Apologies about the late notice.

Eldernell Meeting date changed to 28/10/25 from 29/10/25 to avoid clashing with the indoor meeting.

Trisha Thompson, one of our Bird Club members and a local expert on these creatures, is giving this talk at Pinchbeck Village Hall (9 Knight Street, Pinchbeck, PE11 3XA) on Tuesday 14th October starting at 7.30 PM. Although Trisha's talk will focus on Lincolnshire, the dragonflies and damselflies found around the Peterborough area will be very much identical.

Bird Club members are welcome to attend the talk.

The next PBC out-of-area trip is to Wiltshire & Hampshire from Sunday 26th April to Tuesday 28th April.

The outline plan is:

The target birds include: Corn Bunting, Dartford Warbler, Firecrest, Great Bustard, Hawfinch, Honey Buzzard, Redstart and Tree Pipit.

We'll overnight in Salisbury on both nights. The suggested hotel is Premier Inn Salisbury South Milford (SP1 2FF). As per previous trips, please arrange your own accommodation - either at the Premier Inn or elsewhere in that area. The cost of the Great Bustard Group tour is £30 per head and places are limited to 15. To secure a place, please transfer £30 to the Club (43366904, 23-05-80) and drop an email to Richard Whitticase accordingly.

Note that unlike previous trips we won’t be going to reserves with visitor centres, café’s, etc and some walking (1-2 miles) will be involved at each location.

Please contact Richard Whitticase (rfw1967@hotmail.co.uk) if you have any questions.

The outdoor meetings from January to June 26 have now been added, so update your calendars and leaders of all outdoor meetings have been updated. We look forward to seeing you at Frampton on 12th October at 10:00 to kick start the PBC season. Hopefully the water levels will have recovered by then, but keep an eye on the website/whatsapp in case we need to re-schedule or change the event.

There may also be a change of date for the Eldernall outdoor meeting on 29/10/25 as it conflicts with the indoor meeting on the same night, so keep an eye on the web site/whatsapp.

Also there is a change on the indoor programme with Dawn Bulmar's talk on Monitoring Our Rare Breeding Birds coming forward to January's meeting and Jeff Blincow's Wildlife In Finnmark moving back to February due to diary issues. 

The latest PBC out-of-area trip covered Abberton Reservoir, Fingringhoe Wick, Landguard Point and Minsmere RSPB. 15 club members took part including one new member.

Abberton Reservoir was relatively quiet but provided an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with Ruff, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and Black-tailed Godwit. There were still plenty of Swallow and Common Tern around, but the highlight was a flock of 25 Spoonbill. In addition, there were a number of Great White Egret dotted around the water’s edge, but these birds have become so commonplace that hardly anyone remarked upon them. The Visitor Centre Café went down extremely well and we were able to combine a coffee with good views of Chiffchaff and Blackcap as they refuelled on migration.

After lunch we moved on to Fingringhoe Wick, another Essex Wildlife Trust reserve with great views over the River Colne estuary towards Brightlingsea. This reserve got the thumbs-up from everyone – it included some very well sited hides and greatly added to our wader count. Between us we saw: Oystercatcher, Avocet, Lapwing, Golden Plover, Grey Plover (with some still in summer plumage), Ringed Plover, Whimbrel, Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Curlew Sandpiper (unconfirmed but the subject of much debate), Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Redshank and Greenshank. We also had fantastic views of an Osprey fishing in the river. Fingringhoe Wick is definitely worth a return visit.

We overnighted on the edge of Ipswich with the group split between a Premier Inn and a Holiday Inn and dinner courtesy of the nearby Brewers Fayre. The hotels were comfortable and the food was adequate. This combination of accommodation and dining appears to work well and provides a useful model for future trips.

The next day we met at 9am at Landguard Point – a small piece of rough ground surrounded by the sea to the south and east and a large container port to the north west and including a fort dating back to Henry VIII. The area proved to be teeming with migratory birds including good numbers of Chiffchaff, Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail, two Black Redstart and a Spotted Flycatcher. Unfortunately the Wryneck and Hoopoe that were seen during the week appeared to have moved on. However, it was a lovely place to visit and also worthy of return trips.

Our final location was Minsmere RSPB – somewhere that most people knew, but too far from home to be a regular haunt and therefore a good place to head to on an out-of-area trip. We spent most of the time in the East Hide (which was being vigilantly guarded by a young kestrel) where we made a few additions to our list incl: Barnacle, Canada, Greylag & Egyptian Geese,  and Shelduck. Along the sea wall we saw more Wheatear and a pair of Stonechat, and distantly two Great Skua and two Shearwater (Sooty I think).

