Welcome to Spurn Bird Obs

Spurn Wildlife 18

The new Spurn report - Spurn Wildlife issue 18 has arrived from the printers and is available for £8 from either Kew Villa or the YWT visitor centre at Spurn. Also available by post, please send a cheque for £9 (£1 p+p) made payable to Spurn Bird Observatory Trust and should be sent to Kew Villa, Kilnsea, East Yorkshire, HU12 0UB.

New observatory

As most of you are aware the current Observatory premises are very close to the sea and it is possible that they could be lost to erosion or inundation at any time. In addition to this the buildings are also showing signs of their age. In April 2008 SBOT applied to East Riding of Yorkshire Council for planning permission to develop a new observatory on the site at Kew Villa. After a relatively protracted period, planning permission was granted in August 2008. This opened the door for our project to really begin particularly bearing in mind that the planning permission only has a validity of three years within which substantial building progress must be made otherwise the planning application will lapse. Preliminary costings for the project have been carried out, which have shown that to develop the full facilities planned we need to raise £1 million. We are currently at the stage of having opened discussions with a number of potential fund raisers and now need to generate business and fund-raising plans to ensure the success of the project. Once a satisfactory business plan has been developed we need to start actively raising funds for the project to progress. Fund raising is likely to be challenging bearing in mind the current economic climate, nonetheless we intend to start a concerted fund-raising effort as soon as the business plan has been completed in order to move forward with this exciting project.

Updates

The bird list has been updated with new totals and some new photos and a review of credit crunch beating bins from Opticron has been added here

Rare Birds: Where and When

Anyone with an interest in rarities is sure to want a copy of this new book on their shelf, Written by well known Yorkshire birder Russ Slack and featuring a cover illustration and many vignettes by Spurn artist Ray Scally. Full details can be found here

2009 East Yorkshire Wildlife Calendar

Discover when & where to see particular wildlife. Nearly 300 lines of local information & suggestions. Copies may be ordered by contacting 07946 625688 or email: mflowers81@live.co.uk When ordering by phone or email, please mention "Spurn" to ensure £1 is donated to Spurn Bird Observatory.

New B&B

Those of you have enjoyed the superb food served up by Sue Wells at the Blue Bell Cafe, or have found the obs to be a little spartan for your taste will be pleased to know Sue and her husband Andrew have opened Westmere Farm as a B&B. I bet the breakfast will be incredible. Bookings can be made by visiting their website here

Feeding Station Sponsor

We are now in the fortunate position to announce that Cranswick Pet Products, part of the Cranswick Country Foods group have kindly sponsored the church field feeding station with a very generous donation which will allow us to keep a constant supply of seed out throughout the year. If you are buying food for your own garden birds please keep in mind the support they have shown us and purchase your food from them by visiting their site here