The Pevensey Levels breeding bird monitoring scheme is an SOS project which aims to increase the regular recording of birds across the Pevensey Levels during the breeding season and to enable the reporting of results to farmers and land managers. This increase in regular recording will be achieved through the allocation of 1×1-km squares to volunteers so that the recording is targeted in well-defined areas and to maximize coverage and reduce duplication of effort. The project will also incorporate data already being collected from three BTO Breeding Bird Survey squares on the Pevensey Levels.

The squares selected to be surveyed are those that have a reasonable level of access using public rights of way or those that have been requested by farmers or landowners to be included in the project with access permission granted to specific volunteers. There is no attempt to survey a random sample of sites because of the relatively small area of the Pevensey Levels and the simple aim of increasing regular recording rather than calculating population trends.

Volunteers should aim to visit each allocated square twice during each breeding season. The early visit should be made between early April and mid-May, and the late visit between mid-May and the end of June. On each visit volunteers should walk a transect route in the square which covers as much of the square as possible and which takes around 1 -1.5 hours at a slow methodical pace.

The squares selected to be surveyed are as follows (updated 5/4/2024):

TQ6108 White Dyke Farm ALLOCATED
TQ6109 Whelpley Sewer
TQ6110 Gildridge Farm ALLOCATED
TQ6206 Bridge Farm ALLOCATED
TQ6207 Rickney Farm
TQ6208 Horse Eye
TQ6209 New Bridge (BBS square) ALLOCATED
TQ6210 Sackville Farm ALLOCATED
TQ6306 Chilley Farm ALLOCATED
TQ6308 Hurst Haven
TQ6309 Hurst Haven North ALLOCATED
TQ6310 Cherry Croft Farm ALLOCATED
TQ6407 Pylons Farm
TQ6608 Horse Bridge (BBS square) ALLOCATED
TQ6609 Waterhouse Farm
TQ6710 Hogtrough Bridge
TQ6806 Hooe Level ALLOCATED
TQ6807 Old Road Farm (BBS square) ALLOCATED
TQ6808 Court Lodge ALLOCATED
TQ6906 Crooked Ditch
TQ6908 near Hooe village ALLOCATED

If you are interested in taking on one of the unallocated squares listed above please contact Helen Crabtree at hcrabtree@gmail.com for further information and instructions. If you live nearby and know landowners such that you are able to access a square on the Pevensey Levels that is not listed above then please also contact Helen and this square can be added to the scheme. Please contact Helen with any questions or comments about this project.

There is still time 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. Finally there is no requirement to conduct surveys alone – take a friend with you!

The full list of BBS squares (asterisks indicate priority squares that have been surveyed before) in Sussex which currently need volunteers for the 2024 breeding season (updated 8/4/2024) is as follows:

SU7907 near Funtington*
SU8527 near Milland*
SU8615 Westdean Woods*
SU8718 near Cocking*
SU9113 near East Dean*
SU9729 near Northchapel*
SU9923 near Petworth*
SZ7996 East Wittering*
SZ8199 near Birdham
TQ0124 near Kirdford*
TQ0322 near Codmore Hill*
TQ0826 Billingshurst
TQ1337 Okewood Hill (Surrey)*
TQ2536 Gossops Green
TQ2638 Langley Green*
TQ2836 central Crawley
TQ4716 near Isfield*
TQ4821 Uckfield*
TQ4938 near Blackham*
TQ5026 High Hurstwood
TQ5128 near Crowborough*
TQ5211 near Golden Cross*
TQ5220 Blackboys*
TQ5228 near Crowborough*
TQ5435 near Eridge Station*
TQ5639 Tunbridge Wells*
TQ6817 near Penhurst
TQ7624 near Bodiam
TQ7811 Hollington*
TQ8518 near Udimore*

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:

SZ7996 East Wittering
TQ2638 Langley Green
TQ2836 central Crawley
TQ5639 Tunbridge Wells

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

TQ2836 central Crawley
TQ4821 Uckfield
TQ5435 near Eridge Station

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.

