Carmarthenshire Bird Club Clwb Adar Sir Gaerfyrddin

Minutes of the Committee Meeting Held at Salem Village Hall

On Tuesday 17th November 2008 at 2:00 p.m.

1) Present John Lloyd, Rob Hunt, Derek Moore, George Causley, Beth Harris, Owen Harris, and Wendell Thomas.

2) Apologies Jenny Davies and Diana Jones.

3) The minutes of the previous meeting held on 19th August were with three small corrections and were duly approved for publication on the club web-site.

4) Matters Arising

The Club subscription approved to WOS, approved at an earlier meeting is now due and the treasurer will receive an invoice in due course. In return any member of the club taking out an individual subscription to WOS will receive a £2.00 discount.

5) Conservation matters

Witchet Pool

Reference was made to the fact that the situation at Witchett Pool was raised with Blaise Bullimore of CCW at a recent indoor meeting. At the time he had a meeting with the MOD Site conservation officer and promised to raise the matter then. Given the tenor of his remarks during the evening we can’t hold out a great deal of hope for a favourable outcome.

Coed Bach

Derek Moore reported that at a recent CCW meeting it became clear that the Kidwelly Council now wants to progress the development of a nature reserve at Coed Bach. CCW are funding the Council to prepare proposals and the feeling is that now is the time for the Wildlife Trust and the Carmarthenshire Bird Club to become involved in the small group that the Council is proposing to produce a Feasibility Study. Derek will contact the designated project officer, Maria Rock though he pointed out that there is no guarantee of receiving the required funding. Nevertheless as the Council is proposing to restore the Quay area once again there is a feeling that the two projects might be tackled in tandem.

Dipper Nest Boxes

John Lloyd has a number of spare boxes and is looking for suitable sites. Anyone with suggestions please contact John, preferably having secured permission to site the box.

6) Publications

Bird Report

Writing is well advanced and two articles have been received. The first on Dotterel by Colin Richards and the other by Ian Morgan on Little ringed Plover. There is also a ringing report from Heather Coates. The inclusion of the BTO Atlas material will complete the report and it will then be ready for the printer. Several suggestions were made on refining the system further and on encouraging greater participation in submitting records. Owen Harris will put a piece in the forthcoming newsletter to give members further guidance on record submissions, and he will meet with Derek to discuss and implement the suggestions made.

Wendell Thomas undertook to handle the distribution once again.

Site Guide

This is still with Gary Harper for proof reading.

The Birds of Carmarthenshire

Draft sections on Geology and the History of birding have been received and two further drafts have been promised. John will now approach Lighthouse publishing to moving the project forward.

7) County Bird Recorders Report

It was felt that this had been covered in discussions concerning the Bird Report under item 6.

8) BTO Report

Atlas

Work is progressing well with good coverage of the coastal areas while coverage in the North and West has been encouraging. Census data for the winter period is with Derek Moore for inclusion in the report while Spring and summer data will be sent to Owen for inclusion in the 2008 records database.

9) Programme of Meetings

Wendell Thomas reported attendances of 37 at the AGM which was followed by Julian Grey’s talk and 27 at the talk by Blaise Bullimore which was followed by a very lively discussion though members were left with the feeling that responsibility for the Carmarthen Bay area was so diffuse that the only way to make progress was to take up an issue with the Welsh Assembly.

Wendell outlined the remainder of the winter programme to be found on the club web-site, and reference was made to a possible link next winter with the Bristol club which could involve an outing to Chew. The summer programme is on the verge of completion and will be published in due course.

10) Secretary’s Report

The single item under this heading was a discussion of the request from Heather Coates, supported by Ian Hainsworth for further financial help for the bird ringers involved in the CES programme at Penclacwydd. The valuable contribution made to Carmarthenshire birding through the submission of an annual report was acknowledged. However, it was felt that while we were happy to offer assistance on a pump priming basis before reaching a decision on ongoing funding we would wish to know whether the WWT have been approached to help with the continued need for funding and if so, what the response had been.

The secretary undertook to reply to the letters by making this enquiry.

Discussion moved on to the subject of possible education initiatives the club might undertake in the future. Derek and Wendell would investigate possible provision of bilingual bird identification books for primary schools. Further to a recent conversation between Iolo Williams and Derek Moore consideration will be given to a completion between schools the prize for which would be a trip organized by Iolo.

11) Treasurer’s Report

A statement of accounts to 16th November is appended to these minutes.

It shows that to date about one third of the subscriptions for the current year (£555) have been received. The current account stands at £2000.78 which is more than sufficient to meet the costs of report printing due soon. The reserve in the deposit account stands at £1015.29.

Discussion ensued concerning the desirability of changing the beginning of membership year to January though there appeared to be no compelling reason for doing so.

There was further discussion concerning membership. At present it appears to have settled at around the 120 mark with those not renewing being counterbalanced by new membership resulting in a very marginal increase in membership year on year. Thoughts were exchanged concerning the geographical concentration of membership near the coast and the subsequent bias in records. There was further discussion of ways in which wider membership and participation might be encouraged through educational initiatives, the use of the local press and the possibility of holding some meetings in different parts of the county. No decisions were reached though an agenda for future discussions was laid out. The Chairman paid tribute to the work of Wendell Thomas in recruiting membership through WWT Wales, Penclacwydd.

12) Newsletter

There was no report in the absence of Diana Jones though an appeal was made for material for the forthcoming edition to be published in December.

13) Club Website

Tribute was paid to the work of the webmaster and the feeling that the site was working well. Most of the difficulties have been ironed out though there appeared to be the occasional difficulty in getting sightings accepted. There was some discussion concerning what might be done to encourage even greater participation in recording via the site. It was felt that it might be helpful to remove the requirement of entering the number of species to be recorded in a sighting report. Owen would mention this to the webmaster.

14) Any Other Business

1) Wendell made a magnanimous apology for bringing the club into disrepute by making a guest appearance as a twitcher in BBC’s Autumnwatch programme.

2) Ideas were exchanged on advertising the club by means of clothing and car stickers carrying the club logo. Wendell agreed to investigate the cost of polo shirts and Owen the cost of car stickers.

15) Time Date and Place of the Next Meeting

Tuesday 24th February 2009, 2.00 pm at Salem Village Hall