West Midland Bird Club

The Club was founded as the Birmingham Bird Club, by W. E. Groves and friends on 1 November 1929.{{cite web|url=http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/club/chrono|title=Chronology|publisher=West Midland Bird Club|accessdate=7 September 2011|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921053229/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/club/chrono|archive-date=21 September 2011}} The name changed to Birmingham and District Bird Club in 1945, to The Birmingham and West Midland Bird Club in 1947, and the current name was adopted in 1959.

It co-founded and still helps to manage the Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory and was instrumental in securing Brandon Marsh as a nature reserve.{{cite web|url=http://www.warwickshire-wildlife-trust.org.uk/reserves/brandon-marsh-sssi.htm |title=Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve, its Beginnings |publisher=Warwickshire Wildlife Trust |accessdate=2009-07-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507172226/http://www.warwickshire-wildlife-trust.org.uk/reserves/brandon-marsh-sssi.htm |archive-date=2009-05-07 |url-status=dead }}

A successful West Midland Bird Distribution Survey, published privately in 1951,{{cite book|last=Norris|first=C A|title=West Midland Bird Distribution Survey|publisher=West Midland Bird Club|year=1951|url=http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/bibliography/DistSurv51/|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402070048/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/bibliography/DistSurv51/|archive-date=2 April 2012}} (published for private circulation) led to the club publishing the world's first bird atlas,{{cite journal|title=Ornithological atlas data: a review of uses and limitations|last=Donald|first=Paul F.|first2=Robert J. |last2=Fuller|year=1998|journal=Bird Study|volume=45|issue=2|pages=129–145|doi=10.1080/00063659809461086|doi-access=free}} the Atlas of breeding birds of the West Midlands, in 1970.{{Cite book

| publisher = Published for the West Midland Bird Club (by) HarperCollins

| isbn = 978-0-00-211040-2

| pages = 3–276p(chiefly illus, form, maps) ; 20cm

| last = Lord

| first = John

| first2 = Dennis Johnstone

| last2 = Munns

| first3 = T. K

| last3 = Beck

| first4 = A. J

| last4 = Richards

| title = Atlas of breeding birds of the West Midlands

| location = London

| year = 1970

| url = http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/biblio/biblo1.htm#Atlas

| url-status = unfit

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20020726041334/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/biblio/biblo1.htm

| archive-date = 26 July 2002

}}

Until 2010, the Club operated an information centre at Kingsbury Water Park (Warwickshire).

Bill Oddie has been the Club's president since 1999. His first published article on birds appeared in the Club's 1962 Annual Report.{{cite journal|last=Oddie|first=W.E.|date=July 1963|title=Birds in the Bartley Reservoir Area, 1931-1962 (Part I)|journal=The West Midland Bird Report, 1962|publisher=West Midland Bird Club|location=Birmingham|volume=29|url=http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/archive/bartley-62.htm|accessdate=2010-02-13|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514235149/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/archive/bartley-62.htm|archive-date=2011-05-14}} He is first credited in the 1956 report, in which reports of his bird observations are tagged with his initials "WEO".{{Cite episode | title = Nature Watch Special: Bill Oddie - Bird Watcher |series=Nature Watch | station = ITV Central | date = 1985-07-30 }}

He discussed his membership of the Club in one of his first forays in the world of television natural history, as the subject of a Nature Watch Special: Bill Oddie - Bird Watcher, in which he was interviewed by Julian Pettifer, at Bartley Reservoir and the Christopher Cadbury Wetland Reserve.

Past and present

• Horace Alexander
• Alan Dean
• Rob Hume
• Cyril Hurcomb
• Tony Norris
• Bill Oddie
• Mike Rogers
• Eric Simms
• William Brunsdon Yapp{{cite journal|last=Norris|first=C.A.|date=September 1960|title=The Breeding Distribution of Thirty Bird Species in 1952|journal=Bird Study|volume=7|issue=3|pages=129–184|doi=10.1080/00063656009475969}}

{{Expand list|date=August 2008}}

• A regular Bulletin {{ISSN|1477-6111}}
• An Annual Report {{ISSN|1476-2862}}
• {{Cite book

| publisher = Published for the West Midland Bird Club (by) Collins

| isbn = 978-0-00-211040-2

| pages = 3–276p(chiefly illus, form, maps) ; 20cm

| last = Lord

| first = John

| first2 = Dennis Johnstone

| last2 = Munns

| first3 = T. K

| last3 = Beck

| first4 = A. J

| last4 = Richards

| title = Atlas of breeding birds of the West Midlands

| location = London

| year = 1970

| url = http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/biblio/biblo1.htm#Atlas

| url-status = unfit

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20020726041334/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/biblio/biblo1.htm

| archive-date = 26 July 2002

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Harrison

|first=Graham R.

|author2-link=Alan Dean (ornithologist)

|first2=Alan R.

|last2=Dean

|first3=Alan J.

|last3=Richards

|first4=David

|last4=Smallshire

|title=The Birds of the West Midlands

|publisher=West Midland Bird Club

|year=1982

|isbn=978-0-9507881-0-4

|url=https://archive.org/details/birdsofwestmidla0000unse

|url-access=registration

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Harrison

|first=Graham

|first2=Janet

|last2 = Harrison

|title=The New Birds of the West Midlands

|publisher=West Midland Bird Club

|year=2005

|isbn=978-0-9507881-2-8

|url=http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/NBotWM

|url-status=unfit

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920194945/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/bibliography/NBotWM

|archive-date=20 September 2011

}}

• {{cite book

| edition = 3

| publisher = West Midland Bird Club

| title = A Checklist of the birds of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands and Guide to Status and Record Submission

| year=2011

|url=http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/checklist

| url-status = unfit

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305092820/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/bibliography/checklist/

|archive-date=5 March 2012

}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|West Midland Bird Club}}

• {{Official website|http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.org.uk}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Conservation in England

Category:Ornithological organisations in the United Kingdom

Category:Charities based in Staffordshire

Category:Charities based in Warwickshire

Category:Charities based in the West Midlands (county)

Category:Charities based in Worcestershire

Category:Organizations established in 1929

Category:Clubs and societies in the West Midlands (county)