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2022-12-31-accounts

President’s statement

Annual Report & Accounts

birds | people | science

BOU.ORG.UK IBIS.AC.UK @IBIS_JOURNAL

IBISJOURNAL

IBIS_JOURNAL

英国 鸟类 学会会刊

2022

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 2

CONTENTS

President’s Statement 2
Structure, Governance &
Management 3
Objectives & Activities
Mission Statement 4
Council Activities 4
Activities in Scotland 4
Achievements & Performance
The BOU Office 5
Awards Nominations Committee
10
Engagement Committee 11
IBIS Management Committee 13
Meetings Committee 16
Grants Committee 23
Records Committee 29
Membership 31
Financial Review 31
Responsibilities of Trustees 34
Auditor’s Report 35
Annual accounts for 2022 39

Cover image: Common Eider | Marton Bernsten CC BY SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons

President’s statement

Prof Juliet Vickery

This is my fourth and final ‘President’s statement’, rounding off a term of office marked by change. First came Covid, which impacted us all, and then Steve Dudley’s retirement as Chief Operations Officer after 25 years. I am extremely grateful to

those who helped in coping with, planning and supporting these changes. In 2020 we ran our first virtual conference; we’ve now successfully delivered five. Each has showcased great science by great scientists, through pre-recorded talks, interactive question-times and parallel Twitter presentations, supported by a highly skilled team behind the scenes. Virtual conferences are here to stay and I am confident BOU’s will remain some of the best.

Steve Dudley’s drive and enthusiasm as COO transformed the BOU. His expert guidance and support of his successor, Dr Leila Walker, has been central to a seamless transition, alongside ongoing support from Journal and Office Manager, Angela Langford. Particular thanks go to BOU Treasurer, Graham Appleton, whose advice and expertise has been invaluable during my presidency.

This year has not been without its challenges. One conference was cancelled after a last-minute venue closure, and with it our hoped-for return to a face-to-face meetings. Conference attendance is slightly down, perhaps reflecting Zoom fatigue and the increased cost of living, and there has been a degree of unrest on Twitter, which has been the main plank of our social media work. The fact that the BOU membership rose during 2022, in the face of all this uncertainty, is evidence that we are getting a lot of things right!

The ornithological community’s ability to generate new and exciting science has remained a wonderful constant throughout my presidency. This is evident in the breadth of research we were able to fund, through our grants, and the quality of papers published in our flagship journal, IBIS. In 2022, IBIS articles received more online attention than any other ornithology journal and six IBIS papers appear among the 10 highest Altmetric-scoring ornithology papers of all time. We are enormously grateful to Dr Dominic McCafferty for all he has done as Editor in Chief, over five years and almost 1,500 manuscripts, and delighted that IBIS’ future is in excellent hands, with Professor Jenny Gill taking on this important role. New and exciting scientific ideas are generated by diverse and engaged communities of scientists. The BOU continues to invest in exploring new ways to increase inclusivity and foster a sense of belong for all, particularly through an active Engagement Committee and our relatively new Awards Nominations Committee.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 3

ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION

Founded 1858 Registered as a Charity: England and Wales, no. 249877 Scotland, no. SC044850

The opportunity to serve as BOU President has been rewarding and huge fun, supported as I was by dynamic and effective Council and committee members and talented Support Officers. I want to thank them all for giving their time and expertise to the BOU, amid busy lives, and making my term as President such a rich one personally and professionally. I would have welcomed fewer changes and challenges in my four years but they have certainly highlighted the resilience, adaptability and skill of the ornithological research community, a community I feel lucky to be part of.

Structure, Governance

Address

PO Box 79, Pembroke SA72 9AX, UK Tel: +44 (0) 7485 385451 Email: bou@bou.org.uk Web: bou.org.uk / ibis.ac.uk

As at 31 December 2022

BOU Staff

Chief Operations Officer Dr Leila K. Walker

Journal & Office Manager Mrs Angela F. Langford

Council Officers

President Prof Juliet Vickery Vice Presidents Prof Tony Fox Dr Richard Bradbury Honorary Secretary Dr Mark Eaton Honorary Treasurer Mr Graham F. Appleton

Ordinary Members of Council

Dr Sonya Clegg (Chair, Grants Committee), Dr Francis Daunt (Chair, Meetings Committee), Dr Mark Eddowes, Dr Tom Finch (Chair, Engagement Committee), Dr James Gilroy (Chair, Records Committee), Dr Cat Horswill, Dr Rosemarie Kentie (Chair, IBIS Management Committee), Dr Julie Miller, Dr Rosemary Trevelyan and Dr Lucy Wright (Chair, Awards Nominations Committee).

& Management

The British Ornithologists’ Union is an unincorporated charity, no. 249877 (England & Wales) and SC044850 (Scotland).

The object of the BOU is the promotion of the science of ornithology. Its governing document is the Rules adopted at the Annual General Meeting in 2010, and last updated by Council in July 2020. Under the rules, the governing body, the Council of the Union, is responsible for the running of the Union’s business, supported by its staff. Council may delegate functions to standing or ad hoc committees that report to Council. The Union’s Council retains overall responsibility for matters so delegated.

