Simon Jones, our Volunteer Ambassador for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and Friend of Stockers Lake, will be the speaker at our next meeting on Wednesday 11 January. The meeting, at the Stanborough Centre at Stanborough Park Church, 609 St Albans Road Watford WD25 9JL, will start at 8pm. Entry costs £3, including light refreshments and all are welcome. Simon’s talk will be in 2 parts, the first part on the BTO’ Garden Birdwatch Scheme. Part 2 will be on the History of the Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust reserve at Stockers Lake, Rickmansworth. This talk will be a useful introduction to the 2 walks we have planned for Stockers Lake later this month and also to the RSPB’s own Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place during the last weekend in January , when half a million people contribute to the survey of birds in their gardens.

Our regular local John Hurrell walks will start with our first visit to Stockers Lake on Tuesday 17 January, meeting at the Aquadrome car park at 10am.

The Stockers Lake Walk on Saturday 28 January, supporting the Big Garden Birdwatch, will start at the Aquadrome car park at 10.15am. If you have binoculars please bring them. There will be a number of telescopes to help you to see the more distant birds.