In case you are interested, there is a recording on Youtube of this talk I gave to the Bird Club of the London Natural History Society on 10th November, see => here

With increasing numbers of Great White Egrets being seen in Sussex each year, the SOS Records Committee (SOSRC) and Scientific Committee have concluded that, as from 1 January 2018, descriptions/photos of this species will not be needed to support records in any part of the county.  The Sussex Bird Report 2016 includes Great White Egret as a description species as the report went to print before the SOSRC was able to make a recommendation that took account of most 2017 records.   Although the risk of misidentification is usually small, observers are encouraged to take particular care with distant birds including those in flight.

The Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre publishes an excellent annual report (see http://sxbrc.org.uk/biodiversity/publications/#adastra), to which the SOS contributes a section on birds. I have written this for bird records in 2016 and would be very grateful for a small number of good quality photos of birds photographed in Sussex in 2016, of any of the species in the list below.  The photos should not be the same as ones in the 2016 Sussex Bird Report, which is arriving through letterboxes as I write.  There is a short section on ringing so photos of birds in the hand are acceptable. Please email photos to me at recorder@sos.org. uk.  They will be credited to the photographer.  Thanks.

Mark Mallalieu, Recorder

American Golden Plover
American Wigeon
Aquatic Warbler
Avocet
Bar-tailed Godwit
Bearded Tit
Blackcap
Black-headed Gull
Black-tailed Godwit
Blyth’s Reed Warbler
Brent Goose
Chiffchaff
Common Gull
Common Redstart
Common Tern
Dartford Warbler
Desert Wheatear
Eurasian Wigeon
Gannet
Golden Plover
Goshawk
Grasshopper Warbler
Great Northern Diver
Grey Plover
Honey-buzzard
Lapwing
Laughing Gull
Little Egret
Marsh Harrier
Mediterranean Gull
Ortolan Bunting
Peregrine
Quail
Red Kite
Red-footed Booby
Reed Warbler
Sanderling
Sandwich Tern
Shoveler
Stonechat
Stone-curlew
Tree Sparrow
Woodlark
Yellow-browed Warbler