The BOU has six standing committees: the Awards Nominations Committee, the Engagement Committee, the Grants Committee, the IBIS Management Committee, the Meetings Committee and the Records Committee.

Elected members of Council are Trustees of the charity. Members of Council are recruited from within the ornithological community. Where possible, Council members will have served on one or more of the BOU’s standing committees prior to nomination for election to Council. Those standing for election to BOU Council as an incoming chair of a standing committee will have served for at least two years on the respective committee. On election, new Council members are provided with relevant Union documents to help familiarise them with current Union activities and to provide information on the duties and responsibilities of being a Trustee of the Union.

Council continually reviews the risks to which the Union is exposed and is satisfied that, as far as is practicable, it has taken appropriate steps to mitigate any risk.

The Union employs full-time staff who work from their respective home offices. Staff salaries are reviewed annually, as part of our staff appraisal process, conducted by the President and Honorary Secretary. Pay is normally adjusted in line with inflation (CPIH) and there is an option to award an unconsolidated performancebased bonus, in exceptional circumstances.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 4

ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

CONT/.

Trustees

The following individuals served as Trustees of the charity at the time of Council approving this annual report and accounts: Mr Graham F. Appleton, Dr Richard Bradbury, Dr Sonya Clegg, Dr Francis Daunt, Dr Mark Eaton, Dr Mark Eddowes, Dr Tom Finch, Prof Tony Fox, Dr James Gilroy, Dr Cat Horswill, Dr Rosemarie Kentie, Dr Julie Miller, Prof Juliet Vickery, Dr Rosie Trevelyan and Dr Lucy Wright.

The following individuals also served as Trustees of the charity for part of the year covered by these annual report and accounts: Dr Helen Baker and Dr Emma Cunningham.

Editorial positions

At 31 December 2022 the following editorial positions were held:

IBIS Editor in Chief Prof Jennifer Gill IBIS Editors Dr Rauri Bowie Dr Richard Fuller Prof Rebecca Kimball Dr Ruedi Nager Prof Jeremy Wilson

Blog Editor Mr Connor Panter

Investment Trustees

The following individuals served as Investment Trustees for the Union during the period of this report and accounts: Mr Nigel J. Crocker, Mr Richard Price and Mr Stephen J. Rumsey.

Objectives & Activities

Mission statement

The British Ornithologists’ Union will promote understanding and conservation of the world’s birds, advance ornithology within the scientific community and promote scientific ornithology to the wider birdwatching public. The BOU mission will be achieved by the following means:

Council activities

At our AGM in April, held on Zoom, Dr Mark Eaton was elected as Honorary Secretary to replace Dr Helen Baker, and Dr Mark Eddowes was elected as an Ordinary member of Council to replace Dr Emma Cunningham.

We were delighted that Professor Nicholas B. Davies (University of Cambridge) accepted our invitation to deliver the 9th Alfred Newton Lecture at BOU2022 and accepted our award of the Godman Salvin Prize for his outstanding and distinguished contribution to ornithology (page 3).

Elected members of Council, as Trustees of the charity, confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing objectives and activities.

Activities in Scotland

The BOU is an unincorporated charity registered in Scotland (SC044850). As well as having members in Scotland, at the time of this report, two of our Trustees, Dr Francis Daunt and Dr Julie Miller, and two of our journal editors, Dr Rudolf Nager and Prof Jeremy Wilson, also resided there.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 5

Achievements & Performance

ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

Reports on our activities from the BOU Office and Standing Committees

CONT/.

The BOU Office

Bankers

The Union holds accounts with the following banks:

CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ

Natwest Bank plc

PO Box 6037, Brompton Road, London SW13 1XJ

Staff

During the year, the BOU employed three home-based staff members: Steve Dudley (Chief Operations Officer, to 27 July), Angela Langford (Journal & Office Manager) and Leila Walker (Chief Operations Officer, from 30 May). The outgoing and incoming COOs overlapped in the role for two months (30 May – 27 July), with Steve Dudley being retained on a 4-hour / week contract for the remainder of the year (and until 31 March 2023).

Office duties

Solicitor

The Union’s solicitors are: Laytons

Ranger House, Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4UL

The BOU Office is responsible for the effective running of the BOU, managed by the Chief Operations Officer and overseen by Council and the Union’s standing committees.

The BOU Office’s key responsibilities are:

Accountant & Auditor

The Union’s accountant and auditor are: Azets Audit Services Ruthlyn House, 90 Lincoln Road, Peterborough PE1 2SP

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 6

GODMAN SALVIN PRIZE &

ALFRED NEWTON LECTURE

Prof Nick Davies was presented with the Godman Salvin Prize at our annual conference in April, alongside his delivery of the 9th Alfred Newton Lecture.

The Godman Salvin Prize recognizes Nick’s outstanding academic career in science, including his pivotal role in developing the field of behavioural ecology; his superb skill as an educator, communicator and naturalist; and his detailed studies of British birds like Pied Wagtails, Dunnocks and Common Cuckoos.

Nick’s Alfred Newton Lecture, entitled Cuckoos and curious naturalists, paid tribute to past curious naturalists whose field observations paved the way for current experimental studies.

