New Member required for BBRC

Published on 14 August 2014

BBRC seeks a new candidate to replace our longest-serving member James Lidster in December 2014.  The prime qualifications of candidates are;

  • a widely acknowledged expertise in identification,
  • proven reliability in the field
  • a track record of high quality submissions of descriptions of scarce and rare birds to county records committees and BBRC
  • considerable experience of record assessment
  • the capacity to handle the considerable volume of work involved in assessing upwards of 700 records per year.
  • the capacity to work quickly and efficiently
  • easy access to and knowledge of IT
  • regional credibility

BBRC’s nominee is Micky Maher. Micky lives in Lynclys, Shropshire on the Welsh border where he is an Ecological Consultant and bird tour guide. Before this he spent twenty years working in conservation, mainly in Shetland and Northumberland.  Micky has birded in most counties in Britain, in particular his home county of Northumberland and in Shetland.  He has an interest in many aspects of birding, but the thrill of migration and finding rare birds is his primary focus. He has a particularly interest in the identification of tricky taxa and documenting records to a high standard.  He has amassed an extremely impressive list of rarity finds including two Pallid Harriers, Greater Yellowlegs, Stilt, Upland, and Terek Sandpiper, Gyrfalcons, Savi’s, Paddyfield, Great Reed, Sykes’s, Booted, Eastern and Western Subalpine, Pallas Grasshopper, two Lanceolated on the same day, Hume’s, three Dusky and multiple Blyths Reed and Arctic Warblers, seven Rose-coloured Starlings, Siberian Stonechat, White’s and Swainson’s Thrush, Citrine Wagtails, many Olive backed Pipits and Arctic Redpolls, three Yellow-breasted (including two together), Pine and Rustic Buntings. He has also been fortunate enough to discover many local rarities as well.  He has travelled abroad extensively.  This has included birding trips throughout Europe (including about 60 trips to Spain), UAE, Jordan, Eastern China, Thailand and several trips to India (where he has spent a year birding over four trips and found Long-billed Dowitcher), Sri Lanka (where he found Pacific Swift), the Maldives and North and South America.  He also lived and worked on protected species in the Seychelles for three months.  He was Shetland’s County Recorder from 2002-2007 and served on the Shetland Birds Records Committee. He was also a contributing author to the recent Birds of Scotland avifauna. He has come into contact with birders from all over the UK through his work and birding pursuits.

Whilst Micky enjoys the support of BBRC, we would welcome any alternate nominees who would be suitable. These should be sent to the Chairman of BBRC ([email protected]) before 30 November 2014, with a proposer and seconder, and the written agreement of the nominee.  After this date, if we have received further nominees, a voting slip and list of candidates with relevant details will be sent to all county recorders and bird observatory wardens for an election, as per section 2.2.4 of our Constitution (see http://www.bbrc.org.uk/constitution).

The successful candidate will replace James, who has been on BBRC since 2005. James has brought a thorough knowledge of bird identification, gained from his extensive travels, alongside consistent good humour during his full-term on the committee.  He authored the article on the tricky Booted Warbler at Green Farm, Isles of Scilly in British Birds (Brit. Birds 102: 617–621) and helped set up our @_BBRC Twitter account.  We are grateful that he has very kindly offered to continue assisting with aspects of our work after his retirement.