Cheshire at the moment. I had a quick flick through it and thought it looked great, so a month and £10 later I bought it.

Now micro-moths haven’t had a dedicated field-guide to them for one very good reason, there are literally thousands of them! And most of them don’t have an English name, instead most have scientific two part names. So they haven’t been all that accessible to the budding moth enthusiast (should they be called mothers perhaps? Maybe not.). This was rectified a couple of years ago with the publication of a dedicated field guide by Stirling and Parsons. But still the sheer number of them can be overwhelming; which is where ‘Common Micro-moths of Berkshire’ comes in.

I have to say the book is excellent, it covers 103 species of moth which are the most commonly recorded in Berkshire. There is an easy access thumbnail selection to quickly narrow down a potential moth at the start of the book and then a full page description of each moth, along with hinting at other moths your selection may be similar to. For example one of my favourite micro-moths is Emmelina monodactyla or ‘Common Plume,’ which I think looks like one of these:

Common Plume

Fiesler Storch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a brief description of the habitat of the Common Plume which is stated as a ‘variety of different habitats’ and whose status is ‘Common’ and then gives a detailed description of what it looks like highlighting important features to look out for, hopefully leading to an easy ID. If not than my potential Common Plume could, according to the similar species given, be a Stenopyilia bipunctidactyla or a S. pterodactyla. There is also a handy graph giving the flight seasons (when are you likely to see an adult flying moth?) although this is less helpful in more northern Cheshire than it would be if I lived in Berkshire. The guide does this pretty well for every moth, most of which are far less distinctive than the Common Plume. Because it is limited to common micro-moths which are you are more likely to catch in a light trap or whilst on a walk it doesn’t overwhelm you with hundreds of options to choose from. I definitely think you can use it in conjunction with the comprehensive Stirling and Parsons guide though, especially as not every description gives clues as to whether the moths are attracted to light or sugar, or are day-flying for instance.

The other thing to remark upon is that the production values of the book are superb. The book looks like it could have come from a major publishing house. It hasn’t. It comes from a local enthusiast group, the Berkshire Moth Group. It is incredibly professional looking, well laid out, glossy pages, a good index, and an appendix which goes into more detail with more alternative species similar to ones found in the main body of the book. There are a few errors which are highlighted in an Errata print-out loosely included at the beginning of the book, including a few mislabelled photographs which would unfortunately confuse IDs. But on the whole these shouldn’t distract from this fantastic book which I would recommend to any naturalist.

So I think I’ve got it. Moths it is for the year (OK maybe I can begin to look at slugs and snails too, and perhaps fungi, and maybe lichen. Perhaps also bryophytes, or perhaps beetles, or hoverflies, spiders even? Possibly.)

Book available from http://www.nhbs.com for £9.99.

Both photos from Wikicommons.

2014, the year it finally happened! (part 3)

Hen Harriers Circus cyaneus have had a lot of publicity in 2014. In 2013 there were no reported successfully breeding pairs in England at all. Nada, nowt, diddely squat. I won’t go into the reasons for the failures but they mostly involve shotguns and vested interests. But 2014 was a different matter there were 3 reported pairs who successfully bred which was a vast improvement. It was a great surprise therefore when not long after I finished my Ring Ouzel contract I was asked if I wanted to assist in protecting a breeding pair of Hen Harriers in the Peak District. Half of me thought it was a wind-up as it was August and the breeding season was over; especially as I got the phone call when I was at a friend’s wedding, but no it was true. So a day later I found myself on a hill in the Dark Peak area with a National Trust staff member watching England’s 4th breeding pair of Hen Harriers! An incredibly late breeding pair whose nest was discovered on the 1st of August.

It was my job simply to watch the nest and record every movement of both adult birds and eventually the youngsters once they fledged. I also had to record any potential human disturbance or interference. The watch over the nest was conducted with absolute secrecy with no knowledge of it outside conservation organisations and the shooting tenant.

Male Hen Harrier from Peak District pair 2014. Photo: Alex Cropper

One of my outstanding memories of my watches would be on August 10th 2014. The day in question was Hen Harrier Day, a protest about illegal raptor persecution on driven grouse moors that took place at Ladybower Reservoir. The event was attended by 100s of people and organised by Mark Avery and the Birders Against Wildlife Crime (BAWC). But what was I doing that day? I was a mile away up a hill watching my pair of Harriers which no one could know about. Yes on Hen Harrier Day I was watching Hen Harriers almost within sight of the gathering! A pretty decent claim to fame to be honest. (To tell the truth the weather was horrible, and I saw them briefly just after dawn in a brief window of good weather before the heavens opened – and remained open for the rest of the day). I may have missed the opportunity though to show unity with my fellow conservationists and wildlife lovers, but I think I had a pretty decent excuse!

