Records of sightings for 2023 should be sent to the new Hampshire County Recorder, Martin Pitt.
email: Martin Pitt
phone: 07926 841139
Records for inclusion in the annual Bird Report must be documented, preferably on official forms. To help record submission, there are various documents available on this site.
- HOS Record Forms – The new HOS Record Form, HRF-v4 for Microsoft (PC) users (Excel) is available here. Online submission methods, however, are now the preferred method of recording (see below).
- Instructions for completing the HOS Record Forms for 2023 – doc document or pdf format.
- Guidelines for the submission of records for 2023 are here and can be downloaded in doc document or pdf format.
- Unusual Records Form
- Gazetteer of Sites, which includes grid references. The gazetteer is also available as pdf document for download
- Articles which may help identification
Sightings can also be entered online at goingbirding or the BTO BirdTrack website. Records submitted this way will be downloaded by the Recorder for inclusion in the HOS database. Documentation for unusual records (see above) will still be required. Please see guidance (below) for further details.
Records submitted on goingbirding/Hantsbirds (and on HOSLIST) may be published in the next Kingfisher newsletter. However, publication in Kingfisher does not imply that records have been accepted by the appropriate committees.
More detailed information about how HOS uses bird records can be downloaded here – NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS.
Some of the above documents require the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader, this can be obtained free from the Adobe website.
Records for 2023
Please aim to have all of your 2023 records submitted by End of February 2024. We are now updating our records database quarterly so submissions in April, July, October 2023 would be welcomed.
A lot of you just put your most interesting sightings on Goingbirding /Hantsbirds so please do still send other things that are of value, however please avoid posts of normal numbers of commonly occuring garden birds. If you are unsure of what you’ve posted already then the system cleverly allows you to review all of your records. From the home page just click on “Export” and log in. The rest is easy.
If you have submitted sightings via Goingbirding/Hantsbirds, BTO reporting sites (including Birdtrack or WeBS), Living Record or eBird then we are going to get these automatically so there is no need to send them in again via another method.
However, if you have put any records on BirdGuides and nowhere else then please send these in again via one of the above methods, or on the HOS Record Form, as the transfer of those records from BirdGuides is never complete – we don’t get the detailed comments, just a date and site.
For any sightings that have not been submitted using the above online options there is the HOS Record Form (HRF) which you can download above. Please include the map reference for all sightings in this format (SU1234 or SU123456 – ie no spaces). There is a column for “breeding evidence” which some people miss by mistake – please do fill this in and note the change to the BTO coding which is explained in an accompanying work sheet to the Record Form. If you encounter any problems with the form, then please contact the HOS data manager at hosdatamanager@gmail.com.
If anything above is unclear then please contact Martin Pitt, the new Hampshire County Recorder on Martin Pitt. You may be aware that after 13 years as the County Recorder, Keith stood aside and Martin Pitt took on the role. Keith will continue to deal with any remaining questions on 2022 records and Martin will deal with 2023 data.