A staple of our outdoor meetings. A series of long disused gravel pits have been managed by Lincs Wildlife Trust for over 20 years. As well as converted gravel pits, the reserve is adjacent to the River Welland. In winter an excellent site for overwintering waterfowl. It widely visited for its winter Long-Eared Owl roost. Little Owls have been regular on the riverbank for many years. 

Meet: In the car park at 1000
Leader: Ian Gordon

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In 2017 Colin responded to a request by Batmunkh Davasuren in Mongolia for any experienced ringers to help establish a ringing centre in the country. He visited with 3 other ringers in September 2018 and the talk is an account of that initial visit and the stunning birds that he encountered. He returned in 2023 and has just come back from a third visit.

A lifelong birder, Colin started ringing in the mid-1970’s so has been ringing for almost 50 years. He has visited 10 countries to ring birds and has established ringing camps in Varanger, Norway (13 years)  and Vilamoura on the Algarve (18 years). He is one of the founder members of the Belvide Ringing Group in Staffordshire and is a trustee of the West Midlands Bird Club. For the last 10 years he has studied Jack Snipe in the UK, pioneering the use of thermal imaging technology to revolutionise how we can find and count this species and more recently has pioneered the use of GPS trackers to study their local and international movements. He was awarded the Bernard Tucker medal for this work by the BTO. The Tucker Medal is awarded in recognition of an outstanding contribution to BTO’s scientific work.