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At the AGM on Saturday evening (26.04) the following changes in Council were made: Secretary: Nigel Bowie was elected as the Society’s new Secretary. He has just taken early retirement after working for the Foreign Office for nearly 33 years, two thirds of which was overseas - some of it in particularly good bird watching places like South Korea, Greece and Nigeria. He has had a house in Brighton since 1986 and has been a member of the SOS for over 10 years. He believes that county societies have a crucial role in recording and assembling bird data, to inform development decisions by public and private sector, in protecting bird habitat and in contributing to environmental debate. Treasurer: Nick Paul stood down as Acting Treasurer and Geoff Wenden was elected as the Society’s new Treasurer. Geoff previously held this office between 2002 and last year’s AGM, during which time he computerised the Society’s Accounts and became expert on the particular requirements of preparing accounts for a charity. Surveys & Projects Officer: Dr Tony Cocks stepped down under the 5-year rule and Richard Cowser was elected to succeed him. Richard has spent the last 5-years as the Society’s Secretary, and is also helping to co-ordinate Sussex activities on the national Bird Atlas, as well as being the 10-km steward for TQ00 (Arundel and Littlehampton). Member of Council: Adrian Thomas (who has organised the last five very successful Annual Conferences) stepped down under the 5-year rule and Harriet Dennison was elected to succeed him. Like Adrian, Harriet works for the RSPB - as a conservation officer in the Brighton office. She has been particularly involved with building up data on Lapwing on the South Downs and wintering wetland birds at Pevensey Levels. More recently she has been involved in a joint RSPB/SOS project focused on helping the recovery of breeding Tree Sparrows and on improving winter provisioning for Corn Bunting on the Downs above Brighton. After the formal business of the AGM Phil Everitt gave an extremely interesting talk about a wild female Peregrine Falcon which bred in Sussex with a hybrid, male falcon that was an escaped falconry bird. The hybrid was registered as a Gyr/Saker x Peregrine but showed Prairie Falcon traits too and Phil described how falconers breed such hybrids to maximise their hunting capabilities. This pairing created 3 young, and also potentially threatened the integrity of the native wild Peregrine Falcon gene pool. Phil explained the dilemma and the action taken to remove the male. Mother nature took a hand too, with the nest being buried after a cliff fall, which killed the female and young. He concluded by asking birders to be aware that hybrids are being bred in captivity, which do occasionally escape, and he asked that anyone spotting a Peregrine which appears slightly unusual should report it immediately to the BTO, Natural England or the Sussex Peregrine Study (
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This was a fascinating talk that generated lots of questions. We are all the more grateful to Phil who had stepped in at the last moment after the advertised talk by Arundel WWT unavoidably had to be cancelled.
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