23
Report of the Bird Group 1982-1983
Once again the Bird Group of the Essex Field
Club has enjoyed another year of good field
meetings.
In the summer months, several meetings were
held in woodland habitat in the centre of the
county which enabled members to learn their
warbler songs, willow warbler, Chiffchaff,
blackcap, garden warbler, the white throats etc.
These are always interesting meetings because more
birds are heard than seen and it is the writer's
opinion that bird identification by sound rather
than sight is far more satisfying.
Several of these meetings were led by Dr. Chris
Shennan, who was an expert on bird song, and
the Group would like to thank Chris for his
expertise on all branches of natural history.
Chris, as you all know, has regrettably left
Essex for a post in Cheshire and we wish him every
good fortune up north.
In the middle of the summer, Michael Parker led
a field meeting down on the Thames Estuary. We
do not have many coastal meetings in summer and
it did prove a little disappointing- most waders
have, of course, left the county for more northern
breeding areas and very little was seen.
Also in July, Michael Parker took members to a
location in the centre of the county one evening
to hear nightjars churring - an evocative and
increasingly rare sound in southern Britain these
days .
Spring and Autumn continues to find the Group on
the coast to record passage migrants and we have
been lucky to see some of the rarer coastal birds
which pass along the East Coast. Birds such as