The Society has been left some books by a member who recently passed away. We would like to sell these and use any money received for conservation purposes. These are listed below, with suggested prices

If you are interested in any of these please contact Val Bentley on 01273 494723 or chetsford@talk21.com

Operation Wallacea is a network of academics from European and North American universities, who design and implement biodiversity and conservation management research programmes across 15 research sites worldwide. The network is currently recruiting ornithologists available for between 4-8 weeks within the months of June and early August 2017. Possible locations include: Peru, Fiji, Dominica and Ecuador. Information on all the sites is available on Operation Wallacea’s website.

The position will involve carrying out ornithological surveys as part of a large scale monitoring programme. Applicants should have experience of working in the field, biological undergraduate degree level or higher (or other relevant experience), point count, bird mist netting and handling experience.

In return, successful applicants receive full accommodation and food on site, potential current and future research opportunities, networking and skills development, flight bursaries for more experienced scientists, and of course the opportunity to contribute towards long-term conservation efforts.

If you would like to apply for the position of ornithologist, please fill in the online application form at http://opwall.com/jobs/ and send a CV or resume to Dr Danielle Gilroy at danielle.gilroy@opwall.com

Now is the ideal time to sign up to take part in the BTO Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and to come along to an informal practice session along with other volunteers. Sussex has also just been allocated some new BBS squares.

This national monitoring scheme is administered by the BTO and jointly funded by the BTO, JNCC and RSPB. It has been running since 1994 and its primary aim is to provide population trends for common and widespread bird species in the UK. Population trends for Sussex are also produced and published in the Sussex Bird Report.

Survey plots are randomly-selected 1-km squares of the National Grid, and the same squares are surveyed each year. Volunteers visit their squares three times each year during the breeding season, once to record simple habitat data, and twice to walk a fixed route, recording birds seen and heard. There are more than 150 BBS squares across Sussex, covering every type of habitat, and new volunteers are always needed.

Volunteers must be able to recognise common and widespread birds, but previous experience of survey work is not necessary. Help and support from experienced volunteers can be arranged if required, and some informal group practice sessions are planned for late March and early April 2017, to which new volunteers will be invited.

The BBS squares (asterisks indicate priority squares that have been surveyed before) in Sussex which currently need volunteers for the 2017 breeding season (updated 4/4/2017) are:

SU7802 Cobnor Point
SU8027 near Rake*
SU8029 near Liss Forest*
SU8624 Tote Hill near Midhurst
SU8926 Henley Common
SU9017 Heyshott*
SU9127 near Fernhurst*
SU9225 near Lickfold
SZ7996 East Wittering*
SZ8698 near Sidlesham*
TQ0124 near Kirdford*
TQ0502 Rustington
TQ2022 Cowfold*
TQ2828 near Staplefield*
TQ2836 central Crawley
TQ2916 Hurstpierpoint*
TQ3122 near Haywards Heath*
TQ4817 near Isfield*
TQ5211 near Golden Cross*
TQ5502 near Jevington*
TQ5514 near Chiddingly
TQ5707 Abbot’s Wood
TQ5901 Willingdon
TQ6727 near Stonegate*
TQ6927 nr Etchingham*
TQ7028 near Hurst Green
TQ8413 near Three Oaks
TQ8613 Guestling Green

For further information, please contact Helen Crabtree, 01444 441687, bbs@sos.org.uk.

The following squares are available just over the Surrey border:

TQ0232 Oxoncroft Copse
TQ0539 Cranleigh
TQ0735 Massers Wood near Cranleigh
TQ0837 near Cranleigh
TQ0937 The Windbreak near Ewhurst
TQ3647 near Godstone

To volunteer to survey one of these squares, please contact Penny Williams at penny@waxwing.plus.com.

The National Trust at Sheffield Park would like to carry out some bird survey work and is looking for one or more volunteers to provide some basic training in identification of common birds and in survey techniques. SOS members with experience of breeding birds survey (BBS) work would be well-suited to this. The National Trust hope to give training to 8-10 people. If you are willing to help, please contact Laura Steuart laura.steuart@nationaltrust.org.uk for further details.

