Letter to the Editor

Thank You One Stop

I just want to say a special, personal thank you to the front-line staff at the shop in Meldreth Post Office. I am a retired teacher/pensioner and since the lockdown, particularly appreciate very much the social contact there, on my daily walk to the shop for food and post. I do not have living family here and contact my family, including grandson aged four and parents, via the web, like a lot of people. But I feel lucky to have the old shop there and it enables me to do my walking or cycling exercise and to get out - obeying the social distancing rules, of course. So thank you, staff. It’s the short but sweet human contact that makes so much difference, having a laugh and helping with any problems I have with my card etc. They are friendly, efficient and most of all human.

Special thanks to Sophie and Jane. Cheers! Eleanor Palmer-FitzGerald, High Street, Meldreth

Waterlight

The team that made the film “Waterlight - Portrait of a Chalk Stream” is pleased to announce that from 25th June the film will be available on DVD.

We were so sorry that we had to cancel the event on 19th March, so we hope this will give you a chance to see the film. We have made it easy to place an order by putting an easy-to-pay point on our website, https://waterlightproject.org.uk. The cost is £7.00 which includes postage as well as the DVD itself. You can also download a high definition version of the film to your computer. The cost of the downloaded version is £4.00.

We hope you will enjoy the film. Clare Crossman, Bruce Huett, Nigel Kinnings and James Murray White for Waterlight

Spotted Flycatchers in Meldreth

You may recall that Michael Holdsworth of the British Trust for Ornithology has been monitoring Spotted Flycatchers in Meldreth. These small birds winter in Africa, returning to the UK to breed. Over the past few years they have been regular visitors to the churchyard, using both gravestones and trees as launchpads for their acrobatic aerial displays. They usually arrive during the second or third week of May. However, this year, the birds arrived a week early. A local resident heard their calls on 5th May and this was confirmed by sightings two days later. The warm southerly winds probably assisted their early return. Over the following week the birds were discreetly monitored. On occasion, two were seen feeding at the same time, sharing a perch; clearly a pair. In fact, one was seen fluttering its wings, behaviour that Michael suggested was probably the female soliciting for a mate! Two weeks after they were first sighted, one of the birds was seen sitting on the nest that was used last year. The question arose as to whether these were last year’s pair. Careful observation indicated that neither bird was ringed. Last year the male bird was a ringed individual, so it’s possible that the female returned with a different beau! At the end of May it was obvious that both birds were taking food to the nest, suggesting that their chicks had hatched. This was confirmed on 5th June, when Michael noted five chicks in the nest. Two days later the adults were briefly captured and ringed, before being weighed and measured and then released. They were soon back feeding their young. We now await the chicks to fledge. This could be over a period of ten days but may depend upon the weather. As the first brood has hatched early, we hope that the adults will, like last year, raise a second brood before returning to Africa for the winter. Once again, we wish to thank the owners of the property where the nest is located, for allowing access. And a quick hello to the Fedex driver, who stopped to enquire what was going on and left promising to looking up Spotted Flycatchers on his PC!

Jan Butchers Stop Press: The fledglings left the nest on 13th June. There is no sign yet of the female laying another clutch of eggs. 11