Recording

 

County Records Committee

Work-In-Progress Reports
The reports below detail the current status of reports of rare & scarce species during the year.
Updated January 2024
2024 Work-in-Progress
2023 Work-in-Progress
2022 Work-in-Progress
2021 Work-in-Progress
2020 Work-in-Progress
2019 Work-in-Progress
2018 Work-in-Progress
2017 Work-in-Progress

County List
Updated February 2023 for use from 1 Jan 2023
PDF Version
Excel Version
Word Version

Guide to Submitting Records
updated February 2023
» Click Here

All members and other observers are encouraged to submit their own observations for inclusion in the club bulletins and also our annual bird report Birds In Northumbria. A look through these publications will give a good indication of the type of records sought. Breeding data is particularly important but also counts and details of flocks & gatherings, passage movements, arrivals and departures of  migrants, rare and scarce species, etc. are all welcomed.

Guide to Record Submission

The club has produced a short guide to assist members with submission of their sightings. Download our Guide to Record Submission » here (includes full list of rare and scarce species requiring descriptions and/or notes).

Northumberland Locality and Tetrad List

Anyone submitting monthly or annual records is encouraged to use the standardized site names and grid references on the Northumberland Locality and Tetrad List, which can be downloaded » here. Accurate place names and references can be of great importance in the historical context, and also when the club is asked for information regarding planning and development applications. The committee are grateful to Mike Hodgson, John Day and Andy Mould for recent work in bringing the Northumberland Locality List up to date as at September 2019.

The preferred method of submitting your records is electronically via a monthly spreadsheet. This is available along with instructions for completion, by email request at
NTBC.records@gmail.com

County Records Committee

Records of rare and scarce species within the club’s recording area require more details than can be given on either of these formats. These records are assessed by our County Records Committee (CRC). The CRC meets regularly and assesses records of rare and scarce species seen in the county which have been supported by written descriptions (together with any photographs and sound recordings available). They also review all other bird records for inclusion in the annual bird report Birds in Northumbria, maintain the entries in the County Bird List and occasionally discuss taxonomic and nomenclature decisions made at national level by the BOURC.  Members of the CRC (with the exception of the chairman) serve for a period of four years and retire by strict rotation. The CRC also produces progress reports showing the current status of all rare and scarce reports, these work-in-progress reports can be accessed from the sidebar to the right on this page.
The CRC adheres to an agreed set of » Policy & Procedures in an attempt to give some uniformity and fairness to record assessment for all observers sightings. Membership of the current CRC is as follows:

Tim Dean – Chairman & County Recorder
Jonathan Farooqi
Ben Steel
Jack Bucknall
Alan Tilmouth

You can download our submission form for Rare & Scarce species » here. The club has produced some brief notes in an attempt to assist observers in understanding what may be required  for descriptions of Rare and Scarce species recorded in our area and these can also be downloaded » here.

Rare Birds in Northumbria

Keith Naylor has kindly put together a database of all the Northumberland sightings of nationally rare species. It also incorporates species that have now been removed from the British Birds species list but are still county rarities. All records are kept constantly up to date . He has been working in conjunction with the British Birds Rarities Committee for many years as their historical statistician. The website he has created makes it easy to locate all accepted records of any species and will I am sure be very useful for all Northumberland birders.
To visit the website click here: » RareBirdsNorthumbria