Birdwatchers celebrate

WHEN a handful of enthusiasts launched Dursley Birdwatching and Preservation Society 50 years ago, they could only have dreamed of the success it would achieve.

Today members have a healthy social conscience as well as diaries which invariably include one society activity a week.

The society meets twice a month from autumn to spring at Dursley Community Centre for talks by "top grade" speakers, explained chairman Mike Robinson.

In fact to hear just one of the speakers is well worth the group's annual subscription of £5, he added.

The society arranges up to 80 trips a year - these can vary from a two-hour walk to a week abroad.

As well as its social side, the organisation is eager to help conservation throughout the world.

Through fund-raising activities as varied as open gardens, raffles and sales, the society donates between £3,000 and £4,000 to conservation bodies each year.

The organisations it supports can be Gloucestershire causes, national charities and even projects overseas.

The society has given to the Bulgarian Bird Society and to LIPU (the Italian league for the preservation of birds).

Mr Robinson took a party to Bulgaria several years ago which was when the link was established.

However he is keen to add the society does not just cater for birdwatchers.

He said: "We have a general interest in natural history. You find that once you take an interest in birdwatching you begin to take an interest in other aspects of natural history - they are inter-locking."

The society's secretary Maurice Bullen added that the well-being of the bird population was linked to all aspects of the environment.

"If you think what birds need to survive - food and somewhere safe to nest," he explained.

As part of its preservation work, the society conducts bird surveys for national organisations such as the British Trust of Ornithology.

These organisations feed the information to Government departments to safeguard the future of certain species.

The surveys include a winter garden feeding count where by members tot up the species which come to eat on their land.

A second survey is done of the society-owned nesting boxes. The society owns more than 200 nest boxes in various sites in the county.

Mike Robinson joined the society in 1979 and a year later joined its committee. e has spent 20 years as the organisation's vice-chairman then chairman.

He had been interested in birdwatching as a boy but this hobby waned when he was in his teens.

His wife's grandmother, who was also interested in birds, reignited his interest.

After moving to Wotton-under-Edge he decided to take up a hobby and joined the society.

He said: "I find it really very interesting and you meet lots of interesting people through the society."

The majority of members come from the Dursley, Wotton and Thornbury areas but there are a number who live in Chipping Sodbury, Yate, Stroud and Nailsworth.

However members do lives in all part of the country and some overseas in countries including the USA, Ireland, South Africa and Spain. Membership tends to be aged 35 and upward.

The society did run two popular youth groups but these had to fold due to the difficulty in finding leaders.

Once seen as a hobby of boys and men, birdwatching now attracts female participants.

Mr Robinson said: "If you went back 10 years ago we had about 20 per cent or less women members. Now, on our trips there is usually half and half."

He believed this was because the trips were a safe organised environment for enthusiasts to enjoy the hobby.

The society was launched following an advert in the Dursley Gazette resulting in a meeting at the town's grammar school.

Sir Peter Scott, founder of Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, agreed to be its first president - the society retains strong links with Slimbridge.

Maurice Bullen believes Gloucestershire is an excellent county to indulge the hobby.

Apart from high mountains, the county boasts every habitat - from river estuaries to woodland, he said.

And, added Mr Robinson, the county is on the flight path for many migrating birds.

The geographical position of Gloucestershire, he said, made it an excellent starting point for visiting other places of interest in the country.

One of the attractions of birdwatching, explained Mr Bullen, was the way skills develop.

In just a swift glance, an enthusiast can name a species of bird, he said.

Birds can by recognised by their sounds - and not just by their song, but by their anxiety call, he added.

And birdwatching is a hobby which travels well.

Mr Robinson said: "Where ever you go you would always have an interest. More and more people travel now and where ever you go there are different birds."

The hobby can by as cheap or as expensive as a participant wanted it to be, said Mr Robinson.

And, he added, the society wanted to continue to give value for money. The society has an impressive library which can allow an enthusiast to enhance his or her knowledge.

The library has books, of course, but also video cassettes and tapes of bird noises.

Celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Dursley Birdwatching and Preservation Society will certainly provide some golden memories.

A programme of activities has been planned for throughout 2003 but the main celebrations take place from Thursday, April 3 to Thursday, April 10 at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Slimbridge.

Slimbridge holds a warm place in society members' hearts as Sir Peter Scott, its founder, was the organisation's first president.

Throughout the celebration week 50 renowned wildlife artists will each have a work exhibited for sale at the trust's Cheng-Kim Loke Gallery.

John Busby, Robert Gillmor, Terence Lambert, Dafila Scott, Keith Shackleton, Ian Wallace and Michael Warren are some of the artists who have agreed to show their work.

Alongside this exhibition will be a display of photographic prints, also for sale, with contributors including David Cottridge, Mike Lane and society member Tony Hamblin.

Profits from the exhibition, which has the theme Gloucestershire's natural beauty, will be shared between the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Dursley Birdwatching and Preservation Society's conservation fund.

The celebration week will include a series of evening lectures with subjects as diverse as coastal wildlife and the magic of wetlands.

Daytime events during the week will include an optics workshop, nest-box making, a photography workshop and guided walks.

As a further memento of the anniversary artist Terence Lambert has produced a signed limited edition print of the society's emblem, a wren.

On top of the week of celebrations, the society plans to hold at least one special anniversary event each month.

These attractions will include photographic exhibitions and illustrated talks at arts festivals, children's competitions and displays at libraries, and a dawn chorus walk and breakfast at Newark Park.

Pictured: Dursley birdwatchers on the causeway at Lindesfarne GZGD198H