In 2012 SOS carried out a Wood Warbler survey across Sussex, with a view to trying to find out how many of these increasingly scarce summer visitors were breeding in Sussex. We had records from the far NW of the county (Stanley Common and Blackdown), Ashdown Forest and Buchan Park during May but at the start of June the rains fell and after that we had no more reported records of Wood Warbler from anywhere (albeit we have yet to see whether the 2012 BirdTrack and Record Capture records, which are still being collated, have any additional records to those we collected during 2012).

Because of the 2012 wash out we want to repeat the survey again in 2013.

So:-

1. If you find a Wood Warbler anywhere in Sussex please e-mail your sighting to me, Clare Buckle, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it We are interested in all Wood Warblers – whether they are one-day visitors migrating through the county or more permanent summer visitors which appear to be staying a while.
2. Stanley, Linchmere and Marley Commons (SU8830 and SU 8831) plus Blackdown (SU9230) are areas in the far NW of the county which tend to be under-recorded, so we are looking for volunteers prepared to visit these areas to look for Wood Warblers. Could you e-mail me if you are able to visit any of these locations.
3. If you are on these north-west commons or at Blackdown and hear no Wood Warblers could you let me know when you visited the area and that you had a zero count. This at least will let us know that the area has been visited, but none were seen or heard.

Your help is really appreciated.
Clare Buckle
(Surveys & Projects Officer)

A national survey of breeding woodcock begins this week, organised by the BTO and funded by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and new volunteers can still take part. The survey involves counts from fixed points of territorial roding flights, with the aim of determining the extent of recent changes to the breeding population size and distribution and how these changes are related to woodland habitat characteristics.

A total of four visits to each site will be required. One daytime or evening visit will be required to establish the best place to locate the count point. Three visits should then be made at dusk to the count point between 1st May and 30th June, with at least one week between visits. If no woodcocks are recorded on both of the first two dusk visits, there is no need to make a third visit. Counts should commence 15 minutes before sunset and finish 60 minutes after sunset, giving a total survey duration of 75 minutes. Times of individual woodcock passes (whether detected by sight or sound) will be recorded, and some basic information on habitat and deer presence will also be collected between mid-May and mid-June.

There are some randomly-selected sites needing volunteers, listed below. Alternatively, volunteers can select their own sites where woodcocks are known to breed. The randomly-selected sites in Sussex currently needing volunteers are:

SU9111 Open Winkins
SU9115 Eastdean Wood
SU9427 near Lurgashall
TQ2325 Freechase
TQ2731 Highbeeches Forest
TQ5526 near Butcher's Cross
TQ5736 Hargate Forest
TQ6721 Rounden Wood
TQ7123 near Robertsbridge
TQ7227 Burgh Wood
TQ8121 near Chitcombe

To volunteer to help with this survey, either register at http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/woodcock-survey or contact Helen Crabtree at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or on 01444 441687.

The South Downs National Park contains areas of rare lowland heath which are valued by many for their beauty, biodiversity and the opportunities they offer for walking, riding and cycling.

Later this year the National Park Authority will be submitting a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, on behalf of the South Downs Heathland Partnership, for a substantial grant to support a Wooded Heaths Project. This project will aim to achieve ‘bigger, better, more and joined up heathland’ within the South Downs National Park.

The National Park Authority has launched an online survey to provide support and to help inform this project bid: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/woodedheaths

The survey is aimed mainly at people who live near or visit the heathland areas of the National Park, and aims to gather information on which heathland sites people visit and why, and what they would like to see included in a new partnership project.

The survey will also will help in planning two heathland drop-in days to be held in Liphook and Petworth during May and June respectively (further details of which will be posted on the South Downs Forum http://southdownsforum.ning.com/ soon).

Please use this survey to let the National Park Authority know how you currently use the South Downs heathlands and what you think is important for their future management. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete and will remain open until midday on Monday 13 May.

Many thanks

Jonathan Mycock
Heathland Project Manager, SDNPA

The BTO nightingale survey which ran in 2012 is continuing into 2013, with the aim of filling some gaps that were not surveyed in 2012.

The main aim of this BTO survey is to map all singing males and compare their numbers and distribution with results from the previous national survey in 1999. In 2013, early-morning tetrad visits to some tetrads will be required (these can start up to an hour before sunrise) during the period 21 April to 14 May, but no nocturnal visits will be required. These surveys will allow estimations of the distribution and population of territorial nightingales.

All volunteers will be welcome, and do not need to be BTO members, but need to be confident in recognising nightingale song and able to plot the locations of singing birds on to a supplied map and provide simple habitat information. The most important tetrads for which volunteers are still needed in 2013 are:

TQ12P Christs Hospital
TQ41P near Isfield
TQ50S Polegate
TQ61Z Darwell Hole
TQ62W Glydwish Wood
TQ71Q Marline Wood
TQ72A Darwell Reservoir
TQ72H Salehurst
TQ72J near Hurst Green
TQ72K Vinehall Street
TQ82V near Peasmarsh

You can use the "print a map of a tetrad" option at http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/birdatlas/taking-part/atlas-tools to get maps of these tetrads and find out where they are. Please consider whether you could survey one of these tetrads during the period 21 April to 14 May. For further information and to obtain instructions please contact Helen Crabtree at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or on 01444 441687.