Election Announcement

Published on 09 December 2000

Following the request for nominations for BBRC membership published in the September issue of British Birds (93: 433), BBRC are pleased to announce that there will be an election for the new member for 2001.

The two nominees are Steve Votier and Brian Small, both birders of the highest calibre with a sound working knowledge of East Anglia. Both are enthusiastic supporters of BBRC, provide descriptions of the highest quality when submitting records and are widely acknowledged to be at the forefront of modern birding.

Brian is in his mid-thirties and was nominated and seconded by the Suffolk Records Committee. He originated in Hampshire, moved to Suffolk in 1988 finding Baird’s Sandpiper and Greenish Warbler within a few weeks of moving to the county and has served on their committee from 1990-99. He has an excellent track record for finding and identifying rarities both in his own county and elsewhere. He found the Pallid Swift at Southwold, was involved in the identification of the Languard Blyth’s Pipit and is currently pushing back the frontiers of Caspian Gull identification at Southwold. He has published extensively on identification issues in British & foreign journals. He is a superb illustrator with a string of books and articles to his credit. He is co-founder of www.surfbirds.com and has travelled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, East Africa and North America.

Steve is the BBRC nominee. Despite only being in his mid-twenties, Steve has worked as an assistant warden on Fair Isle, Eilat and Long Point Canada and spent an autumn watching migrants on Happy Island, China. He lived and birded in Norfolk for years were he helped set up Sheringham Ringing Station but know lives in Glasgow and works in Shetland. He has extensive identification knowledge of birds in the field and in the hand, has written numerous identification articles and has travelled extensively in America and the Middle and Far East. He must be one of the few birders to find three Blyth’s Reed Warbler in Britain and has also such difficult birds as Citrine Wagtail, Paddyfield and Lanceolated Warblers and Pechora Pipit to his credit.

County records and bird observatory committees vote in the election that will take place in early January and we will announce the results in early February.