Durham Bird Club at 50

The county avifauna, The Birds of Durham (Bowey and Newsome, 2012) records that “A public meeting in late 1974 at Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery to discuss bird watching and recording was well-attended. This was followed on 8 January 1975 by another meeting and enrolment for membership of the Durham Bird Club began shortly afterwards.”

We shall be organising various projects and events during the year to commemorate this special anniversary. These include a "Bird of the Week" feature, appearing below.

Bird of the Week - Week 35

Greenshank – A Clear-Voiced Traveller

(Photo by Mark Harper)

Greenshank are elegant, long-legged waders, often betraying their presence with that clear, ringing “teu-teu-teu” as they rise from the water’s edge. Slim, pale and graceful, they’re classic passage migrants at this time of year – pausing in County Durham on their way south from breeding grounds in Scotland and Scandinavia to wintering areas that reach right down into Africa.

Over the past week, birds have been reported from Saltholme/Holme Fleet, Barmston Pond and Wheatley Hill. And they’re just part of a much bigger movement of waders currently making their way through the County – with Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Wood and Green Sandpipers, Ruff, and both Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits also featuring amongst many sightings of more common waders.

This year, the dry spring and summer mean that flooded fields are largely absent, many scrapes are parched and many larger water bodies are noticeably reduced in size. With fewer places to stop, it could mean that birds will tend to concentrate at the remaining wetlands – which might help to make birding visits to established, permanent lowland wetlands on the east side of the County particularly fruitful right now.

It’s a great time to get out and look carefully. A lone Greenshank can be surprisingly easy to miss until it calls or takes flight – but once you’ve seen one, their sleek shape and elegance in feeding stay with you.

Have you managed to pick out a Greenshank yet this season, or been surprised by the concentration of waders at your local patch?

More information on Greenshanks

E-mail: admin@durhambirdclub.org.uk

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