British Birds Rarities Committee

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Work-in-Progress

Here is an Excel spreadsheet of all sightings that are currently being assessed by BBRC. Once a record is published in British Birds Annual Report, which comes out in the October edition, it is no longer held on the WIP file.
The WIP file ‘cycle’ starts around mid-September with all the last year sightings that have been submitted, and any earlier ones that have not been completed, BUT EXCLUDING all those which are about to be published in the Annual Report.
For example in Sept 2009 the WIP file will exclude all completed 2008 sightings as they are about to be published, but include all submitted 2009 records, and any earlier ones that are still in circulation.
It is then normally updated every 2 months going through to May the next year. There is then a hiatus whilst the next Annual Report is prepared, and the cycle then continues with a new WIP file in September.

[Work in Progress ] Updated 10-Jun-10

This is NOT an official compilation and may have some omissions and errors but is provided so that you can check on the progress of recent sightings. If you see an error or saw a BBRC species that is not in this spreadsheet then please let me know. The colours on the dates signify: cyan-a bird that over-winters, pink-a sighting for the year AFTER the next published Annual Report.

Missing Records: The following file contains sightings we know about that have been reported in 2009 but for which we have not yet received a submission. Some of them have had good photographs published and if no submission comes in from the finder or observers then we will assess the record on what is available in the public domain. If the record is accepted then it will be published in the British Birds annual report for 2009 as ‘per birding information services’

If you were the finder or have information about any of these records, including those for which no photographs have been published, then please send in a BBRC form. Click on Submissions on the left, then Rarity Form (Doc Format)

[empty] currently there are no Missing Records for the WIP file above

For both the “Work-in-Progress” file & the “Missing Records” file the following applies:-

Column A –Ref.No.

A unique 4-digit code which must always be used if you have any queries on a record.

If the Ref.No. includes a decimal point such as #0123.1 then it is considered the same bird as #0123.0 (and #0123.2 etc) This is used especially for birds that cross county boundaries or are returnees from earlier in the year, or previous years.

Column B-Progress

OK = accepted

OK-Cat D, Cat E & ex BBRC = accepted but as either Cat D, E or ex-BBRC (surprise ! )

OK-same = accepted but is either a returning bird or has been seen earlier in another county

NP = not proven

IC = in circulation

IC-same = independently In Circulation but presumed to be the same as another sighting

Await more info = awaiting further information on the sighting, such as other observers’ submissions.

Held = the species is being held, usually when work is being done on new identification criteria, or the taxonomy may be in flux

At BOURC = record assessment of a potential First forBritain now completed by BBRC and forwarded to BOURC. NOTE: This procedure of forwarding to BOURC is done whatever the outcome of BBRC’s voting i.e. both Accepted records AND those found Not Proven are sent to BOURC. < /P > < /FONT > Column I-Age/Sex

This is often updated during the assessment and should not be "taken as gospel"

Column J-Observer

For those given as ‘per birding information services’ we know of the sighting through photographs published on the internet, through the County Recorder or from articles in birding journals. However no written submission has been received, so no acknowledgement of finder or observers can be given.

NB: Observers are in alphabetical order and do not imply Finder/Submitter/Identifier etc.

How to use:

You can easily filter the records to see just a sub-set. For example to look for a particular species go to the top row, column F ‘Name’ and click on the down arrow. Select the species you require and only those will be shown. Further filtering can then take place. For example, to now look for a particular county where that species occurred go to column G ‘County’ and click on the down arrow again.

To remove the filter(s) click on the down arrows of the same column(s) and select ‘(All)’.

I know that often some records are missing, including high profile ones, but with no written submission then they cannot be in the database.

If you are involved in the finding of such records, then send in a submission using either the on-line form or a downloadable word document. Get to these using the button on the left Submissions/Submission Forms/Rarity Form (doc format) or Online Submission.

Nigel Hudson, BBRC Secretary, Email secretary@bbrc.org.uk