For the full citation see IBIS 164: 858-859 doi: 10.1111/ibi.13057.

The Godman Salvin Prize is the Union’s highest scientific award and recognises an individual’s outstanding contribution to ornithology.

In addition to working with the Union’s various committees (see individual committee reports below) the BOU Office undertook the activities outlined below.

Website

BOU.ORG.UK

2022 was a relatively quiet year, in terms of website development, as we reaped the benefits of the hard work that had previously gone in to developing our new-look website and associated member area. Some work was undertaken during the year to refine MemberPress functionality and this is now working well. The website continues to be a fundamental part of our wider communication and promotion strategy, providing the static content for IBIS, membership, conferences, and grants and awards, that we link to from social media and other online promotion.

Our key website metrics showed some encouraging increases when compared with 2021, with an 8.7% increase in the number of overall website visitors, an 8.0% increase in the number of new visitors and a 0.6% increase in the total number of page views. This minimal change in the total number of page views is reflected in the page views that different sections of the website received, with limited fluctuation compared to 2021: The British List (-3%), conferences (-1%), funding (-4%), IBIS (- 1%) and the blog (+22%).

As a global society, it is encouraging that visitors to our website from outside the UK continue to be very well represented: 64% of all users in 2022 (66% in 2021).

Conferences

BOU.ORG.UK/BOU-CONFERENCES/

See also Meetings Committee (page 16).

We had hoped that 2022 would be the year in which we returned (in part) to inperson conferences, but this was unfortunately not to be. Our conference schedule continued to feel the effects of Covid-19, with the associated unpredictability of conference attendance seeing our annual conference switch, in late 2021, from the planned in-person format to Zoom. Our planned in-person autumn conference, on the theme of ‘Birds as Individuals’, also appeared to suffer from the effects of postpandemic uncertainty, with lower-than-hoped-for registration numbers, although it’s likely a number of factors were at play. However, having taken the decision to continue with the event, the conference venue, the Great Northern Hotel in Peterborough, announced their immediate closure 11 days prior to the event, sadly forcing a cancellation of the conference.

Despite these challenges, we still held two well-received online conferences, both run over Zoom and Twitter. The successful delivery of these was very much aided by the format having been honed over the course of our previous virtual conferences

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 7

OUR SOCIAL YEAR

@IBIS_JOURNAL

Tweets 5,226 -6%
Engagements 87,585 -37%
Organic impressions 4.6m -56%
Followers at 31 Dec 22 21,176 +9%

Twitter (@IBIS_JOURNAL) is our primary social platform and, consistent with previous years, we saw an increase in followers in 2022. Recent years saw a reduction in engagements and impressions, likely driven by both a slightly reduced output and decreased community activity on Twitter. This trend has continued into 2022, no doubt confounded by changes on the platform itself. Nevertheless, @IBIS_JOURNAL remains the largest ornithology society/journal account on Twitter, continuing to provide an active news service for ornithologists around the world.

IBISJOURNAL

Posts 3,956 -6%
Engagements 127,486 +43%
Impressions/reach 3.19m +44%
Fans at 31 Dec 22 11,191 +8%

in 2020 and 2021 and by the wonderful support of our conference delivery team (Sarah Binnie, Ryan Burrell, Camilo Carneiro, Kirsty Franklin, Ros Green, Triin Kassiku, Angela Langford and Natalia Zielonka).

As in 2021, the dual format of our conferences, with parallel delivery of all presentations over Twitter, ensured this component of our conferences was free and accessible for researchers around the world.

Sponsorship

We are very grateful to Leica Camera (UK) who continued their support in providing a prize for the best paper in IBIS with an early career researcher as lead author.

Social media

BOU.ORG.UK/SOCIAL-MEDIA/

See also Engagement Committee (page 11).

The latter part of 2022 was a turbulent time for Twitter (our primary social media platform), with the arrival of a new owner and CEO. Twitter has been incredibly valuable for the BOU and the wider ornithological community, so the changes being played out at the platform are inevitably of some consequence for the society. Although our follower growth increased by 9% (on 2021), other key Twitter metrics were down this year, including engagements (-37%) and organic impressions (- 56%). Although this continues the downward trend seen in 2021, at the time attributed to a slightly reduced output and less engaged community during the pandemic, the changes at Twitter are likely to have played into this year’s trends to some extent. In contrast, engagements and impressions on Facebook increased in 2022 (up 43% and 44%, respectively, on 2021).

The BOU has long relied on social media to drive visitors to our website, allowing us to effectively inform the wider ornithological community about our activities. In 2022, as in previous years, social media was the third most important originating source for website users (12%), after search engines (40%) and direct-to-site visits (40%) visits.

Our follower-base on Facebook (FACEBOOK.COM/IBISJOURNAL) continues to grow, and although there was a slight reduction in content posted, we saw sizeable increases in engagements and impressions.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 8

OUR SOCIAL YEAR

IBIS_JOURNAL

IBIS articles received more online attention in 2022, as measured by Altmetric Attention Score, than articles from any other ornithology journal (Table 1). The key Altmetric contributing sources – news media, blogs and social media – all saw growth in mentions this year, with Wikipedia seeing an impressive 60% growth, thanks largely to the efforts of our Journal Support Officer referencing papers on the site.

