Our city-wide surveys over the last two years helped identify 105 nest sites for Brighton Swifts. Our 2019 survey will build on the data gathered since 2016 and will help our work to protect and expand existing colonies. We’ll be looking to monitor our known ‘hot-spot’ areas as well as increase coverage in other parts of the city. We need new volunteers to join our group of experienced surveyors from the last two years to help us survey swifts in Brighton during May-July to help reverse a 53% decline in populations over the last 20 years. If you live in the Brighton & Hove area and would like to help protect these fantastic birds please check out our volunteer swift surveyor role here or contact john.cuthbert@rspb.org.uk for details.

The Forestry Commission is looking for able and/or aspiring birders to help record the breeding birds of our ancient Wealden woodlands across East Sussex. If you have a good ear and eye for woodland birds and can spare a few early mornings this spring then please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

We look after woodlands throughout East Sussex, as well as a couple in West Sussex, and can find a site to suit you. If this is something you would like to get involved with then please contact us on info.wealdbeat@forestryengland.uk or 07881501846.

Assistant Editor. We are looking for a volunteer for Assistant Editor (part of the Editorial Team) of the Sussex Bird Report.

Anyone interested in gaining a deeper insight into Sussex birds and a knowledge of preparation of the publication is invited to contact Peter Plant – breditor@sos.org for further details.

Species Account Writers. Anyone wishing to join the talented group of Species Account Writers should also contact Peter Plant before we get started on the Report for 2018.

South Downs National Trust are running a wild life camp out  for staff and volunteers on Newtimber Hill across the weekend of the 18th and 19th of May.

Is anybody interested in joining them to help record the dawn chorus?

Camping and breakfast will be provided.

Contact Helen Osorio
Membership and Visitor Welcome Manager
Helen.Fitzgerald@nationaltrust.org.uk

South Downs NT
Devil’s Dyke Estate

There is a national seabird census and the focus this year and next is on breeding gulls in urban areas. The survey is simple – only one visit needed. But there are lots of urban sites in Sussex to cover so we need lots of volunteers. Can you help?

Click Here for more details.

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 do not publish locations on social media, including this website, unless the sites are well-known and protected. If entering records on BirdTrack consider marking them as “sensitive”. As a guide, the SOS recommends this approach for Honey-buzzard, Goshawk, Marsh Harrier, Stone-curlew, Long-eared Owl, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Peregrine, Woodlark, Grasshopper Warbler, Dartford Warbler and Tree Sparrow. In addition, please avoid publicising locations of nests of other species such as Barn Owl, Kingfisher and Nightjar that could be vulnerable to disturbance. And if you are lucky enough to find something rarer that might be breeding (are we due another pair of Black-winged Stilts!?), please also avoid publicity, at least until protective measures, where practicable, have been put in place.

Whilst we don’t want you to share on public forums the breeding locations of the species listed above, we do want records of your observations of these species, including breeding evidence. This will happen automatically for BirdTrack if you have authorised the BTO to pass us your records. Especially 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, please tell the RSPB Stone-curlew Project Team Richard.Black1@rspb.org.uk and for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, please inform Ken Smith at ken.smith.lsw@gmail.com.

Many thanks.

Mark Mallalieu
SOS Recorder and Chair of Scientific Committee

SOS – Countywide survey in 60 tetrads

Volunteers needed – can you help?

Two morning visits in May/June and June/July.

The Turtle Dove is one of the most rapidly declining species in UK and elsewhere in northern Europe, we want to find out how it is faring in Sussex.

The objective of this project is to look for changes in the distribution of Turtle Doves in Sussex over the last decade by re-surveying a sample of tetrads which held breeding birds during the 2008-11 Sussex Atlas.

The atlas simply recorded presence and the breeding status in each tetrad. To arrive at an estimate of the numbers of breeding Turtle Doves in the county we will map and count the ‘purring’ males within the randomly selected tetrads.

Survey method

We have selected at random 60 tetrads occupied by Turtle Doves in the 2008-11 Atlas.

We are asking volunteers to choose a tetrad and make two visits to check out all the suitable habitat as closely as possible. The first visit between May 11 and June 20 and the second visit between June 21 and July 24. Visits should be in the early morning (between first light and 09.00) in good weather conditions. We will provide 1:25,000 maps of your chosen tetrad.

If you are interested, please contact the survey organiser Ken Smith.

Full details of the background to the project, survey methods, tetrads selected and Ken’s contact details can be viewed and downloaded here

Surveyor needed urgently from 2019

This long running survey monitors 21 breeding species with emphasis on heathland specialists by the simple method of detecting males holding territory. The core heaths of West Sussex have been surveyed for over nineteen years and we are now in need of a surveyor for the important site of Lynchmere & Stanley Commons SU8631.

Nightjar, Woodlark, Dartford Warbler, Tree Pipit and Stonechat are the prime targets however this heath has an excellent Redstart population.

The Survey starts in mid-February, (to find the Woodlarks taking up their territories) and carries on until late June. We try to cover the individual sites entirely on at least four occasions, including one early year visit as mentioned, and two visits (more if you have the inclination and the time) about two weeks apart during May when song activity is at its peak. There will be at least one evening visit in May or June to detect Nightjar.

The survey is not particularly demanding but the continuous nature of it over more than nineteen years has enabled us to providing superb data, assisting with management and other conservation issues.

If you are interested please contact Alan Perry for more details on 01798 344417 or email ap@alanperry.uk.com

SOS – Countywide survey in 60 tetrads

Volunteers needed – can you help?

Two morning visits in May/June and June/July

Click here for details.

We need a couple more people to carry out some Brent Geese surveys around Pagham/Medmerry. The purpose of the surveys is to plot which fields Brent Geese (and key waders) forage on, so the survey will be a mix of driving around to see if there any target species on the fields that you can see from the car, and getting out and walking to look at the areas which you can not see from the car. Each survey will take a morning, and we want to get one survey organised in the next fortnight and five more in January, February and early March.

So why are we doing this? Well, a recent successful planning application at South Pagham has highlighted that we have no proper understanding on which of the fields surrounding the Harbour our Brent Geese forage on. It turned out that one of them is now going to be built on (happily we have secured full mitigation to compensate for the loss of this field to housing). But we want to avoid this happening again in the future and the only way we can do that is to survey the whole area around the harbour and identify which fields the Brent and key waders are using. We will repeat this survey over several years.

If you can help, you will be making a real contribution to giving us the data to ensure that sufficient foraging habitat is protected to support Pagham’s wintering Brent Geese population in future years. Without this data we will struggle to oppose future planning applications and that could seriously affect the Geese and other waders.

Please contact me if you can help at conservation@sos.org.uk (or call 01903 770259)

Richard Cowser (SOS Conservation Officer).