EDITORIAL
The Spring Newsletter is traditionally the forum to bid farewell to another successful season of indoor meetings, and to look forward to the summer, and all the delights that it brings, out in the countryside - weather permitting!
Colin Smith once again arranged a well-balanced series of talks, which contained enough variety to suit all interests. I certainly enjoyed all the talks I attended, and one or two were quite exceptional. Next winter's programme is published at the back of this Newsletter, and it appears to be equally varied and interesting. I prefer not to look forward to next winter, but at least the new programme offers some compensation against the dark nights!
Once again we had a good response to the garden bird survey, and I hope to be able to publish the results in the next edition of the Newsletter. If anyone hasn't yet handed their form in, it's not too late!
Meanwhile, we have the full summer to look forward to. Already the Annual 24 hour Bird Race has taken place, and we must thank members of Bolton RSPB group, without whose participation it would have been a non-event. As it was, six or seven teams took part and the event was won by Andy Leach's Phoenix team, which recorded 87 species - one more than last year's winners. Their score may even have been 88, since I don't believe they failed to record Magpie - but it wasn't on their list! This demonstrates the danger of not using a tick list! It could have cost them the match! The total number of species recorded was 98.
The Committee has also organised a full programme of the popular summer evening walks, with a couple of new venues alongside a couple of old friends. Let's hope the weather is kind.
Survey work continues out in the field. This is the last year of the Lancashire Breeding Bird Survey, prior to publication next year of what is hoped will be a survey of every Tetrad in the Lancashire recording area. It will be quite a feat if it is achieved, and I am sure that we will all be staggered by the number of breeding species in the county.
All that remains is for me to wish you a successful summer's nature watching and to hope that the result will be plenty of material for future Newsletters!
Neil Southworth (Editor)