Current Panel Members

Humphrey’s involvement with rare breeding birds began at the BTO when he became Head of the Nest Records Unit in 1988. Since then he has had a special responsibility for raptor studies, including the organisation of 1991 and 2002 national Peregrine Surveys, supervising the 1994-97 national Barn Owl Survey, and helping in the development of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme.

His current interests include the impact of climate change on bird populations and the factors that affect the demography (survival and productivity) of bird populations. Before going to work at the BTO, he worked on the side-effects of pesticides on breeding birds in Scotland and Africa and studied cooperative breeding in Red-throated Bee-eaters in Nigeria. He started ornithology through bird ringing under the guidance of the late Dr Jeffery Harrison in Sevenoaks.

Mark has worked for the RSPB since 2001, based initially at the Edward Grey Institute, Oxford, studying farmland bird ecology, then at the headquarters in Sandy in the Monitoring & Indicators section of the Conservation Science department. He works on a wide range of projects, including running single species surveys, the production of UK and English wild bird indictors, the red-listing of birds, the development of monitoring schemes abroad (e.g. Bulgaria, Romania, Nepal) and ‘citizen science’ surveys, and is the lead author on the annual The state of the UK’s birds report. In recent years, he has overseen UK surveys of Golden Eagle, Capercaillie, Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Black Grouse, Black & Red-throated Diver and Common Scoter.

Before the RSPB, Mark studied wintering waders on the Northumberland and Durham coasts, and worked on conservation projects in Canada and Mexico. Recent fatherhood now leaves little time for birds outside work, although he can be found birdwatching near his Cambridgeshire home whenever the opportunity presents itself..

Editor, NE Scotland Bird Report and Scottish Bird News. Member, NE Scotland Raptor Study Group (Osprey co-ordinator). Joint co-ordinator of Greenland White-fronted Goose Study and NE Scotland Breeding Bird Atlas (2002-2006). Ringing permit holder, member of Grampian Ringing Group. Chair, NE Scotland Biological Records Centre. Born 1959. Ph.D. in peatland hydrology.

Particular interests within ornithology: Geese, especially Greenland White-fronts, raptors (especially Ospreys), waders, Lapland Buntings, atlasing and biological recording, and African birds. Publications: wide range of publications, e.g. on Greenland White-fronted Geese, Lapland Buntings, Broad-billed Sandpipers, African birds, peatland and land use issues, many articles in local bird reports. Working on forthcoming ‘Breeding Bird Atlas of NE Scotland’.

Former President of Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (2003-2005). Member of Atlas Working Group for the Bird Atlas 2007-11 since 2004. Co-author of The Breeding Birds of South-east Scotland (1998), a local tetrad atlas study. Now part of the organising team for the repeat Atlas of this area, and national Atlas Regional Organiser for Lothian.

Particularly interested in bird distributions and has organised and taken part in many local and national surveys. Has written up a number of such studies, most recently Nuthatches in Lothian and Roof-nesting gulls in Edinburgh. Member of Lothian & Borders Raptor Study Group since 1995, compiling data on the re-colonisation of the Borders by Buzzards. Currently lives in North Berwick, East Lothian. Previously lived in Scottish Borders, Leicester, Nottingham and (originally) North Yorkshire and active in local ornithology in all these areas.

David has lived in Cheshire since 1978. He chairs Merseyside Ringing Group and publishes their acclaimed website, and is leading the breeding and wintering Bird Atlas project for Cheshire and Wirral. His RBBP-related activities include ringing chicks in most of Cheshire’s Peregrine nests since 1993, a long-running study of Wales’ only Little Tern colony, and recording Cheshire’s only Marsh Warbler nest, in 1991. His broad interests in birds are illustrated by his published work, including papers on waders on the Mersey Estuary, Fieldfares, Common Terns, Little Terns, Wood Warblers, Firecrests and Bramblings; and he wrote the BTO Migration Atlas texts on Common Tern, Wood Warbler and Chaffinch. The BTO recognised his amateur work in surveying, nest recording and ringing birds by awarding him its Tucker Medal in 2002.

He has always been an advocate for the conservation value of bird study, and has been active in committee rooms as well as in the field. David was a Council member of English Nature from 1996 to 2002, acting as Chairman for six months, and is now a member of RSPB Council and Chairman of Cheshire Wildlife Trust.

Professionally, David was a physicist and eventually became Director of a national scientific facility before retiring early. He is now an Honorary Research Associate of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, USA, spending up to a month each year at their Powdermill Nature Reserve, and is also associated with the University of Liverpool Veterinary School.

County Recorder and Report Editor, Greater Manchester, since 1992. Editor, NewsACRE (the occasional newsletter of the Association of County Recorders and Editors) since 1996. BTO RR for Manchester Region 1993-2003; BBS Organiser 1994 to date. Born 1944; profession senior librarian (elected F.L.A. 1974) until retirement in 1994 to pursue interests in ornithology.

Particular interests within ornithology: Mute Swans; Lapwings (rooftop roosting and breeding); Black-necked Grebes; Barn Owls (runs a Barn Owl Conservation Group); Hobby. Publications: many local reports on species and sites within Greater Manchester County Report 1992 to date. Articles in British Birds on Lapwings and Black-necked Grebes plus various Notes. Author of the section on Greater Manchester in forthcoming “Where to watch birds in Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire” (in press).

David Stroud is responsible for providing JNCC’s ornithological advice to government, the statutory conservation agencies and others at both UK and international scales. This has involved managing commissioned research and survey programmes with a range of other governmental and non-governmental organisations, including developing new formal partnership agreements, notably the BTO/RSPB/JNCC Breeding Bird Survey, the BTO/WWT/RSPB/JNCC Wetland Bird Survey, and the recent multi-partner Scottish Raptor Monitoring Agreement. In the late 1990s, he provided the Secretariat to the Raptor Working Group, established by Ministers to consider conflicts between raptors and various other interests. The RWG delivered its consensus report – developed after five-years of deliberations – to Ministers in 2000. He has co-ordinated two national reviews of the UK network of Special Protection Areas classified under the EU Birds Directive, the most recent published by JNCC in 2001.

Among David’s personal ornithological interests are the long-term population study of Greenland White-fronted Geese, developing a better understanding of the historical and current distribution and trends of Spotted Crakes in the UK, as well as the assessment of population status and trends of waders in Africa and western Eurasia.