West Galloway SOC - Birding in and Around Stranraer

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Another interesting film from the seasoned pro at SOC meetings, this time concentrating on his travels around the Hebrides and Arctic regions.

Labels: arctic, film, gordon yates, hebrides

For those who may have been confused RSPB's Chris Rollie was doing a talk about birds of the feathered variety and Burns as in Robert Burns. Whilst this may have sounded like an odd combination, the two subjects fitted hand in hand, with Chris revealing Burns' love of nature as well as his deep understanding of bird anatomy, amongst other things. The talk was complimented by an array of stunning images from local photographers.

Labels: Chris Rollie, Robert Burns, rspb

A very interesting talk from Mark on bird ringing. We were shown just how important bird ringing is in tracing migration routes. Before ringing started 100 years ago there were a lot of myths about where birds disappeared to. There was some audience participation guessing which birds took particular routes. In the break we were able to check our postcodes on his laptop to see which birds had been ringed nearby and where they had later been found, some travelling vast distances. Mark stressed the importance of reporting ringed birds and checking any birds found dead to see if they have rings. All rings can be reported at www.ring.ac more information on ringing can be found at www.bto.org/ringing/ringinfo/.

By Valerie Harrison

Labels: bird ringing, BTO

On 13th October, Ron, a well known birder and editor of "The Birds of Scotland", took us on a guided talk through Africa. He has visited Africa several times beginning in 1972 until more recently, and his talk covered his many trips. Amongst the array of bird pictures there were also lions, rhinos and some of the many other exotic animals you would expect to see there. It was good to see a few birds that we recognised that also visit out shores. What was particularly interesting was that many of the birds seen had been ringed, surprising with so many birds in such a vast country. He stressed that whilst Scotland had the fourth largest number of birds in Europe, there were over 2000 in Africa.

by Valerie Harrison

The weather started reasonable but soon deteriorated making it a very wet day. There were many hardy people about though in macs and wellies still prepared to have a good day out. It was an enjoyable day chatting to people about the wildlife in their gardens and it was great to hear many children enthusing about nature. Our "Match the Feathers to The Bird Game" was a great success and there was a good deal of interest in our upcoming Autumn meetings. Plenty of entertainment in the arena, the highlight being the Falconry display. We were in good company alongside The Cree Valley Woodland Trust, DGERC and other wildlife organisations and despite the weather a thoroughly enjoyable day.

by Valerie Harrison

Labels: forestry commission, kirroughtree, wood festival

A beautiful day on Sunday 14th June for the World Oceans Day Celebrations at Port William. Although numbers were down on last year, we were pleased to recruit a few new members and had quite a bit of interest from others. We look forward to seeing a some new faces at the Autumn meetings (dates and speakers have just been announced)!

Young and old enjoyed our game of matching the feathers to the birds and several had a go at our Name the Duck competition. The winner of the Duck Goody Bag was Chris Cole from Garlieston and runner up was Diana Turner from Tynron. A special junior Goody bag prize went to Sam Partridge from Whithorn. A most enjoyable, interactive day was had by all.

By Valerie Harrison

Labels: port william, world oceans day