Table 1: Online mentions for IBIS and competitor ornithology journals (in 2022)

Posts 181 +6%
Engagements 970 -49%
Followers at 31 Dec 22 1,666 +13%

We continue to gain followers on Instagram (IBIS_JOURNAL), although engagements are notably down on 2021. Instagram is less able to drive traffic to the BOU website (URLs cannot be included in posts), but our presence there is nonetheless valuable.

ALTMETRICS

We saw continued growth in the number of online mentions of IBIS articles in 2022, with a total Altmetric Attention Score notably higher than for competitor ornithology journals (Table 1).

Mentions Mentions
_____________________
# Articles Total AAS* News Blog Twitter Facebook Wiki Policy
IBIS 708 20,906 756 487 31,925 1,649 1,586 50
change 2021 v 2022 +24% +14% +28% +5% +10% +37% +60% -10%
The Auk 529 6,628 316 181 3,755 165 2,198 24
change 2021 v 2022 +9.8% +5.9% +1.3% -1.7% +15% +20% +58% +67%
J Avian Biology 228 5,099 271 86 5,413 421 477 5
change 2021 v 2022 +9.6% +11% +62% +4.7% -16% +5% +63% -60%
J Ornithology 323 3,843 178 80 2,914 181 622 7
change 2021 v 2022 +18% +13% +42% +26% -12% +36% +52% +29%
Bird Study 152 2,195 35 36 3,016 81 123 5
change 2021 v 2022 -24% -43% +23% -42% -58% -27% +46% -200%

Data from Altmetric Explorer (almertic.com/explorer) downloaded 6 January 2023.

The extent of online attention received by individual IBIS articles is evident in the fact that six IBIS papers appear among the 10 highest Altmetric-scoring ornithology papers of all time. Table 2 illustrates the frequency and type of mentions received in order to reach these high Altmetric Attention Scores. Our ability to influence these various channels is variable, but we continue to exert the most effort where we have the greatest capacity to have impact, namely blogs and social media.

Table 2: Altmetric breakdown for the top Altmetric-scoring articles in IBIS (all time)

Mentions Mentions
_________________
AAS News Blog Twitter Facebk Wiki
Dogs disturbing nesting plovers (1) *doi: 10.1111/ibi.12879 3,933 18 4 11,330 4 2
Diet of urban gulls (2)doi: 10.1111/ibi.12892 1,112 131 11 217 8 0
Hill Myna extinction-in-progress (5) **doi: 10.1111/ibi.12839 395 85 1 76 4 3
Geophagy in Amazonian parrots (6)doi: 10.1111/ibi.12515 388 45 1 41 1 3
Decline of Common Cuckoo (8)doi: 10.1111/ibi.12612 340 1 6 580 6 1
Driven shooting of Red Grouse (10)doi: 10.1111/ibi.12356 332 8 7 550 4 0

2020; AAS = Altmetric Attention Score; Data from Altmetric Explorer (almertic.com/explorer) downloaded 25 January 2023.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 9

#theBOUblog

#THEBOUBLOG

Our most-read blog posts in 2022:

The secret lives of Nightjars

Shedding some light on a mysterious nocturnal species . . . (published 2015)

BOU.ORG.UK/BLOG/

Our blog is the main arrival point for visitors and the most-read section of our website, consistently accounting for around a third of overall page views annually. During the year we published 99 blog posts (slightly down on our highest ever total of 111 in 2021), of which 67 were on IBIS papers (50 in 2021) (see Engagement Committee on page 11 for more detail).

E-newsletters

BOU.ORG.UK/E-NEWSLETTERS /

We published a total of 37 e-newsletters during the year, with a focus on IBIS (monthly new articles and quarterly new issues), conferences, funding and BOU news.

Katrina Sharps

UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

General administrative items

We continue to maintain a storage facility in Peterborough.

The mixed-up world of swifts

Two species of swifts hybridize with each other in an unsuspected way (published 2022)

Alice Cibois

Natural History Museum of Geneva, Switzerland

The heat is on for British birds

The State of the UK’s Birds (SUKB) report for 2017 reviews the impact of climate change (published 2017)

James Pearce-Higgins

British Trust for Ornithology, UK

E-NEWSLETTERS

Our regular e-newsletters are sent to over 8,000 researchers, and others interested in ornithology, all around the world.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 10

Awards Nominations Committee

AWARDS NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Lucy Wright (RSPB)

Members

Dr Marta Acácio (Tel Aviv University) Dr Adham Ashton-Butt (BTO) Dr Niall Burton (BTO)

Mr Steve Dudley, BOU COO (to July 2022) Prof Keith Hamer (University of Leeds) Dr Grant Humphries (HiDef Aerial Surveying)

Dr Rebecca Laidlaw (Natural Resources Wales)

Dr Elizabeth Masden (University of Highlands & Islands)

Dr Alice Trevail (University of Exeter) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO (from May 2022)

The Awards Nominations Committee was set up in 2020 to oversee the criteria and nominations process for each of the BOU’s awards, currently the Godman Salvin Prize, Janet Kear Union Medal and the Alfred Newton Lecture. Two meetings were held during 2022 with further business conducted by email.