In recent years, the Sussex Ornithological Society has worked hard to protect good places for birds from being damaged or built on, and to make district plans more sensitive to wildlife. Often acting in partnership with the Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT), RSPB and other conservation charities, we’ve had some successes in preventing harm to wildlife habitats. The flip side of this coin would be to partner with some of the many exciting local projects underway to enhance the wildlife habitats in the Sussex countryside. And that is exactly what we now want to do – through you, our members.

You might be surprised by how many of these projects there are, ranging from those covering just a few acres to several thousand. There are many underway through the Wilder Horsham District initiative alone through a partnership between the District Council and SWT. Some members have been helping landowners with bird and other wildlife surveys across the county for a long time and you may have read about bird survey work with farmers between the Arun and Adur and on Pevensey Levels.

Would you like to participate in an expansion of this effort? If so, please let us know. Here are some immediate options:

1. The SWT is looking for volunteers who can help with bird surveys and training others to do bird surveys, in the Horsham District and on some SWT reserves including Rye Harbour.
2. Natural England is looking for help with bird surveys at Kingley Vale.
3. The Arun to Adur Farmers Group would welcome help with bird surveys.
4. We have a request to help survey the birds on a farm near Hartfield.

Wherever you live, do let us know if you are interested in getting involved and we’ll try to connect you with a local project. We’ve called this the Neighbourhood Survey Initiative to encourage a low carbon footprint, though you may of course have low carbon options for travelling longer distances.

We hope that you will prioritise national surveys through the BTO and others, and the SOS species surveys (Corn Bunting in 2024) as well as our winter survey, but if you have space for this additional local effort that would be much appreciated and hopefully very rewarding. Importantly, it may also give SOS access to some private sites that would otherwise have few bird records.

If you are interested, including in the requests mentioned above, or would like to know more, please contact me at in the first instance at Adam@red-inc.com. This year, 2024, is very much a trial year, and we want to learn as much as we can about how to make the initiative a success.

If you’ve already been active in this kind of work using your personal contacts with landowners and land managers, do please let us know, so that the Society can build up a picture of the number and range of activities that members have been engaged in.

Thank you.

Adam Huttly

SOS Neighbourhood Survey Initiative

20 March 2024

SOS member and Member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, Robert Greenhalf, has produced many fine illustrations over the years for the Sussex Bird Report. You will see from your spring newsletter that he has very kindly donated three lovely original watercolour paintings as featured in the 2022 Report, and now is your chance to own one. They are:

Curlews & Lapwing (p5, 15 x 21cm)

Avocets & Wigeon (p18, 15 x 21 cm)

Redshanks (p292, 12 x 18cm).

They are on artist’s paper/card (unmounted), and we invite bids (suggested minimum £40 each) for these.

Email Val Bentley on chetsford@talk21.com or ring 01273 494723 before 6th April with your offers!

Corn Bunting © Pete Hughes

SOS are appealing for volunteers to get involved in this year’s Corn Bunting survey.

There are over 100 2km squares (tetrads) to choose from and the survey website is here: https://sussexcornbunting.birdsurvey.org.uk/

If anyone wants to learn (or be reminded of!) the Corn Bunting song or get familiar with what they look like, a currently very good and accessible site is just west of Chantry Post car park or just east of Kithurst Hill car park, at TQ 08095 12224 (what3words: screamed.recover.imprinted) where there is still a wintering flock of at least 50 Corn Buntings and several birds singing regularly right alongside the public right of way.

I would also ask anyone who encounters Corn Buntings in Sussex over the next few months to record them onto Birdtrack with a precise location so we can build an accurate picture of their distribution and numbers.

Peter Hughes.

