LOSYBC Visits Leigh Rotary Club


Martyn and George were both very proud and very honoured to be invited to give a talk about the work of our Young Birder's Club to the Leigh Rotary Club today.  Unfortunately Tony was in Crete and Brian was still in France, so they couldn't make it.

After having lunch and completing some Rotarian business, George began the presentation with an explanation of how Leigh Ornithological Society was formed in 1971, largely as a result of the work going on at Pennington Flash at the time.  A photo of our founder members and a map of the Flash were used to illustrate the talk.

After this Martyn explained the aims of our Young Birders' Club and described the work we have been doing with local primary schools and youth groups over the last 18 to 24 months.  Lots of photos were shown of children engaged in outdoor activities including guided walks, wildflower planting and birdwatching.  Here's a short video (which we also used at the Wigan Greenheart Awards) showing some of our best photos:


The talk was finished off with this slideshow entitled 'The Beauty of Birds', which consisted of a number of photographs taken mainly in the L.O.S. recording area by our chairman David Shallcross and Martyn Jones.


The presentation seemed to be very well received by the Rotarians and they generously donated £50 to our Young Birders' Club to help continue the work we do. Thank-you.

Fieldtrip to Hilbre Island and Burton Mere Wetlands


Whilst we are awaiting Jeff's full report on this fieldtrip, just a short note to say that we had a successful trip to the Wirral where we walked over to Hilbre Island from the marine lake at West Kirby and saw Whimbrel, Rock Pipits, Bar-tailed Godwits, Curlew, Teal, Redshank, Oystercatchers and various gulls. But perhaps the highlight here was around 50 seals basking on a sandbank whilst the tide was out, with one or two closer sightings in the sea near the tip of the island.


Some members went on Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB where they saw a variety of waders including Greenshank, Little Stint, Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwits and a Hobby.  A good day was had by all.

The New Season Kicks Off

We began our 2014-2015 season with a presentation by John Barlow about birds around the Turton, Entwistle and Wayoh Reservoirs. This was the first of our Friday night presentations in our new home at the 180 Club on Railway Road in Leigh.

As usual John gave a very interesting talk about the birds on his local patch with some excellent photographs and details about how they were taken. We look forward to seeing him again next year.

The new venue seemed to work quite well and has the added attraction of a bar being available throughout the presentation without the need to leave the premises at 9:30pm. Although we had some 30 or so members present, it would be good to see a few more at the next event.