Overall we saw 80 species. We explored some new sites and some old favourites. And we had a lot of fun. 

Have a look at our recently released Indoor Programme for 2025/26. Come and find out more about Ethiopia, who D. H. Hudson was and what he influenced, what we can learn from bird song, have a look at North Norway, understand more about the Rare Breeding Birds Panel and how many birds can be seen in our local area. If any of these have sparked your interest we look forward to seeing you at our indoor meetings.

Outdoors we start our meetings with a visit to Frampton for waders and raptors, followed by Eldernell with a focus upon owls, revisit WWT Welney as last year’s floods put many off and look for grebes and divers around the dam at Rutland Water to complete 2025. We will release 2026 details shortly. 

Come along and meet interesting and friendly people who have an interest in birdwatching, just like you. 

Use the link, similar to the image above, to Vine House Farm from our Home Page and enter the discount code BC10 to obtain a 10% discount on orders placed online this includes free delivery. Please use to buy your seed etc... as this offer will only exist, if we use it.

Click the link, select your seed etc, enter BC10 and it will turn up on your door step. no more lugging sacks of seed. Win Win.

What are you waiting for? 

Despite a dire weather forecast 11 members met up at RSPB Lakenheath Fen for our latest outdoor meeting. Fortunately for us the weather was nowhere near as bad as forecast. Between 1000 and 1500 we experienced one heavy rain shower, fortunately for us in a place where we could shelter. 

We set of from the reserve office following the path towards New Fen. Blackcap was the first bird heard followed by a great display of flying and singing from a very showy Whitethroat. At New Fen we waited hopefully for a Bittern whilst watching Mallard and Coot ducklings. Reed Warblers, Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting flew across in front of us. We were fortunate to see a Hobby and a Cuckoo in flight heading in opposite directions. Eventually we achieved our objective and saw three Bittern flights. A first ever Bittern for some of those present. 

We then followed the newly cut track alongside the reedbed giving good views across the top of the reedbed. Another Bitter flew across the reedbed towards us and went into the reeds close to us. We then followed a family of Greylags and their gosling up to the end of the track. From there we walked the short distance to the Mere. Bitterns have not bred there this year and no sign of the usual Kingfisher but we had excellent views of a pair of adult Great Crested Grebes catching fish and feeding it to their humbugs (duckling). 2 Hobbies also became very active and flew low over the reeds in front of the trees giving excellent views including catching and eating dragonflies whilst on the wing, After this we moved to Joist Fen and lunch in the rain! Whilst at Joist Fen we had another 4 Bittern flights, good scope views of a very persistent Cuckoo, 2 Great White Egrets and Cranes were heard calling but could not be seen. We left Joist Fen to walk back to the reserve office via the path alongside the River Little Ouse. Heron was the only bird seen until we arrived at the Hockwold Washes. Here there was a mix of ducks and waders including Mallard, Shovelor, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, 2 Avocets, several Redshanks and Black-tailed Godwits. Then back to the office for one of the best spots of the day - a freezer full of Ronaldos ice-cream. An excellent finish to a very good day.

A few photos posted in the gallery.

Please find below details of the next two out-of-area trips. The dates for Essex/Suffolk are confirmed and 7 people have signed up for this trip so far. The dates for Wiltshire/Hampshire are provisional.

 

The autumn 2025 out-of-area PBC trip is to Essex & Suffolk on Sat/Sun 20/21 Sep 25.

The plan is to visit Abberton Reservoir and Fingringhoe Wick (both Essex Wildlife Trust) on Saturday and Landguard Point and Minsmere RSPB on Sunday.

We'll overnight in Ipswich. The suggested hotels are Holiday Inn Ipswich-Orwell or Premier Inn Ipswich South East. As per previous trips, please arrange your own accommodation - either at the Holiday Inn, the Premier Inn or elsewhere in that area.

Please let Richard know (rfw1967@hotmail.co.uk) if you want to join the trip or contact him if you have any questions.

 

The spring 2026 out-of-area PBC trip is to Wiltshire & Hampshire .

It will be a 3 day (2 night) event taking place around the weekend of 9/10 May 26, but the exact dates are to be confirmed.

The outline plan is:

Day 1: Great Bustard tour on Salisbury Plain.

Day 2: New Forest – Honey Buzzard, Dartford Warbler, Firecrest, Redstart & Tree Pipit.

Day 3: Lymington – waders, Little Tern and White-tailed Eagle.

I’ve made initial contact with the Great Bustard Group, but can’t firm up a date until the autumn.
Please let Richard know (rfw1967@hotmail.co.uk) if you want to join the trip or contact him if you have any questions.