Sussex Ornithological Society Conference

The SOS Annual Conference was held yesterday in Haywards Heath and Clair Hall was packed with enthusiastic birders to hear talks by Neil Gartshore on Poole Harbour, Colin Shawyer on Barn Owl conservation, Dr. Stephen Baillie on BirdTrack and Nigel Redman on African birds.  Many of us were there to pick up our copy of The Birds of Sussex which has just been published.  It quite exceeded my expectations. It is enormous, beautifully produced, full of wonderful photographs, detailed accounts of every species on the Sussex list, distribution maps and information about habitats.  It is an essential read for everyone interested in Sussex wildlife and is going to be useful source of reference for years to come.
Colin Shawyer is the leading light of Barn Owl conservation in the UK and gave us a fascinating update.  The number of breeding pairs has risen from a low nationwide of 3,800 to a present level of around 9,000.  The main reason for this recovery has been the increase in the use of artificial nest boxes; apparently 75% of pairs use them.  Much of the decline was due to loss of nesting sites through the change in use of agricultural buildings, but 30% of owls used old Elm trees as nest sites and these all disappeared long ago.  The other factor has been the loss of tussocky grass habitat and through his efforts, some has been reinstated.  Barn Owl numbers fluctuate with the Short-tailed field vole population.  I expect they will be down locally with the flooding that we have had.  I have hardly seen one this winter.
Dr Stephen Baillie is Director of Science at the British Trust for Ornithology and described changes to BirdTrack, including collaboration with other countries.  Work is underway with eBird in the US and other initiatives are planned.  It explained much about the use of BirdTrack data and impressed upon us the need to submit complete lists (which I usually do), not just the special birds, or earliest sightings.
In the lunch break I nipped out for a walk around the park and saw eight Siskins in an Alder tree.  I will be entering them on BirdTrack as a 'Roving Record' after I have finished this.