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West Midland Bird Club

Birds in Staffordshire

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• Introduction
• Branches
• Recorder
• WMBC Reserves
• Other sites
• Local Authorities
• Boundary Changes
• Vice-Counties
• Further Info
• Corrections

Introduction

Staffordshire (now 2,713 km²) occupies the Northern portion of the Club's region. The largest city in Staffordshire is Stoke-on-Trent. Lichfield also has city status, though is considerably smaller. Major towns include Burton upon Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Cannock, Tamworth and the county town, Stafford.

Staffordshire borders (clockwise from the West) Shropshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands county and Worcestershire.

You can observe birds anywhere in the county — from your own garden or windowsill, to local parks, but below we list places of special interest.

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Branches

The Club has branches in Stafford and Tamworth.

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County Recorder

Please report your sightings to the Staffordshire County Recorder.

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West Midland Bird Club Reserves

Permits for the Club's reserves are available to members either through "inclusive" membership or separately.

• Belvide Reservoir — SJ870099
• Blithfield Reservoir — SK0623
• Gailey Reservoir — SJ9310 (Archive Report)

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Other Sites

The inclusion of a site in this list does not signify freely available public access — permits may be required.

• Apedale Country Park — SJ818413 
• Baggeridge Country Park  — SO891930 
• Branston Water Park  — SK2221 
• Brownshore Pools —
• Cannock Chase  — SJ91  & SK01  (large area). The Club sponsors a feeding station on the Chase.
• Chasewater  — SK0307  (Archive Report)
• Conical Mound —
• Copmere — SJ803295 
• Coombes Valley (RSPB)  — SK0052 
• Croxall — SK1914 
• Dosthill Gravel Pits — SP2099 
• Downs Banks — SJ9036 
• Doxey Marshes  — SJ9023 
• Elford Gravel Pits — SK1810 
• Gentleshaw Common — SK046111 
• Hanchurch Hills — SJ835395 
• Hatherton Reservoir —
• Highgate Common — SO8490 
• Himley (SO8892 ) & Baggeridge (SO8994 )
• Kinver Edge — SO8483 
• Longsdon Woods — SJ9655 
• Mill Green Nature Park —
• North Staffs Moors (large area) SJ96  & SK06 
• Park Hall Country Park — SJ9344 
• Pipe Hall —
• Rudyard Reservoir — SJ9459 
• Shoal Hill — SJ9711 
• Tittesworth Reservoir — SJ9959 
• Westport Lake — SJ8550 
• Whitemoor Haye — SK1813 
• Wyrley and Essington Canal —

Select the OS references (e.g. SK1813 ) for maps.

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Local Authorities

Staffordshire County Council  and the following councils have responsibility for a number of issues which affect birds, including planning, pollution control, managing parks and running museums. The Peak District National Park Authority  also has a remit convering part of the county.

1. Tamworth Borough Council 
2. Lichfield District Council 
3. Cannock Chase District Council 
4. South Staffordshire Council 
5. Stafford Borough Council 
6. Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council 
7. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council 
8. East Staffordshire Borough Council 
9. Stoke-on-Trent City Council  (a unitary authority)

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Boundary Changes

• 1844: The Counties (Detached Parts) Act  transferred two parishes from, and part of a township to, the county.
• 1888: Those parts of the town of Tamworth lying in Warwickshire were ceded to Staffordshire.
• 1891: Harborne became part of the county borough of Birmingham and thus transferred from Staffordshire to Warwickshire by the Local Govt. Bd.'s Prov. Orders Conf. (No. 13) Act, 54 & 55 Vic. c. 161 (local act).
• 1911: Handsworth became part of Birmingham, then in Warwickshire.
• 1928: Perry Barr was ceded to Warwickshire, also as part of Birmingham.
• 1966: Smethwick and Rowley Regis became part of Worcestershire, as components of the newly-formed borough of Warley. Dudley was ceded from Worcestershire.
• 1974: Under The Local Government Act 1972 , Dudley, Wolverhampton, Walsall and West Bromwich (plus Warley and Birmingham) became part of the newly-formed West Midlands County.
• circa 1994: The western/southern shores of Chasewater, plus Jeffreys Swag, were acquired from the West Midlands.

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Vice-Counties

Although we record birds according to modern county boundaries, some wildlife (such as insects and plants) is recorded according to Watsonian vice-counties , based on traditional county boundaries and unaffected by subsequent local government changes. The Staffordshire vice-county is numbered “39”.

• Tool to convert OS Grid Refs to vice-counties 
• National Biodiversity Network reports for the Staffordshire vice-county  (with map).

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Further Information

• The official County List
• Mailing list for Staffordshire
• Staffordshire publications
• Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
• General Staffordshire birding information from Fatbirder.
• Other local Birding links

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Corrections

Please notify our webmaster if we've missed any sites, or links.

Maps on this page available under the GNU Free Documentation License .
Please see our note on mapping links.)

• Other counties in our region
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( We remind you that these are other organisations' sites and that we accept no responsibility for their content)

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