Male Hen Harrier from Peak District pair. Photo: Alex Cropper

The pair successfully fledged 5 chicks but unfortunately 3 perished not long after fledging leaving two, a male and a female, left. This was a pretty normal tally for breeding birds of prey, but frustrating when there are so few so every fatality hurts the national population.

The job was great, I was surrounded by great countryside watching magnificent birds. Besides the Hen Harriers there were Short-eared Owls, Peregrines, Buzzards, Merlins, Kestrels, a Hobby, Tawny Owls, Marsh Harriers, Ravens, and I even saw my old friend the Ring Ouzel again.

Alas all good things come to an end and after a month my contract was up and I’ve been looking for more paid work ever since. So I’m back as a volunteer now! It does go to show though if you put in enough time and effort as a volunteer though you will get a paid job in this wonderful job sector working with some wonderful wildlife.

2014, the year it finally happened! (part 2)

Top of Great Crowden Valley. Photo: Alex Cropper

So this is it. After 4 years of volunteering, after cutting back on work hours to concentrate on a conservation career, and after eventually quitting my bar job altogether to focus on achieving my goal, I finally did it! I got a paid job in wildlife conservation!

My first paid conservation job was as a Research Assistant for the RSPB’s Conservation Science department. My task was to survey a bird called a Ring Ouzel Turdus torquatus (basically a migratory blackbird-esque thrush with a white collar) and their habitat at my old stomping ground of Dove Stone in Saddleworth, UK. A bit different from eradicating rats definitely!

The task was very simple; to compare two valleys at the vast RSPB Dove Stone reserve. One, Great Crowden Valley, has a long term stable breeding population, the other, Dove Stone Edges/Chew Valley, has had a population crash in the last 25 years. It was my job to gather data to determine any differences between the two valleys. This involved me surveying each valley once a week for the birds themselves, and surveying the valleys once a month for their habitat (basically comparing vegetation types and density of said vegetation). It was such a brilliant job, I had two scenic valleys that I called my office for 4 months, I saw them change subtly over the months. A dank, foggy, wintry scene in April to a balmy red hot perfect summer’s day in July. I was surrounded by fantastic wildlife, chuckling grouse, croaky Ravens, enigmatic Peregrines, Stonechats, Whinchats, Dippers, Common Lizards,  Mountain Hares, Green Hairstreak butterflies and loads more.

Final Ring Ouzel tally (from the top of my head, I may be wrong here!) : Great Crowden: 8 breeding pairs from 10 territories. Dove Stone Edges/Chew Valley: 2 breeding pairs.

Lizard in Great Crowden Valley. Photo: Alex Cropper

Vegetation surveying! Photo: Hayley Percival

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was difficult at times however, I came from working with a great close-knit team on St. Agnes to working literally by myself for weeks on end, sometimes not seeing a soul all day. I did eventually get myself a mad as a box of frogs volunteer to help which was amazing and a tad surreal (I went from volunteer myself to recruiter of volunteer within a few months!). I’d definitely do this job again no question!

After 4 months the contract came to an end and I found myself out of work, for all of a week! Then I had my most privileged job ever (not sure it can be beaten!)….

2014, the year it finally happened! (part 1)

This year has been one of the best years of my life, no exaggeration, sure there have been bad bits but the good bits more than make up for them with interest.

My  2014 started off on the island of St. Agnes in the Isles of Scilly where I was at the half way point of a rat eradication voluntary post. Now rat eradication sounds pretty extreme, but you have got to consider that rats aren’t native to the UK and they cause a lot of damage. This damage is magnified on islands which generally have a pretty unique and specialized flora and fauna which don’t adapt to change all that easily. Rats on St. Agnes were decimating the breeding sea bird population as well as causing havoc with islanders livelihoods so the rats had to go. By New Year’s Day 2014 the rats had all disappeared so my task was monitoring the island in order to confirm they had all gone. It turned out they had (there is still 2 years of less intense monitoring to go until it can be declared ‘rat-free’ however). The news looks good, in 2014 Manx Shearwaters bred on St. Agnes successfully for the first time in years; look at the link at the bottom of the post!  Aside from the task in hand living on an island archipelago was just the best place to live. The scenery was stunning and the locals were the incredibly friendly and made us feel really welcome.

St. Agnes quay with huge waves. Copyright Alex Cropper

An added challenge was living through one of the worst winters in terms of storms for 50 years, the storm of early 2014 which destroyed a lot of the south-west coast of England also destroyed sections of coast line on St. Agnes. In one area 2-3 metres of coastline complete with footpath were washed into the sea (along with our rat baiting stations!). Was incredibly dramatic to watch.

