SOS is seeking a person to take over from Audrey Wende to co-ordinate SOS’s mid-week walks for members.

The role involves organising one mid-week walk a month, generally 11 walks a year (none in August), find potential walk leaders and liaise with the weekend walks co-ordinator.

These events are attended by approximately 12 people and are a very popular benefit of membership particularly for those who are unable to walk at weekends

We have a good annual cycle of walks and an established list of great leaders, but we are always seeking new people to show us around new places.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please call Audrey on 01444 471358 or email her on mauwende@delta18.plus.com

There is still time to sign up to take part in the full national survey of breeding woodcock running in 2023 organised by the BTO with the GWCT as partners. The last full national survey of breeding woodcock was in 2013. Indications from annual monitoring since 2013 suggest that the population may have decreased. The 2023 survey will help to provide the best possible assessment of the population status, as well as further helping to understand the causes of the population decline and also to inform the woodcock shooting policy review.

This survey will require two or three dusk visits to selected sites in May and June to make point counts of roding woodcock. Please see the report here about the results of the 2013 survey in Sussex for information about the survey methods. In 2023 there are some changes to the method of habitat recording but the method of counting encounters with roding woodcock will remain exactly the same.

Priority sites are those that were surveyed in 2013 and those for which volunteers are being sought are listed below (updated 4/5/2023). The survey involves counting woodcock encounters from a fixed point which should be chosen within or on the edge of the largest area of woodland within or close to the square.

SU8811 Charleton Down: this includes parts of Goodwood Country Park
SU9115 Eastdean Wood: part of a large wooded area above Graffham Down
SU9119 Ambersham Common
TQ4032 Hindleap
TQ4131 Wych Cross
TQ4427 Nutley
TQ4429 Marlpits
TQ4629 Camp Hill
TQ4631 Gills Lap
TQ4729 near Camp Hill
TQ4932 Marden’s Hill
TQ5031 Crowborough Common
TQ5736 Hargate Forest
TQ7623 Lordship Wood: this is a large mixed forest just east of Robertsbridge
TQ8521 Beckley Woods
TQ8614 Guestling Wood

If you would like more information or are interested in helping with this project please contact Helen Crabtree at hcrabtree@gmail.com or select a site online at https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/woodcock-survey where there are more squares available than the priority sites listed above.

Chichester’s Peregrine Group are appealing to SOS members to help with their Peregrine Open Days at Chichester Cathedral on Wednesday – Sunday from 10th June – 9th July on the Cathedral Green. Help is sought with the telescope/video feed viewing and interpretation.

These Open Days continue to attract good numbers of people and this is a great way to stimulate an interest in wildlife across wider audiences.

The pair are currently sitting on 3 eggs. The 3rd egg was laid on 30th March so hopefully hatching around 2nd May.

Please contact David & Janet Shaw rockdjshaw@gmail.com if you can assist.

SOS are carrying out a county-wide Nightjar survey this summer and we are looking for volunteers to cover a number of 1km squares in known Nightjar areas in Sussex.

The survey consists of 2 evening visits between late May and late July.

The survey website, with available 1km squares is now up and running and can be found here

If you are able to help out please sign up to the survey via the website and select a square near you.

We are looking for someone to take a leading role in the SOS Conservation Team, working with three current team members, two of whom have extensive experience of the work involved. The SOS has established a unique niche in conservation matters in Sussex, using our database of over seven million records of birds in Sussex, plus the knowledge of the Society’s 2000 members, to work to ensure that development does not occur in the parts of Sussex that are still particularly good for birds.

Working with partners such as Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT), RSPB, Sussex – Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and the Woodland Trust (a grouping known as the Sussex Planning for Nature Group) we are able to exercise considerable clout on planning issues without having to be qualified planners ourselves.

Our work is twofold:

1. Responding to planning matters and particularly commenting on District Authority’s Local Plans which lay out how many new homes they plan to develop and on where they plan to build them. And also commenting on other planning matters such as Rampion 2, the A27 Arundel Bypass and the (now withdrawn) Center Parcs holiday village proposal in Worth. All the time we use the Society’s bird records and the knowledge of our local members to provide the evidence to inform our responses.
2. Proactively seeking to get protection for sites that don’t already enjoy some conservation protection and to get improvements to sites that are already good for birds so that they become better for birds. This has included assembling the evidence to get Goring Gap designated as a Local Wildlife Site (LWS) because of its importance for birds and getting extensions made to the boundary of Littlehampton Golf Course LWS because of the site’s importance for bird.

You should be a confident communicator, able to work with the detail of planning applications. You don’t need to be a planner or an expert birder, but you will have a reasonable knowledge of Sussex and its birds. You should also be computer literate and will also need to become familiar with how to use the SOS’s bird records – this not difficult and training will be given. Work is shared among team members and prioritised, with the SOS Scientific Committee providing back-up, so the workload will always be manageable.

If this sounds like an exciting opportunity to help protect Sussex’s birds and habitats, then please contact me on 07736 788 077 or at mallalieum@gmail.com.

Mark Mallalieu
Chair, SOS Scientific Committee

SOS is thrilled by the news that Center Parcs have done the right thing in realising that Oldhouse Warren, a fantastic ancient woodland in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is the wrong place for their next development. They have “analysed all the detail from surveys they have undertaken and concluded that the site at Oldhouse Warren is not a suitable location for a Center Parcs village”.