In March 2022, Council approved the Committee’s recommendation for a new award for early professional ornithologists, to recognize an outstanding initial contribution to the field of ornithology. This recommendation included the suggestion for an art competition, in which an early-career ornithological artist designs the prize for this new award. A proposal for the art competition prize was drafted by Steve Dudley with support from Committee members, and this was approved by Council in July. A judging panel was selected in the autumn comprising two artists, two art collectors and two members of the Committee, and the art competition was announced in November with a deadline for submissions of 28 February 2023. The next step will be to judge the entries to the art competition, and then to seek nominations for the early professional award. We aim to present the first early professional award at the 2023 autumn conference.

The Committee’s membership changed during the year, with the terms of four members, Steve Dudley (ex officio as COO), Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Rhys Green and David Stroud, coming to an end. Three new members, Marta Acácio, Adham Ashton-Butt and Leila Walker (ex officio capacity as the incoming COO), were appointed to the Committee at the July Council meeting.

A successful nominations process for the three existing BOU awards was run during September 2022. The call for nominations used the new award criteria developed in 2021 for the first time and received more nominations as a result. Six people (four women and two men) were nominated for the 2023 Godman Salvin Prize, three people (two women and one man) were nominated for the 2023 Janet Kear Union Medal and seven people (two women and five men) were nominated for the 2024 Alfred Newton Lecture on the theme of urban ecology. Nominations were

independently ranked following previously agreed procedures. The top three ranked nominees for each award were presented to, and approved by, Council at their November meeting, and the top-ranked nominee for each award has accepted their invitation. Professor Amanda Rodewald will give the 2024 Alfred Newton Lecture and the recipients of the 2023 Godman Salvin Prize and 2023 Janet Kear Union Medal will be announced during the course of the year.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 11

Engagement Committee

ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Tom Finch (RSPB)

Members

Dr Ailidh Barnes (BTO)

Dr Lynda Donaldson (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) (to July 2022)

Mr Steve Dudley, BOU COO (to July 2022)

Dr Aonghais Cook (BTO)

Dr Jenny Dunn (University of Lincoln) (to July 2022)

Dr Daniel Hayhow (Earthwatch Europe)

Dr Katharine Keogan (HiDef Ariel Surveys) (from July 2022)

Dr Nicola Largey (University of Highlands and Islands) (from July 2022)

Dr Veronica Mendez (University of Iceland) Dr Julie Miller (University of Glasgow)

Mr Connor Panter, Blog Editor (University of

Nottingham)

Dr Ashley Sendell-Price (Uppsala University, Sweden)

Dr Elwyn Sharps (Natural Resources Wales) (from July 2022)

Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO (from July 2022) Dr Saskia Wischnewski (RSPB)

Ms Natalia Zielonka, Social Media Support Officer (University of East Anglia)

The Engagement Committee oversees engagement between all parts of the BOU, our members and the wider community, with the aim of increasing awareness of the BOU's activities, facilitating communication and collaboration within the ornithological community, and championing equality and diversity. The Committee primarily delivers this engagement through our conferences and social media activities.

The Committee met twice during 2022, with both meetings held online. Online meetings were introduced as a result of Covid-19 restrictions and the Committee decided to retain this format in order to reduce the time, financial and environmental costs associated with having a geographically dispersed group of people meet in person. We will continue to review the format of future meetings.

This year saw Lynda Donaldson and Jenny Dunn retire from the Committee, and we welcomed new members Nicola Largey (University of Highlands and Islands), Elwyn Sharps (Natural Resources Walker) and Katharine Keogan (HiDef). Particular thanks go to Lynda for wrangling the data on Early Career Researcher (ECR) retention rates.

2022 also saw the retirement of Steve Dudley as Chief Operations Officer. Whilst this was a big loss for the Union and for the Committee, our new COO Leila Walker has really hit the ground running, and the Committee have enjoyed working with her (and we look forward to continuing to do so!).

Twitter

The Union has invested heavily in establishing an engaged ornithology community on Twitter, where we promote scientific papers and events, foster discussion, and host virtual conferences. No other platform currently comes close in terms of dynamism or breadth of outreach. Academic Twitter was in a tumultuous state in late 2022 following Twitter’s change of ownership, but the BOU has decided to stay on the platform in the hope of avoiding a fragmentation of our community across several alternative platforms. We will continue to review the Twitter climate, particularly with an eye on its capacity to provide a safe and nurturing space for our community. Meanwhile, we have provided some tips for users to help reduce the amount of unwanted content appearing in timelines: https://bou.org.uk/blog-bou-twitter/.

Equality and diversity

BOU.ORG.UK/ABOUT-THE-BOU/EQUALITY-DIVERSITY/

Equality and diversity remains a major part of the Committee’s remit. Through the Equality and Diversity Working Group (EDWG), we continue to explore ways in which to improve inclusivity and reduce barriers across our activities.

