Reasons to join and benefits

Membership Services

Joining Durham Bird Club provides you with a whole host of services and activities. This section outlines those currently on offer. 

Field Trips

We run a programme of field trips to both local and national sites. Field trips are seasonal from September to April, generally on a Sunday, a coach or minibus outing is organised to a particular site and past trips have visited southern Scotland, the Northumberland coast, the RSPB reserve of Leighton Moss and Kielder Forest. Each trip is a full day and you are advised to bring a packed lunch and appropriate clothing, and coach pickup points are scattered around the County for your convenience. Trips are friendly and informal and are supervised by our Field Trip Secretary and for Junior members, a YOC leader is generally on hand, but we would recommend that parents of younger children accompany them for the day.  Coach trips cost £12-15 and junior members pay half price. 

Full details of forthcoming field trips can be found in your bulletins or contact the Field Trip Secretary should you require any further information, and details and reports will be added to the Field trips page of this website. 

Indoor Meetings

From September to April, on the third Thursday of each month, we hold our indoor meetings.  Each meeting is accompanied by a talk, film or slide show from a guest speaker, drawn from either our own membership or the birding community at large.  Talks can vary from the results of an in-depth scientific study to a member sharing his/her holiday slides from a trip abroad to a bird identification workshop.  Each meeting is a good social event with the chance to meet other birders in the County and to find out all the latest bird news of what's around in the area. There is usually the opportunity of an informal drink and chat at a local pub afterwards.  There is always a talk on offer to suit everyone's taste, and we generally hold a bird quiz once a year, where you are invited to battle it out, with full audience participation welcome, to find the bird brain of the year! 

Details of our current programme of indoor meetings can usually be found on the Indoor meetings page. 

Junior Membership

If you are under 18 and have joined us as a Junior Member, then we would like to take this opportunity especially to welcome you as a Club Member.  As a Junior Member you are entitled to all of our usual club services and activities as well as a much reduced fare on our Club outings and trips, but we would ask you to ask your parents should you wish to attend any such events beforehand. In the future we also hope to promote special event just for our Junior members, look out for news in your monthly bulletin, which we would welcome any contributions, such as drawings, articles or even cartoons! 

As a Junior Member you are also entitled to apply for a special grant from the Club should you wish to take on board any conservation work within the County under our Fred Grey award, please see below for more details and how to apply for funding. Please feel free to contact any Club Officer should you have any queries. 

The Fred Grey Award

Named in honour of the late Fred Grey, who was one of the Club's founding members and its first Chairman. This award is only open to members under 25, and is designed to promote field work or habitat conservation within our area. A maximum grant of £300 is available each year and can be used for any project you have in mind, as long as it will directly benefit birds within our County. If, for instance, you have a tree planting or nest box scheme in mind, and would like financial help, drop us a line and tell us about your idea and we'll consider your project. Each application must be properly costed and be supported by all relevant documents. The Award may also be given to a member in recognition of work carried out to aid bird conservation within our County. Approval of any award, in part or in full is at the discretion of the Club Committee. 

The George Wilson Award

Named in honour of the late George Wilson, a long standing member and keen local patch worker, this award is presented to a member of the Club on an annual basis. It is recognition for a Club member who has made an outstanding contribution to the Club in that year or has contributed significantly to bird conservation within the County during the year.  Approval of the award is at the discretion of the committee, who are themselves exempt from nomination.