There will be a Sussex-only breeding woodlark and Dartford warbler survey this year (as well as the breeding Cetti’s warbler survey). This survey aims to update our understanding of the distributions of breeding Dartford warblers and woodlarks in Sussex, to enable the calculation of population densities and county population estimates, and to provide information on the habitat preferences of breeding Dartford warblers and woodlarks in Sussex. The survey uses mapping of singing males and other observations of Dartford warblers and woodlarks in tetrads where birds have been recorded previously or where they are known to occur or where there is potentially suitable habitat.

Both species were last surveyed in Sussex in 2006 (in a national BTO/RSPB survey) and results from the Bird Atlas 2007-2011 project provide information about their distributions, but since 2011 numbers of Dartford warblers are thought to have decreased dramatically due to some severe winters and also woodlarks have been recorded using an increasingly wide variety of farmland habitats as well as the more traditional heathland habitats on the West Sussex commons and the Ashdown Forest.

The full survey instructions will be made available but basically volunteers will be allocated tetrads and be asked to make three visits between mid-February and the end of June to search all suitable habitat and plot the locations of all singing woodlarks and Dartford warblers on maps as well as record some simple information about activity and habitat. Casual records of singing males anywhere in Sussex will also be collected. It is likely that most survey registrations and other records, particularly for woodlarks, will relate to birds heard singing and there will be no requirement for the birds to be observed.

Those tetrads for which volunteers are being sought are listed here. To check the location of any tetrad use http://www.bnhs.co.uk/focuson/grabagridref/html/index.htm and type the tetrad grid reference into the darker blue panel; the tetrad will appear outlined in pink.

Please contact Helen Crabtree at hcrabtree@gmail.com or on 01444 441687 if you would like to volunteer to take part in this survey, or if you have questions or comments or would like further information.

There will be a Sussex-only breeding Cetti’s warbler survey this year. This survey aims to update our understanding of the distribution of breeding Cetti’s warblers in Sussex, to enable the calculation of population densities and a county population estimate, and to provide information on the habitat preferences of breeding Cetti’s warblers in Sussex. The survey will use mapping of singing males in tetrads where birds have been recorded previously or where they are known to occur or where there is potentially suitable habitat.

Results from the Bird Atlas 2007-2011 project show that Cetti’s warblers in Sussex are mainly found in the river valleys but also in coastal and levels areas such as around Chichester and Pagham Harbours and the Pevensey Levels. These results also show a significant increase in distribution since the previous atlas project in 1988-1992, and records suggest that the distribution has increased still further since 2011 with breeding birds now being found further up the river valleys and increasingly at small inland waterbodies.

The full survey instructions will be made available but basically volunteers will be allocated tetrads and be asked to make two or three visits between late March and the end of June to search all suitable habitat and plot the locations of all singing male Cetti’s warblers on maps as well as record some simple information about activity and habitat. Casual records of singing males anywhere in Sussex will also be collected. It is likely that most survey registrations and other records will relate to birds heard singing and there will be no requirement for the birds to be observed.

Those tetrads for which volunteers are being sought are listed here. To check the location of any tetrad use http://www.bnhs.co.uk/focuson/grabagridref/html/index.htm and type the tetrad grid reference into the darker blue panel; the tetrad will appear outlined in pink.

Please contact Helen Crabtree at hcrabtree@gmail.com or on 01444 441687 if you would like to volunteer to take part in this survey, or if you have questions or comments or would like further information.

There are a considerable number of reports of scarce and rare birds in Sussex in 2016 for which descriptions and photos would be much appreciated. Please check this list and, if you can provide any of the descriptions and photos, please send them to the Recorder, Mark Mallalieu Recorder@sos.org.uk

The Society is very keen to document fully the remarkable influx of Yellow-browed Warblers this autumn, so if you were one of the lucky people who found one or more of these birds for which descriptions are still needed, please do email the Recorder with suitable evidence.

Thank you,

Mark Mallalieu