One step we have taken towards this end is to promote the use of gender pronouns across BOU activities, such as in email signatures, virtual meetings and conferences

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 12

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY WORKING GROUP (EDWG)

Chair

Prof Juliet Vickery, BOU President (BTO)

Members

(https://bou.org.uk/blog_finch_walker_pronouns/). A person’s name or physical appearance is not necessarily a good indicator of their gender and making assumptions based on these can lead to mistakes being made. It is important that everyone within our community is referred to by the pronouns they identify with. By promoting pronoun visibility, the BOU aims to help foster a supportive, respectful and inclusive environment for everyone. If you’re cis-gender, you can be a better ally by being more open about your pronouns, even if you think they’re obvious, to help normalise discussions about gender.

Dr Ailidh Barnes (BTO) *

Dr Emma Cunningham (University of

Edinburgh)

Mr Steve Dudley, BOU COO (to July 2022) Dr Jenny Dunn (University of Lincoln) (to July 2022)

Dr Tom Finch (RSPB)

Dr Daniel Hayhow (Earthwatch Europe) Dr Ashley Sendell-Price (Uppsala University,

Sweden) *

Dr Rosie Trevelyan (Cambridge University) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO (from July 2022) * EDWG Secretariat

For this year’s Pan-African Ornithological Congress (PAOC15), the Union was invited to join a round table discussion on the subject of “Making ornithology accessible, inclusive and diverse”, organised by Merlyn Nomusa Nkomo (Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology). Whilst we weren’t able to attend in person, the Committee’s Chair, Tom Finch, provided a pre-recorded presentation, giving a summary of the Union’s actions in this space and highlighting some of the challenges we have faced.

Honorary positions

The Committee’s Support Officers assist the BOU office with journal publicity, social media activities and #theBOUblog.

Journal publicity – supported by Dr Jente Ottenburghs

Social media – supported by Natalia Zielonka

Blog (#theBOUblog) – edited by Connor Panter

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 13

IBIS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Conferences

See BOU Office (page 6) and Meetings Committee (page 16).

The Engagement Committee played a key role in organising the ECR workshops at the BOU2022 Avian Reproduction conference, selecting themes and inviting contributors to the three workshops on How to write a paper for peer review, How to review a paper and How to promote your paper. An additional grant-writing workshop was also run for BOU members up to 10 years post-PhD.

Chair

Dr Rosemarie Kentie (IBED, University of Amsterdam)

Members

Mr Graham Appleton, BOU Hon. Treasurer Dr Beatriz Arroyo Lopez (Instituto de

Investigacion en Recursos Cinegeticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM)

Dr Rauri Bowie, Editor (University of California – Berkeley)

Dr Richard Broughton (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)

Dr Simon Butler (University of East Anglia) (from July 2022)

Mr Steve Dudley, BOU COO (to July 2022)

Dr Richard Fuller, Editor (University of Queensland)

Prof Jenny Gill, Editor in Chief (University of East Anglia) (from August 2022)

Dr Rebecca Kimball, Editor (University of

IBIS Management Committee

IBIS.AC.UK

Committee membership and business

The IBIS Management Committee provides strategic direction, support and advice to editors and staff on the management of the journal, which includes working with our publisher, Wiley. The IBIS Management Committee consists of the Editor in Chief, all editors, the Chief Operations Officer, the Honorary Treasurer, the Journal Manager and four regular members operating at associate editor level for IBIS or similar journals.

IBIS is published on behalf of the BOU by Wiley Publishing, from whom we continue to receive excellent service, support and advice. The efforts of Wiley staff during 2022 are greatly appreciated, especially from Andreas Petersen, our Journal Publishing Manager. We have an excellent relationship with Wiley and maintain constant communication throughout the year, with both parties striving to improve IBIS, to ensure the journal remains at the forefront of ornithology.

Our annual meeting with Wiley was held on Zoom in February. At the meeting, annual reports covering editorial, production, marketing and finance were presented and discussed. Our close working relationship comes to the fore during these meetings with both sides able to talk openly about our joint management of the journal.

Florida)

Mrs Angela Langford, Journal Manager Dr Dominic McCafferty, Editor in Chief

(University of Glasgow) (to August 2022) Dr Ruedi Nager, Editor (University of Glasgow) Dr Staffan Roos (Swedish University of

Agricultural Sciences)

Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO (from May 2022) Prof Jeremy Wilson, Editor (RSPB)

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 14

New Editor-in-Chief

After five years at the helm, as Editor-in-Chief, Dr Dominic McCafferty decided to move on to new adventures in 2022. We are hugely grateful for all Dom’s hard work over the last five years (handling 1,484 manuscripts in total!) and he was presented with a Robert Gillmor ibis print as a parting thank you gift.

TOP CITED PAPERS

From most recent Impact Factor period (20202021)

Estimating bird density using passive acoustic monitoring: a review of methods and suggestions for further research / Cristian Pérez-Granados, Juan Traba / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12944

Implications of bacterial, viral and mycotic microorganisms in vultures for wildlife conservation, ecosystem services and public health / Pablo I. Plaza, Guillermo Blanco, Sergio A. Lambertucci / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12865

Urban exploiters have broader dietary niches than urban avoiders Facundo Xavier Palacio / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12732

We advertised for a replacement and, following the interview and selection process, were delighted to announce the appointment of Prof Jenny Gill as our new Editor-inChief. Jenny is a Professor of Applied Ecology at the University of East Anglia, and has been an active researcher, supervisor and teacher in the field of ornithology for over 20 years. She has served on the editorial boards of several ornithological and ecological journals and has previously served as BOU President and Chair of IBIS Management Committee. Jenny started in the role in August and, with help from Dominic, the handover went very smoothly.

