Mr. J. Williams, Great Readings, Varley Road,
Upminster, Essex. RM14 1TR
Mr. M. Gray, 24, Wellesley Road, Wanstead, E.11.
Mr. P. Carter, 4, Denbigh Gardens, Richmond, Surrey.
The Club is very pleased to welcome the following new
members:
Miss E. Chrystal, Essex House, Frinton-on-Sea, Essex.(Birds)
Mrs. V.J. Smith, 3, Devonshire Road, Hornchurch, Essex.
(General)
Miss A.B.Tobias, 39, Perkins House, St. Pauls Way, E.4
(Botany)
Miss S.A.Bills, 43, Crossway, Dagenham, Essex. (Gener al)
TAILPIECE — WEAVER BIRDS ? IN ESSEX!
It was only yesterday that we had been listening to a
nature programme on the radio in which the story was told of
a greenfinch that had gone mad in somebody's back garden.
This weaver bird, as it turned out to be, had been building
a series of the characteristic hanging, woven nests in the
trees at the end of the garden. The bird presumably had
escaped from somewhere near.
Well, today a call for binoculars from downstairs
brings the news that there is a hanging nest in the elms
at the end of our neighbours garden. Sure enough, there
was a nest at the end of the garden, hanging from a branch
about 20 feet up, (illustration on back cover). However,
this turned out to be no weaver bird, but a pair of sparrows.
The nest was a large, globular mass of straw, suspended from
another mass of straw in the branch, by about six full-length
strands of grass. The opening of the nest, in this fallen
position, was to the side, and the parent birds perched on
the lower rim of the opening when feeding their young inside.
Every time a bird entered the nest, it swayed with the
momentum, as it did in the slightest wind, but apparently
the nest had been in this position for at least a week or so
without falling.
 Ron Allen. July 1971
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