 

I got to go to places where most people would never set foot on; for example the island of Annet which is just stunning and full of wildlife.

Fulmar ‘Fulmaris glacialis’ flying over Annet.
Copyright: Alex Cropper

Northern tip of Annet. Copyright Alex Cropper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I only spent a few hours on Annet but I reckon I could easily have stayed on there for days (OK, it would be a tad difficult seeing as though it is uninhabited). There was so much to see, Fulmars, Grey Seals, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills. Best of all were huge cushions of Thrift which you could literally bounce on like a trampoline. Was a great day (Just don’t mention the word ‘rigid-inflatable boat’ though!).

Was the best start to a year anyone can hope for and led directly to my next position, my very first paid conservation job!

Manx Shearwaters on St. Agnes

Natural History Societies on the Red-List?

Natural History Societies on the Red-List?

I have been a member of the Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society since 2010. I recently went to an indoor meeting of theirs for the first time. The format was an ornithological talk with a break for tea or coffee and a chance for a chinwag in between. I’ve been encouraged to get more involved in the society and am in the process of helping them modernise and simplify the recording side of the society. At the meeting there was a giveaway of old Cheshire county Bird Reports and newsletters. I picked a Bird Report up from 1983 (the year of my birth) and a society newsletter from July 1990 (the time in my life when I was first into birds).

I’ve been reading the Bird Report in particular with great interest, for one thing it’s a great historic document now. The thing that grabbed my attention however was a simple list of local associated natural history and ornithological societies. There are 23 listed in 1983. It left me wondering, how many of them are still with us in 2014? Here are a list of the societies listed..

Altrincham & District Natural History Society

Chadkirk & District Natural History Society

Chester & District Ornithological Society

Hale Ornithologists

Heald Green Naturalists

Hilbre Island Ringing Group

High Peak RSPB Group

Knutsford Ornithological Society

Liverpool Ornithological Society

Lymm Ornithological Society

Cheshire Wildlife Trust Macclesfield branch (listed as Cheshire Conservation Trust)

Macclesfield RSPB Group

Manchester Ornithological Society

Merseyside Naturalists Association

Merseyside RSPB Group

Merseyside Ringing Group

Mid-Cheshire Ornithological Society

Nantwich Natural History Society

South East Cheshire Ornithological Society

Stockport RSPB Group

Wilmslow Guild Ornithological Society

Wirral Bird Club

Wirral RSPB Group

So after a quick session of googling all the societies listed it seems more are still around then I thought with 15 still going out of 23. I was expecting the majority of them to be gone in all honesty.

However it seems to me a lot of societies are stuck in the past, for instance it struck me as odd in 2014 that at least 3 of the 15 active societies don’t have a website to promote themselves. How are they expected to attract new membership in this day and age? This brings me to my next point on societies, which is the average age of membership. I have been to a couple of meetings in the last few months, one with the RSPB group in Macclesfield and the aforementioned CAWOS meeting. It struck me quite obviously that I was the youngest at either meeting by some considerable distance, I was pretty certain at the RSPB meeting I was the only person present not drawing a state pension.

Two local RSPB groups meet in Senior Citizens halls, whilst Macclesfield recently moved from the Macclesfield Senior Citizens Hall. What hope of attracting new younger (even slightly younger) members if you meet at a Senior Citizens Hall? If the trend I’ve noticed in the east of Cheshire for a mature membership is replicated in the rest of the county and indeed the rest of the country then most of the aforementioned societies will be no more within 20 years or so.

So how do these clubs and societies attract new membership? Social Media could be one answer. Only one of the 15 active societies currently has a Facebook page, the Macclesfield branch of the RSPB Explorers. Yet birding and natural history has a strong presence on Facebook, but not from traditional societies. For instance there is an active group on Facebook called Cheshire and Wirral Birders who are an active group that discusses local birds and share photos of birds that they have seen, the information is up to date; there is no need to wait for a quarterly newsletter to find out which birds you’ve missed! The group isn’t (as far as I can tell) associated with any of the traditional societies yet there is nothing in this group that a society can’t do if it were to set up its own Facebook group. A society’s Facebook group can share photos, information and can also promote indoor meetings more effectively.

I think there is definitely a place for the traditional Ornithological or Natural History Society, they are great places to meet like minded individuals and the talks given to society meeting are of the highest quality, however they need to move with the times or else they are in danger of becoming an endangered species.

 

Source: Hunter, J.S.A (ed.) (1985) Cheshire Bird Report 1983 Cheshire Ornithological Association, Cheshire