On offering Prof Jenny Gill the role, our Honorary Treasurer Mr Graham Appleton, who is Jenny’s spouse, contacted both the BOU Management Group and our auditors asking for any conflicts of interest to be considered. Both the Management Group and auditors were satisfied that there is no cause for concern. We share this information here for full transparency, to report to our membership the consideration we’ve given this.

Committee changes

MOST DOWNLOADED IBIS PAPERS

The last year has also seen a changeover in the COO role, with Steve Dudley being successfully succeeded by Leila Walker. Leila and Steve shared a two-month overlap to familiarise Leila with the business and marketing aspects of IBIS. To facilitate this transition, we held an additional meeting with the IBIS Management Committee and Wiley Publishing in July, which included discussions around improving the submission and review process. The Committee agreed for IBIS to be included in the pilot of Wiley’s Research Exchange (ReX) submission platform, designed to provide an easier submission process for authors.

Papers downloaded in 2022

Killing of raptors on grouse moors: evidence and effects / Ian Newton / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12886

Towards redressing inaccurate, offensive and inappropriate common bird names / Robert J. Driver, Alexander L. Bond / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12984

At our July meeting, we also welcomed new Committee member Dr Simon Butler. Simon is an Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia whose research covers land-use change, multi-species indices and conservation actions. Our management team now comprises 14 members.

Urban gulls adapt foraging schedule to human ‐ activity patterns / Anouk Spelt, Oliver Soutar, Cara Williamson, Jane Memmott, Judy Shamoun ‐ Baranes, Peter Rock, Shane Windsor / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12892

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 15

Editorial team

TOP ALTMETRIC PAPERS

Papers published in 2022

Male Superb Lyrebirds ( Menura novaehollandiae) perform an ornate multimodal display immediately following copulation / Anastasia H. Dalziell, Justin A. Welbergen / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13052

The Red-billed Leiothrix ( Leiothrix lutea ): a new invasive species for Britain? / Richard K. Broughton, Samuele Ramellini, Marta Maziarz, Pedro F. Pereira / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13090

Non-breeding distribution and at-sea activity patterns of the smallest European seabird, the European Storm Petrel ( Hydrobates pelagicus ) / Teresa Militão, Ana Sanz-Aguilar, Andreu Rotger, Raül Ramos / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13068

Hidden effects of high numbers of tourists in protected areas: displacement of foraging top scavengers / José A. Donázar, Ainara CortésAvizanda, Eneko Arrondo, Alejandro DelgadoGonzález, Olga Ceballos / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13121

Our Associate Editor Board plays a vital role in the management of the journal and we thank each and every one of them for their time and dedication to the journal. Wouter Vansteenlant retired from the Board this year and we thank him for his support and commitment during his time as an Associate Editor.

Themed issues

We have promoted two IBIS themed issues aligned with two recent BOU conferences, the BOU2022 conference on Avian Reproduction (with an IBIS submission deadline of 1 December 2022) and the BOUasm22 conference on Citizen Science and Birds (with an IBIS submission deadline of 31 March 2023).

Marketing

IBIS remains the highest scoring ornithology journal measured by Altmetric and we have the two papers with the highest Altmetric Attention Scores in ornithology (see Table 2 on page 8).

New contract with Wiley

2022 was the third year of our current four-year contract with Wiley. During the year, outgoing COO Steve Dudley oversaw contract negotiations with Wiley, and by the close of 2022 we had signed a new agreement covering a further four-year term from 2024 to 2027. We are very pleased to have secured this new agreement with Wiley, with whom we enjoy an excellent working relationship. The Committee would like to thank Steve for his valuable work in delivering this new contract.

Best ECR paper

We annually award a best early-career researcher paper from IBIS, where the first or corresponding author was an early-career researcher. In 2021, 62 papers qualified, of which nine were nominated for the award by our Associate Editors. These nine nominated papers went to a public vote in 2022, with Carlos E. Lara et al’s paper on tongue spots of Dunnock nestlings being voted the winner (see left and BOU.ORG.UK/IBIS/BEST-ECR-PAPER-OF-2021/).

Carlos E. Lara ’s paper was voted the best ECR paper published in IBIS in 2021.

