Bangor Bird Group is back!

  The 2018-19 Bangor bird-group season starts again on the 3^rd October. Ian Hawkins, RSPB site manager for Cors Ddryga will be talking about his trip to New Zealand. He was in search of the birds and wildlife in this country rich in endemics and famous for its seabird spectacles and amazing scenery who's landscape was carved out by fire and ice. Then we will be having a talk from Tarik Bodasing. Tarik was as one of the Cemlyn wardens this summer. He was originally from near Durban in South Africa until relatively recently when, he met a Welsh girl whom he married and is now living with, and their young child down in Mid Wales. He will be telling us how the Vulture Lost it's head and other Wildlife tales from Zululand. Then Wader Quest are coming to town. Wader Quest are a charity that was set up to raise funds for Shorebird projects and to raise awareness about the problems they are facing around the world regarding diminishing populations and threats to the world Shorebird fly-ways.

Elliot Monteith is a young Birder from the Wirral. He will be coming over to give us a talk on the Cornell laboratory of Ornithology. It provides the highest grade of ornithological research in the world and is a leader in the drive to engage, educate and inspire the future generation of ornithologists. Elliot was one of the three young British Birders that won a Scholarship to the labs young birder camp courtesy of their partnership with the Cameron Bespolka trust about how the lab is changing the face of conservation across North America and the World, along with how the lab is helping the next generation in methods that are just making their way across the pond.

Keeping on the North America theme Dennis Atherton is coming over from Bolton to talk about the Western USA and Pelagic birding. It was a rush flight that Dennis took to catch the last Pelagic of the season in the World Famous North Pacific Waters around Southern California. After 26 hours with no sleep and only aeroplane food he then went on a bumpy boat for 12 hour to see an amazing Seabird spectacle. Following that he spent 2 weeks going up and down the California Coastline looking for all the local special birds. From the Seas around San Diego to the to the Mountains of California, Dennis was searching for all the local specialities and was trying to see all the Californian named birds.

Then Marc Hughes will be giving us an update of how the Leica Red Kites got on in the Champions of the Flyway birdrace, raising funds and awareness for the plight of migrant birds across the Mediterranean and through the Middle East.

Fellow Leica Red Kite Robin Sandham will then be talking about Rare birds in North Wales. There's nobody better to talk on this subject as at the end of the day, he wrote the book. I'm sure he will have a few books at the talk available for people to buy, and its a must read for anyone interested in the birds of North Wales or rare birds in general.

Then we have Ben. After he finished University in Cornwall we've finally managed to tie down Bardsey's Ben Porter for a talk about a Message from the Arctic. Ben will be talking about his findings from Sail against plastic. A student led research expedition to the icy archipelago of Svalbard during June in the Summer of 2018. Then we finish the year with the Christmas Party with a buffet and Steve's Quiz, with assorted prizes and the chance to be the winner of the Birdbrain of Bangor Bird-group Shield!

In January Chris Jones is talking about Birding in Wellies: an Autumn week on Shetland, Chris, Robin, Henry Cook and myself experienced Shetland proper for the first time in October 2017 and Chris will be talking about what happened when Four North Wales Birders went to Shetland in the wind and the rain.

Then Henry Cook will be talking about Birding North Peru : A travelogue from an independent trip around the little known and mega-diverse area of North Peru, featuring Spatulate-tails, Cresent-chests and Inca-finches.

Then Kelvin Jones from the BTO will then be giving his new talk on Hawfinches in Wales before Mark James Pearson arrives to give his talk on Filey Internation. Mark is well travelled and well known on the UK circuit. He will be talking about the seasonal migration around Filey Brigg on the Yorkshire coast. He will be talking about hammering his patch constantly for five years showing us what common migrants and rarities have moved through the area over this time.

Then Ben Stammers from the wildlife trust will be talking about the wonderful life of our local Swifts before Julian Hughes from the RSPB talks about the breeding birds of Cyprus and migration of birds through this region.

Then we go back to the USA, where local birder Alex Jones will be talking about the Eastern United States this time. Summarizing his trips to New York, Michigan and Florida.

As we go into the home run in March, former Bangor Student Mathew Bruce will be talking about his work on Wildlife Crime at the Lodge for the RSPB investigations department.

Following this local Naturalist Richard Birch will be showing us the Second instalment of his film on Chile, after he returned to the country again to witness more of its amazing scenery and wildlife.

Finally I will be bringing the season to a close at the AGM with my talk on Himalayan Gold. In the Spring of 2018 I went with two other North Wales Birders, Rhion and Gareth to the North East Indian regions of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Its an interesting area bordered by Bhutan, China and Myanmar. We has a vast assortment of fantastic birds from Bengal Florican, Fire tailed Myzornis, Himalayan monal and Beautiful Nuthatch to the critically endangered and range restricted Bugun Leochicla, just to name a few. It was a really special trip!

As well as these talks, Birdgroup members can also see the North Wales Wildlife trust talks. This season they include Living Landscapes in action. Jonny Hulson (NWWT Project Officer) talks about the amazing diversity of wildlife found on Wrexham Industrial Estate, home to 300 businesses. Roy Tapping has been involved with our North Wales Local Records Centre since its start-up. He will be talking about it, in his talk Cofnod - making wildlife data count. Then Chris Baker, the NWWT People & Wildlife Manager talks about Our Wild Coast, on how young people are getting stuck in on the North Wales coast. Then the Wildlife Trusts final talk is by our very own Spiderman. Richard Gallon from Cofnod is the most enthusiastic spider man you will ever meet and he will be talking about Spiders on Welsh mountains and bogs!

So hopefully we will see you this season in the Brambell Building, Deiniol Road, just down from the station. Wednesday nights, doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm kick off.

Non members £2 per meeting. Annual Subscription £15, Concessions £12, Students (free)