Enthusiastic young birder, SOS Council member and social media inflencer Mya Bambrick challenged herself to do 21 walks for wildlife before her 21st birthday and raise £2,100 for the British Trust for Ornithology.

This is a recording of a webinar Mya presented for Sussex Ornithological Society in February 2024. Mya covers the highlights of the 21 walks that cover some of the best places for wildlife in the UK. She talks about her other work with various organisations and how she got involved in birding after being enthused from a very young age.

There’s a great question and answer session following the presentation, chaired by Jack Thompson, SOS member and RSPB Conservation Officer.

21 Walks for Wildlife

Following extensive consultation, including with the RSPB Crime Monitoring Unit, the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, neighbouring ornithological societies and our membership, the Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) decided in 2022 that the time had come to be more open about some of the sites in the county where there is a chance of seeing Honey-buzzards and Goshawks in areas where they may breed.

For Goshawk, the decision was reasonably straightforward as the species is now doing well in Sussex, with 50-60 pairs breeding annually and the population probably still increasing. Honey-buzzards are much less numerous, but Sussex has perhaps the largest population of any county in the UK, with 20 pairs found in 2023. Three viewpoints for the species have been made public in counties with many fewer pairs and an assessment of risk concluded that some sites and viewpoints in Sussex could also be made public, subject to meeting certain criteria.

The just published ‘Where to Watch birds in Surrey and Sussex’ by Matt Phelps and Ed Stubbs includes a number of sites and viewpoints for both species in Sussex. Those for Honey-buzzard in particular do not provide guaranteed sightings, in part because of the species’ often cryptic behaviour, but also because sites are not necessarily occupied every year. The sites chosen are a mix of more reliable ones and those for which more records are needed: something that the SOS hopes that the new book will encourage.

The SOS has asked the Bird News Services only to publish inland sightings of Honey-buzzards where these are from the sites and viewpoints mentioned in the book.

Mark Mallalieu
Chair, Scientific Committee, Sussex Ornithological Society
16 February 2024

Some informal practice sessions are planned this year in Sussex for the BTO/RSPB/JNCC Breeding Bird Survey and anybody who is considering taking part in the BBS is welcome to come along to one of the sessions. Anybody of any age is welcome and young people are especially welcome although under-18s must be accompanied by an adult. The planned dates are:

1. Saturday 9th March at the Knepp Estate (Dave Boddington);
2. Saturday 16th March at Pulborough Brooks RSPB (Helen Crabtree);
3. Friday 22nd March in Burgess Hill (Helen Crabtree);
4. Sunday 24th March at Lewes Railway Land (Nevil Hutchinson);
5. Wednesday 27th March in Arundel town (Helen Crabtree);
6. Saturday 6th April at Sedlescombe village (East Sussex) (Christine George).

The aims of these morning outdoor sessions will be (1) to give confidence to new and nearly-new BBS volunteers, (2) to sort out any problems that volunteers may have with the BBS and to provide a chance for volunteers to ask questions about the survey, and (3) to give everybody involved a chance to meet and socialise with other BBS volunteers. Anybody attending who does not currently take part in the BBS should be able to find out what is involved and then hopefully sign up for a square.

Please contact Helen Crabtree at hcrabtree@gmail.com if you would like to attend one of these training sessions/social meet-ups, and you will be sent further details nearer the time.

All teams have now submitted their lists and congratulations are due to the Hot Shot Harriers (Matt Eade & Tim Squire) on finding 115 species on 1st January.  Not quite a record – that still stands with The Splash Pointers’ 123 back in 2018 – Matt was part of that team too!

In 2nd place were The Dynamic Duo (Elliot Chandler & John Thorogood) with 96 and Mike’s Mergansers (Mike Russell, Lesley Milward, Mike English & Charles Waters) were 3rd with 91.  Joint 4th with 90 were The Martlets and Whelpley Waders.

Many thanks to all teams who took part – the highest ever number of teams and participants.

There will be a more detailed report in the Spring newsletter.