![]() Group Coordinator: Derek Harwood (click to contact) |
When Two visits a month. One will be
more of a local visit, the other may be further
afield. So one should be shorter in duration, the
other longer, generally.
|
Where Good places to look at birds and
enjoy nature in or near London and slightly
further afield.
|
The iU3A Birdwatching group was established
in December 2014, and we now have over fifty signed up
members, ranging from complete beginners to a few with
several years' experience of birdwatching. However,
generally there are no more than about six on each visit.
New members are welcome, whatever their level of
expertise. We also welcome anyone with a broad interest in
nature, wildlife or other aspects of the countryside which
they would like to share or extend. Group members share
ideas they have for outings, and we do our best to follow
up all of them.
The emphasis is very much on getting out and
enjoying nature and birds in particular. We may also have
a few indoor meetings from time to time to share
experiences and perhaps also to hear expert speakers. It
depends entirely on what the group would like.
If you want to join the group and you are
already a iU3A member then you can sign up through Beacon
here. If you are not a member of
Islington U3A then you need to join that firstly. Go to
the Join Us web page and
download the Membership form.
2017-18 look here
2018-19 look here
2019-20 look here.
To help plan your own trips, or to inspire suggestions for our visits, you might want to look at the London Bird Club Wiki here. To enjoy our bird visits to the maximum you will need decent binoculars (8×25 or 8×42 or 10 x 42 or 10 x 50 are good). The first number tells you the magnification (ie 8 or 10 times bigger), the second number is the size of the 'objective' (larger) lens which determines the amount of light (sharpness) of the image. Bigger numbers also mean bigger weight. There are also two forms — porro prism (offset lenses) or roof prism (in-line lenses). Porro type are generally cheaper but larger/heavier.
Appropriate footwear and rain gear if the weather threatens. Each of our visits will have a maximum of 10 participants (but normally we are a lot less than that).
Birds on the Edge — see here for information of birds at risk. To read the quarterly magazine from WWT, click here.
Also see the following link here to the local RSPB web page regarding their recent visits (to be updated).
To follow what the London Wildlife Trust are up to have a look here.
If you want to hear some particular bird song or call try using this site: here.
And to end, just a bit of humour, have a look at this video clip here. And another one: here.
What can you see in your back garden? See some goldfinches here.
Blogs
This is a new section to provide some learning material in bite-size easy format. They are in no particular order.
- Seeing Red (redwings, redstarts & redshanks) here
- Preying (identifying between birds of prey) here
- Gulling About (or more about gulls) here
Dates for 2021: to be published later, but might have to be month by month — depending on Covid restrictions.
Unfortunately these visits are currently suspended, again, due to Covid-19 restrictions. We will start them as soon as Government guidance allows this sort of activity.
Please see our generic risk assessment of our group's activity under Covid-19 conditions here. You will be expected to 'accept' this risk assessment before taking part in any iU3A Birdwatching visits.
Recent Visits
Walthamstow Wetlands: although we were in Tier 3 we were keen to get out for some fresh air and it certainly was a bit breezy. As we were a bit early for the opening of the Wetlands we diverted to The Paddock on the other side of the road. This piece of overgrown ground has been through a bit of a makeover (either by local volunteers or maybe by local developers putting some money into this green space), and it seemed a good place for longtailed tits. In the Wetlands we didn't see anything spectacular but the count ended up as 26, which is quite reasonable.

Rye Meads: it was good to get back to this RSPB reserve following their reopening. However, soon we were less happy when we discovered that only three of the hides were open and these had such restrictive entrance limits that we didn't get into any. The other problem, not encountered previously here, was the number of mosquitoes around. For those in shorts (to appreciate the late summer sun) we were an attractive meal for them. Not getting into the hides meant we couldn't view some of the large lagoons and hence this limited our sightings. We were in two minds about turning back and giving up but we thought we would do the complete circuit, going through the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust's section. This proved to be a wise decision — the quantity of midges was less and we had our best sighting over this back section, including three (or was it four) marsh harriers swooping down and round. Then some saw the local Kestrel as well, so we ended with a respectable 20 species sightings. The meal deals at the local pub also changed it from a dubious start to a good day out.
Previous Visits
For a record of our other visits you can see the reports by the following links:
2019/20 here
2018/19 here
2017/18 here
2016/17 here
2015/16 here
site designed by Gill Hopkins
logo designed Tattersal
Hammarling & Silk
registered charity number 1157067