A reminder that the SOS is holding its online AGM via Zoom on Saturday 18th July at 2:30 pm (registration opens at 2:20 pm).
Please contact secretary@sos.org.uk if you want to attend.
(Please remember that if you have already voted you will not be able to vote on the day).
A good read here
If you’re fortunate enough to have a Swift colony near where you live, now is an ideal time to take an evening walk around your neighbourhood and log any low-flying parties of Swifts or evidence of nest sites on BirdTrack. Please include as much detail as possible on behaviour and location, ideally including an address and a six-figure grid reference.
Also, remember the SOS can offer advice on Swift conservation so if you have any ideas to discuss, or need tips of founding a local Swift group, please get in touch via swifts@sos.org.uk.
David Campbell
SOS Swift Champion
Several members have enquired whether we are still planning to go ahead with the SOS Fieldworkers Meeting on October 3rd, 2020. As it stands now the answer is yes, we are hoping to be able to go ahead but we will be reviewing the situation in July.
Covid 19 restrictions mean that Adastra Hall, the venue for the meeting, is currently closed but the managers are hoping they will be able to open again in July. When they re-open they are expecting there will be restrictions such as distancing and sanitizing of the equipment which will quite likely limit usage.
We also need to consider the views of the members. How many will be happy to attend an indoor meeting in October? If you have any views on this, please drop me an e-mail at ken.smith.lsw@gmail.com .
Given the success of the last meeting, we are still hoping to go ahead this year but our priority must be to keep everyone safe. Once we have a clearer picture of the Covid situation and likely restrictions at the venue, the SOS Scientific Committee will discuss whether it is feasible to go ahead and let members know, probably by the middle of July.
Ken Smith
Saturday, October 3rd 2020, Adastra Hall, Hassocks
13.15 – 17.00
Recent SOS survey results – Rich Black/Matt Twydell
BTO surveys in Sussex – Greg Conway, BTO
All the good birds of 2019/20 – what did you miss? – David Campbell
Redstarts in Ashdown – Matt Kirk
Ringing at Beachy Head – Bob Edgar
Sussex Barn Owl Group update – Terry Hallahan
What bird records do we need? – Richard Cowser
Webs counts in Sussex – Dave Boddington
Discussion and close – Ken Smith
The SOS has been reviewing its Survey Strategy for the period up to the next National Atlas, see here. Following the easing of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions it seems an appropriate time to publish the updated paper to inform members of the proposed survey programme.
In view of the postponement of the Society’s AGM due to the current restrictions, we are making two reports for 2019 available for view online.
At the AGM, the meeting will adopt the Trustees Report and Financial Statement.
We can’t go very far to see birds right now but we can be glad there’s no virus stopping avian globetrotting. Birds are still coming to us, as ever. After the months of anticipation, the pace at which one species after another floods in still surprises each year. Most of our spring migrants are in by mid-April and even Swifts, among the latest to arrive, have usually been represented by one or two particularly eager individuals. Indeed, this year there have already been birds seen at Goring Gap (the first, on 10th April), Hove and Bevendean Down. In a couple or weeks they will be here in good numbers.
It would be foolish to attempt to predict when our lives, including our birding, can return to normal. What we can be sure of, though, is that Swifts will soon be bringing the skies above us to life, whether our unrestricted lives resume or we’re stuck in the garden and in our movements for a bit longer.
Swifts have no pandemic to worry about but they are in crisis when it comes to nesting sites. Modern buildings and conversions leave no room for Swifts and this has been a major factor in their decline; numbers fell 57% in the period 1995-2016. We can do our bit to help and watching Swifts from home is a great starting point. This summer, please keep an eye out for Swifts. Any records at all are valuable but if you see parties flying low over rooftops, or Swifts brushing against (banging) or using potential nest sites we’d especially like to see this information reported. Using BirdTrack and its facilites for providing as many details as possible, including six-figure grid references, address and the appropriate breeding codes is the ideal method, but if you have any questions please contact swifts@sos.org.uk.
David Campbell.
For a second year Swifts experienced cold and wet weather as they migrated north out of Africa into Europe across the Mediterranean, and many birds died from cold and starvation. Eventually our birds arrived back to their nesting sites and by June and July breeding was being documented in Birdtrack, with six figure grid references.
Lewes Swift Supporters group successfully re-formed and organised several walks to identify where Swifts bred in the town. Henfield have several good colonies and are increasing the number of boxes being put up. The Winchelsea group have even been on their local TV news highlighting public interest in increasing Swift nesting sites. A new initiative has been started in Battle, and in 2020 we aim to support them in expanding their proposed activities into Hastings. The Chichester Natural History Society put up an amazing number of Swift boxes around the city, and we responded to a request from the Chichester Festival Theatre to install Swift nest boxes there. The Brighton RSPB group through their volunteers continued to carry out their Swift surveys; and several churches in Sussex have now installed suites of Swift boxes within the church spire. New groups are springing up across Sussex with our help, as the importance of encouraging more Swifts to breed is realised as our climate warms which could bring alien mosquitoes and bugs to this country which Swifts will eat.
I have been the SOS Swift Champion for many years and have now passed this job to David Campbell who will be delighted to encourage new groups to look after their own local Swift colonies. To help get new groups started, we have developed a presentation on how to protect your Swifts, including instructions on how to carry out surveys to map where they are already nesting.
Please contact us at swifts@sos.org.uk so that we can increase the colonies of these wonderful birds across the whole of Sussex. The sound of their screaming parties around their nesting colonies is the special sound during the summer months of June and July.
Audrey Wende
The RSPB were hoping to share this information at the AGM about how SOS funding is being used. Due to the current situation this will not be possible but you can read the report by clicking here.
The breeding season is already underway for some birds. Please respect the special protection for species listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (see list here).
For scarce breeding species in Sussex, please consider carefully the risks of disturbance before reporting sightings on social media, including this website, unless the sites are well-known and protected. If in doubt please contact me at recorder@sos.org.uk. If entering records on BirdTrack consider marking them as “sensitive”. In addition, please avoid publicising locations of nests of other species that could be vulnerable to disturbance. And if you are lucky enough to find something really rare that might be breeding, please also avoid publicity, at least until protective measures, where practicable, have been put in place.
We do want records of scarce breeding species as well as of commoner species, including as much breeding evidence as possible for all species. Providing breeding evidence is really important for conservation purposes. We receive all BirdTrack data including breeding evidence provided that you have authorised the BTO to pass us your records.
If you find a new potential breeding site for a scarce breeder, please do let me know straight away at recorder@sos.org.uk to help ensure that annual coverage is as complete as possible. For Stone-curlews, we can actually make a difference to nesting success if we know that a breeding attempt is in progress and can liaise with the farmer, so please report sightings to the RSPB Stone-curlew Project Team Richard.Black1@rspb.org.uk and for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, for which a long-term project is underway to monitor breeding success, please inform Ken Smith at ken.smith.lsw@gmail.com.
Many thanks.
Mark Mallalieu
SOS Recorder and Chair of Scientific Committee
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