RSPB North Bucks Group has various events planned for November, and you don’t need to be RSPB members to attend - the group welcomes all visitors.
On Wednesday, 7th November, there is a walk around Caldecotte Lake led by Paul Tucker. Caldecotte is MK’s second largest lake and can throw up scarce grebes, ducks and divers as well as, maybe, five different gull species.
Meet for a 10am start in the Caldecotte Arms car park of H10 Bletcham Way SP888 354 MK7 8HP. Paths are mostly hard and level and a complete circuit will be between two and three miles. The walk should be finished around 1pm.
On Thursday, November 8, Jim Stevenson, senior ranger at Paxton Pits, in Cambridgeshire will visit.
After teaching environmental studies at a school on Salisbury Plain, Jim moved to Arundel to be the education officer at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust’s showcase reserve there.
That was where he met his wife Hanna who came over from Chicago as an intern, and they moved on to work at the RSPB’s reserve at Vane Farm, on Loch Leven in Scotland.
When a letter dropped through the post offering RSPB staff a secondment to the Seychelles, Jim and Hanna looked at each other for perhaps a minute before applying for the job and they ended up spending three years on the equator, with their two young children,
After many adventures they returned to the RSPB where Jim began work at the Lodge in the International Department.
This gave Jim the opportunity to carry on with his project in the Seychelles as well as others in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Eventually the long weeks away became too much for the family and so the department offered Jim the responsibility for the RSPB’s work in the UK Overseas Territories, and soon Jim was off to the Falklands, Ascension Island and the Caribbean and the cycle of long trips abroad began again.
That’s why Jim left the RSPB to work on his local patch at Little Paxton. He plans to retire in 2020 to have more time to write and take photos. He was the BBC Wildlife Nature Writer of the Year in 2012.
The indoor meeting will take place at The Cruck Barn, City Discovery Centre, Bradwell Abbey MK13 9AP. Doors open at 7.15 pm.
RSPB North Bucks Group members £3, all visitors welcome £4 and children £1.
On Sunday, November 18, there will be a trip to Marston Vale Country Park (£2.50/£1.75 concessions) with old clay pits, reed beds, scrub, wet pasture and the impressive new tower hide.
Bearded Tit, Marsh Harrier and Short-eared Owls are possible. There will be an optional extension to Stewartby Lake for gulls, possible seabirds and Peregrines on the old brickworks chimneys.
A shop, cafe and toilets are available in the huge visitor centre and the group will meet in the Forest Centre car park £3) MK43 0PS.
From Marston Moretaine, take the Lidlington Road and turn off to the centre at SP999 411.
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