In April, Paul James is standing down after overseeing ‘Recent Sightings’ on the SOS website for many years. The Society is looking for a volunteer member to take over this role. The main elements are making sure that posts share information of interest to members, do not put scarce species at risk, minor errors in draft posts are corrected, and authors contacted if there are significant queries about their drafts, e.g. likely mistaken identity.

A small team of knowledgeable birdwatchers share the checking of draft posts, so this should only be a small element of the role, perhaps equivalent to two to three hours a week, depending on how much time you could devote to this, including some email contact with authors (for which you would normally take responsibility).

The opportunity would suit an SOS member with a good knowledge of Sussex’s birds and the sensitivities around some scarce species. There would also be scope to think about how ‘Recent Sightings’ might evolve in the future. Indeed, even if you do not wish to put yourself forward, but have ideas about this, do please let us know. If you’d like to find out more about the role or just have suggestions about ‘Recent Sightings’, please contact Paul at sightings@sos.org.uk.