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.
Leigh's Brownfield Sites Nature Video Slideshow
There have been many references to “brownfield” sites in Leigh, sometimes with bewildering regularity. Rather than singing the praises of these places by the written word, this audio-visual presentation (with the majority of photographs from Bickershaw and North Leigh) will surely give a more accurate picture of what we already have and, tragically, what we might well lose if there's no resistance to plans to develop our green spaces.
Video slideshow produced by Dave Wilson and David Shallcross (2014).
Video slideshow produced by Dave Wilson and David Shallcross (2014).
Two Greenheart Awards for the L.O.S. Young Birders' Cub Team
The L.O.S. Young Birders' Club Team won two awards at the Wigan Greenheart 'Big Thank You 2014' event held at St. Peter's Pavilion in Hindley on Friday 27 June. Various presentations were given by a number of local volunteer groups and other organisations such as Natural England and the GM Ecology Unit.
Martyn Jones, Tony Bishop, George Pike and Brian Fawcett were presented with the 'Overall Winners' award for the work they and the extended team which includes Joan Disley, Jeff Hurst, Roy Rhodes and Dave Wilson have been doing with young people in the Wigan and Leigh area over the last 18 months - his came as quite a surprise to us.
 |
| George Pike, Martyn Jones and Tony Bishop receiving their Greenheart awards for the LOSYBC |
Martyn Jones also received a Wigan Greenheart 'Community Champion' Award following a nomination by the other members of the LOSYBC for the work he has done in helping organise 27 events involving around 900 young people in local primary schools, Cubs, Beavers and Boys' Brigade packs. Here's a short video slideshow showing some of the things we have done.
These Greenheart awards reward the hard work that has been done by all the LOSYBC team members and give us the inspiration to continue our work with more young people in the future. To read about the sort of work we've been doing with LOSYBC visit our website: www.losybc.blogspot.com
All Change for the L.O.S. Friday Night Presentations
Due to rising costs, ease of access and other issues, from September 2014 the L.O.S. Friday night meetings will be held at the 180 Club (formerly the Conservative Club) on Railway Road in Leigh.
The 180 Club is near the Leigh Town Hall car park where members will still be able to park free of charge on Friday nights and, as the room is on the ground floor, no stairs or lift are needed. Society members and visitors will have dedicated access from the car park to Back Salford Street.
As well as having comfortable seating and no pressure to leave at 9:30pm, various beverages will available from a bar which will be open next to the room during the meetings. We hope that these new facilities will enable our members and visitors to have more time to mingle and chat in a more convivial atmosphere at all our future indoor meetings.
The full address of the 180 Club is:
The 180 Club is near the Leigh Town Hall car park where members will still be able to park free of charge on Friday nights and, as the room is on the ground floor, no stairs or lift are needed. Society members and visitors will have dedicated access from the car park to Back Salford Street.
As well as having comfortable seating and no pressure to leave at 9:30pm, various beverages will available from a bar which will be open next to the room during the meetings. We hope that these new facilities will enable our members and visitors to have more time to mingle and chat in a more convivial atmosphere at all our future indoor meetings.
The full address of the 180 Club is:
180 Club
Railway Road
Leigh
WN7 4AX
Please note: Any references to L.O.S. indoor meetings being held at Leigh Library in the Derby Room on this website will be updated in due course.
L.O.S. Annual Sponsored Bird Watch
Our annual Sponsored Birdwatch will be held on Sunday 11 May this year and the customary meal afterwards will be held at the Raven Inn in Glazebury. Please see your email from organiser Martin Ansell for details of the day and menus and let him know your numbers for the meal and choice as soon as possible, but by Saturday 3 May at the latest.
It's not too late to enter a team, all you need is at least three people and a team name. Then let Martin know and he'll send you a sponsorship form and bird checklist.
The five teams to date are:
BALD EAGLES
Eric Munroe, Alan Wilcox, Martin Ansell, Keith Burgess
LITTLE BUSTARDS
Dave Jones, Phil Tosh, Joe Doherty
THE KING AND WE THREE
Eddie King, George and Angela Pike, Michael Arundel
INDIAN RUNNERS
David Shallcross, Anne Other
FEATHER BRAINS
Joan and Jim Disley, Martyn Jones, Jeff Hurst
RULES OF THE DAY
- Use the Leigh OS recording area as defined on our website
- Species must be live and in their natural habitat, flying or on the ground (nothing caged) and on the British list
- Sightings should be by the team, not an uncorroborated individual sighting. Please put where you saw a species on the Alphabetical Bird List so it can contribute to reports and make sure a copy gets to Eddie King, as Recorder, for verification on the day. Eddie has the last word on accepting sightings