We have worked hard with the Woodland Trust, CPRE Sussex, Sussex Wildlife Trust, RSPB and local residents group Protect Oldhouse Warren to campaign against this development and convince Center Parcs of the damage that a development of this scale would do to wildlife and people. Oldhouse Warren is irreplaceable and a very special part of the High Weald AONB. Development here would make a mockery of planning law, the Government’s commitments to address climate change and the biodiversity crisis. We knew it was the wrong location from the start and would like to thank all of our members and supporters who contacted Center Parcs and campaigned against this proposal.

Working together, we have saved a very special part of Sussex. Thankyou.

Richard Cowser (SOS Conservation Officer)

This is the time of the year to sign up to take part in the BTO Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) for this coming breeding season. Some squares have recently become available and there are plenty of squares available right across the county; some of these squares are accessible if you have limited mobility or if you are reliant on or choose to use public transport.

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 200 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 by sight and sound, and must be able to physically get around a survey route reasonably early in the morning, but beyond those requirements absolutely anybody is welcomed into this survey scheme. Previous experience of survey work is not necessary and help and support from experienced volunteers can be arranged if required; there are also some informal practice sessions arranged in Sussex in March and April this year. Finally there is no requirement to conduct surveys alone – take a friend with you!

The following BBS squares may be accessible to you if you have limited mobility (including using a wheelchair) as the survey routes are entirely on pavements and minor roads:

SU8605 central Chichester
SZ7996 East Wittering
TQ2638 Langley Green
TQ2836 central Crawley
TQ4612 near Ringmer
TQ5130 central Crowborough
TQ5639 Tunbridge Wells
TQ5901 Willingdon

The following BBS squares may be accessible by train as they are close to rail stations (other squares may be easily accessible by bus):

SU8605 central Chichester
TQ2836 central Crawley
TQ4821 Uckfield
TQ5130 central Crowborough
TQ5738 Tunbridge Wells
TQ5901 Willingdon

The full list of BBS squares (asterisks indicate priority squares that have been surveyed before) in Sussex which currently need volunteers for the 2023 breeding season (updated 13/4/2023) is as follows:

SU7800 near West Itchenor
SU7808 near Woodmancote*
SU8102 near Bosham Hoe*
SU8307 near West Stoke*
SU8527 near Milland*
SU8605 central Chichester*
SU8612 West Dean
SU8624 Tote Hill near Midhurst
SU9207 near Boxgrove*
SU9729 near Northchapel*
SZ7996 East Wittering*
SZ8199 near Birdham
SZ8696 Pagham Harbour*
SZ8698 Sidlesham*
TQ0124 near Kirdford*
TQ0502 Rustington*
TQ1337 Okewood Hill (Surrey)*
TQ2022 Cowfold*
TQ2122 Cowfold*
TQ2536 Gossops Green
TQ2638 Langley Green*
TQ2828 Staplefield*
TQ2836 central Crawley
TQ4612 near Ringmer*
TQ4821 Uckfield*
TQ4938 near Blackham*
TQ5026 High Hurstwood
TQ5128 near Crowborough*
TQ5130 central Crowborough
TQ5220 Blackboys*
TQ5228 near Crowborough*
TQ5435 near Eridge Station*
TQ5738 Tunbridge Wells*
TQ5829 near Mark Cross*
TQ5901 Willingdon*
TQ6419 Earl’s Down*
TQ7111 near Ninfield*
TQ7811 Hollington*
TQ8518 Udimore*
TV5797 near East Dean*

For further information, please contact Helen Crabtree at hcrabtree@gmail.com. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about the survey or about any of the available squares.

Just a reminder that there will be an Extraordinary General Meeting of the SOS to answer questions about the new Rules that have been circulated with the latest Newsletter and then to vote on whether to approve or reject them. This will be a zoom meeting on 25 January at 19:30 and joining instructions are included with the Newsletter.

If you are not planning to join this zoom meeting can I ask you to complete the voting form on the back of the booklet about the new Rules and either post it back to me or scan it and email it to me at conservation@sos.org.uk. We really hope to see as many of you as possible at the Zoom EGM, but failing that to receive as many voting forms as possible.

Thankyou
Richard Cowser (SOS Conservation Officer and SOS Council member)

We are looking for someone to take a leading role in the SOS Conservation Team. Find out more here.

Still plenty of spaces left!

No doubt members are being a little cautious still, but if you are planning to come and have mislaid the details and booking form which came with the autumn newsletter, then please contact me on chetsford@talk21.com or 01273 494723

The four speakers are:

Henri Brocklebank:  Director of Conservation Policy and Evidence at the Sussex Wildlife Trust (Conservation successes of SOS & SWT over the past 60 years)

Peter Hughes: Ecologist at Chichester Harbour Conservancy (conservation work in the Harbour to help the  breeding terns )

Greg Conway:  Senior Research Ecologist at the BTO (Nightjar migration and tracking studies)

Ryan Burrell: Game & Wildlife Conservancy Trust (status and conservation of waders on the South Downs, with a focus on the Norfolk estate)