RECORDERS' MEETING - a summary

    On Saturday March 14th Suffolk Naturalists' Society Recorders and others met at the Lecture Room, The Museum, Ipswich to discuss amongst other things: the role of the Society's Recorders and the SBRC; current conservation priorities which are being driven by the Biodiversity Action Plan process; the production of provisional atlases; the promotion of surveys and the recruitment of recorders; links with other groups and national organisations; the organisation and promotion of specialist field meetings and the use of computers in recording.

    Jeff Martin introduced the programme, and Martin Sanford chaired the meeting. The meeting then proceeded with a series of short talks.

    Martin Sanford spoke first and outlined the role of the SBRC, its support in terms of funding and the projects which are currently in progress, such as the Suffolk Biodiversity 2000 Project. The issue of access to data was raised and the SBRC computer system was briefly described.

    Paul Lee, non-insect terrestrial invertebrate Recorder, gave a resume of spider recording in Suffolk and expressed his concern about the lack of communication between recorders (groups/individuals).

    Mammal Recorder, Jeff Martin gave an update on the Suffolk Mammal Survey and indicated that records would be accepted right up to publication date.

    Simone Bullion outlined the results of the Suffolk Otter Survey and explained the Water Vole Survey.

    Alan Miller then brought the meeting up to date with bat recording in the County.

    Aquatic Invertebrate Recorder, Adrian Chalkley explained the advantages of having your own website. There had been 2279 visitors to his site in six months and a great deal of useful information had been exchanged, he said.

    David Nash, Coleoptera Recorder, who has worked on beetles since the 1960s, then described his progress with regard to the eventual production of a new Coleoptera of Suffolk. David referred to a paucity of records from certain 10 km squares in the west of the County. He would be pleased to receive specimens.

    Plant recording was introduced by Martin Sanford who mentioned the benefit of joint recorders. The collection of data for the Provisional atlas of Suffolk Flora would run in parallel with that for the BSBI 2000 Atlas, he told the meeting.

    lan Killeen, Recorder for Molluscs, was unfortunately unable to attend the meeting, but had kindly provided some brief notes which were read out by the Chairman.

    Questions raised at the meeting include:

    · Who owns the data which is sent to the SBRC?

    Who has access to the data?

    Who is responsible for submitting records to the SBRC - is it the Recorders?

    How reliable are some of the records submitted - are descriptions provided as with bird records?

    Would the SBRC suggest ways in which Recorders can obtain data from other bodies?

    Can the SBRC help with referees for specimens?

    How do we get new recorders involved?

    What are the recording interests of SNS members - could we survey the membership?

    Martin Sanford summed up and requested articles from Recorders about their group for publication in Transactions or White Admiral

    This was a valuable meeting that enabled like-minded naturalists to discuss their interests, as well as raise issues which are common to all recorders.

    N.B. A full record of the meeting is held by the Hon. Secretary of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society.

Editor