Welcome to Bakewell Bird Study Group, please use the links above to navigate the site. If you would like to get in touch or find out more please use the contact details for the relevant person on our committee page. A selection of local sightings and what we have recently been up to can be found by clicking here and a full history of the group can be found at the bottom of this page.
Our next indoor meeting is:
- Neil Glenn – Birding the Arctic Circle on 13th Jan 2025 7:30:pm, at
Experience spring birdwatching in Finland and Norway amid the dramatic scenery of fjords, coastal tundra and uplands with the vast taiga forests, lakes and marshes of Finland, meeting many of ‘our’ wintering birds in their breeding grounds and speciality birds of the far north. - Oxford University’s 75 year Great Tit Study at Wytham Woods on 10th Feb 2025 7:30:pm, at
On 27th April 1947 the year’s first great tit egg in Oxford University’s Wytham Woods was counted. The hugely influential Wytham Great Tit Study is the longest continuous study of an individually marked animal population in the world. It plays a key role in scientist’s understanding of how populations change in response to the environment – particularly how they are coping with changing climates. Joint meeting with DOS.
Our next field trip is:
- WYVER LANE on 10th Apr 2025
A DWT wetland close to Belper. Peregrines to be seen from the car park. Good chance to identify early migrants by song. Cafés nearby in Belper.
History of the group
Bakewell Bird Study Group was first formed because in the early 1980’s, the University of Sheffield ran several Adult Education courses in Bakewell, Derbyshire. One of these was a very successful course in Ornithology. After about five years the course finished and courses on other aspects of natural history took its place.
The Ornithology class members were keen to continue and decided that one way of doing this was to form a local independent group. After much persuasion from former class members, in particular Margaret Warren and the late Joan Challinor, an informal meeting was held in July 1987 with the above two ladies and the class tutor – Alan Gladwin, to look at the possibility of forming such a group.
We had no membership and no organisation so we appointed ourselves as committee members and along with other ‘volunteers’ formed a one year steering committee.
An indoor and an outdoor meetings programme was put together with the first indoor meeting taking place in early September 1987 Over 70 people came to the first meeting. During the first year the steering committee met on a monthly basis and the Group logo (the Dipper) was chosen and a constitution written.
The Group aim was to promote an interest in wild birds, their habitats and conservation with particular reference to the Bakewell area (the four 1km squares SK16, SK17, SK26, & SK27) by means of lectures, discussions, field trips and ‘other appropriate activities‘. The aims of the Group remains the same today and ‘other appropriate activities‘ include a call-over at the indoor meetings, the collation of local bird records, a Group newsletter, a library, local nest box schemes, and a now bi-annual all day watch.
Two ten year reports have been produced, summarising the status of the local bird population. The Group maintains an interest in the development of the lagoons at Middleton Moor.