The RSPB’s South Downs Farmland Bird Monitoring project is not being continued next year, but the SOS has agreed to try to find volunteer surveyors if the farmers involved would like to see surveys continue in order to maintain an understanding of how farming practices are affecting their breeding birds. This is an excellent opportunity […]

The BTO English Winter Bird Survey (EWBS) this winter will involve survey visits to randomly-selected squares that are dominated by farmland, and will assess bird populations using farmland and will also monitor the availability of food resources throughout the winter, providing national-scale monitoring of the effects of agri-environment scheme management on birds in winter (see […]

Now is a good time of the year to consider taking part in the BTO Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), because if you take on a BBS square you will also have the option to take part in the Sussex Winter Bird Survey (SWBS) by surveying the same square over the coming winter. The BBS is […]

Last month (around 22nd/23rd) we had a problem with the site which caused a “site unsafe” message to be displayed in visitors’ browsers. It was fixed within about 36 hours but some people experienced the problem for a little longer due to a condition known as “caching” in which an old (and in this case, […]

Please note that the grid reference given in the newsletter is incorrect.  The meeting place is the northern car park at Lord’s Piece which is SU990173.

As part of the effort to protect Brighton’s vulnerable Swift population, the RSPB is looking for someone in the Brighton & Hove area to monitor planning applications which could offer opportunities to incorporate nesting spaces for Swifts and other at-risk urban species and encourage the local authority to press for inclusion of such measures in […]

We are urgently looking for a couple of surveyors to carry out turtle dove surveys in Sussex. The 1km squares we still need to cover are: TQ1717, TQ1719 and TQ1921 (Adur Valley, north-west of Henfield) Survey details: Surveyors need to undertake two surveys during the breeding season (early May – late July), with a minimum […]

Hawfinches: request for information I plan to write a short paper on the Hawfinch influx into Sussex during 2017/18 and would welcome any information, not yet in BirdTrack or published on popular social media sites, on the following: Large counts. Evidence of birds on active migration. Food other than hornbeam and yew seeds. Roosting behaviour […]

Thought members and others might be interested in the following: On the 7 May BBC from 00.30 to 03.30 Radio 3 will be broadcasting a Slow Radio experience – the sounds of Nightingales recorded in a Sussex wood this April. Four musicians spent the night in the woods responding musically to the sounds of nightingales […]

…well not exactly again as it never happened last week, contrary to my previous post. There are still one or two issues I’d like to resolve before we do switch over to its new location but the actual timing of the change may be out of my control. So, as before, please be patient if […]