Tongue spots of Dunnock ( Prunella modularis ) nestlings reflect body condition but exert only conditional influence on parental allocation Carlos E. Lara, Benedikt Holtmann, Eduardo S.A. Santos, Gabriel J. Castaño-Villa, Shinichi Nakagawa / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12939

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 16

MEETINGS COMMITTEE

Meetings Committee

BOU.ORG.UK/CONFERENCES-AND-MEETINGS/

Chair

Dr Francis Daunt (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)

Members

Dr José Alves (University of Aveiro, Portugal and University of Iceland)

Dr Maria Bogdanova (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)

Dr Katherine Booth Jones (BTO Northern Ireland)

Mr Steve Dudley, BOU COO (to July 2022) Dr Christine Howard (Durham University) Dr Joelene Hughes (RSPB)

Mrs Angela Langford, Journal & Office

Manager

Dr Cat Morrison (University of East Anglia) Dr Ana Payo-Payo (University of Aberdeen) Dr Amanda Trask (Institute of Zoology) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO (from May 2022) Dr Kevin Wood (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)

The Meetings Committee is responsible for maintaining the ongoing programme of BOU conferences and meetings and providing advice and support to the BOU Office and others responsible for organising and running BOU events. The Committee met remotely via zoom twice during the year and also conducted business by email and telephone. There were no changes in committee membership apart from the switch of COOs.

2022 events and the global pandemic

With restrictions associated with the Covid pandemic easing over the course of 2021 the first in-person events were planned for 2022, including the annual conference and one of the two autumn conferences, with the other planned to be conducted online. Over the course of discussions during the latter part of 2021, it was decided that BOU would deliver a mix of online and in-person events in our future annual programme, not just in 2022 but potentially beyond. With both formats, a parallel Twitter conference would be organised. The rationale was that in-person and online events offer different experiences. In-person events provide unrivalled opportunities for networking, and certain group activities – in particular ECR workshops – generally work better face-to-face. In contrast, virtual events deliver a considerably larger attendance with a much wider international reach than equivalent in-person events.

In the latter part of 2021, due to continued unpredictability of conference attendance due to the pandemic, the 2022 annual conference was switched to Zoom. All members of the Scientific Programme Committee and the majority of speakers remained committed and an excellent conference was delivered. As restrictions eased over the course of 2022, the plan for the autumn conferences was retained with one in-person and one zoom event.

Steve Dudley came to the end of his tenure as BOU COO and handed over the reins to Leila Walker. The Committee would like to thank Steve for all his extraordinary work and commitment to BOU conferences over the years. The excellent programme of events would not have been remotely possible without him. The Committee are delighted that Leila settled into the role immediately and thank her for her support during 2022.

The Committee would also like to thank our expanding conference delivery team of Sarah Binnie, Ryan Burrell, Camilo Carneiro, Kirsty Franklin, Ros Green, Triin Kassiku, Angela Langford and Natalia Zielonka for all their hard work with an everincreasing workload across multiple platforms.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 17

2022 annual conference

2022 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

AVIAN REPRODUCTION 12-14 April 2022 | Zoom & Twitter #BOU2022

Image: Moorhen feeding chick | Francis C. Franklin CC BY SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

Avian Reproduction (#BOU2022) – 12-14 April 2022

The 2022 annual conference, originally planned for 2021 but postponed because of the pandemic, was on the topic of avian reproduction (#BOU2022 on Twitter), the theme selected in response to the growing interest in this area and an increased body of recent research. The context for this research is that, within bird life histories, breeding events represent an opportunity to measure some of the fundamental drivers of population and evolutionary processes. It is a crucially important life stage that has heavy energetic demands on parents and offspring, and its consequences can be felt throughout the lifetime of the individuals involved. For offspring, the maternal and environmental effects of their rearing conditions influence their phenotype, which determines their competitive and reproductive success later in life. For adults, the investment in offspring brings great rewards but also incurs costs that might carry-over for years. An understanding of the key components of reproductive success can provide important insights into the mechanisms of change and any potential associated limitations. Whether we are interested in practical conservation or the more theoretical concepts within behaviour and evolution, the breeding stages of bird life histories provide an important focus for many studies. Ranging from nest architecture to egg colouration, clutch sizes, nestling growth patterns, parental care and chick survival, our understanding of drivers of reproductive success has developed exponentially over the past few decades.

The conference delivered a rich programme on a range of topics relating to the nesting period in the life history of birds, including breeding phenology, egg quality and incubation, development and ecophysiology of young, intra-familial interactions, biorhythms and migration, population dynamics and conservation implications. The Alfred Newton Lecture was delivered by Prof Nick Davies (University of Cambridge) and the keynote speakers were Dr Martin Bulla (Max Planck Institute for Ornithology), Dr Emma Cunningham (University of Edinburgh), Dr Lynda Donaldson (Wildlife & Wetlands Trust), Dr Nicola Hemmings (University of Sheffield), Prof Pat Monaghan (University of Glasgow) and Dr Ally Phillimore (University of Edinburgh).

The conference was attended by 168 registrants which was lower than expected for a Zoom conference, based on recent evidence from events organised by BOU and other organisations. There was particularly low attendance from UK-based ornithologists, with 51% of attendees being UK-based, compared to, for example, 66% at BOUasm21. On Twitter, we had 2,805 total engagements with the hashtag #BOU2022 from @IBIS_journal, and an average of 392 impressions per tweet. As in previous Zoom conferences, we used Slack for wider conference engagement, with each session having its own ‘channel’ allowing for attendees to post additional questions of speakers, and with each poster presenter also having their own dedicated channel. Engagement with Slack was higher than at previous conferences (81% of live attendees), potentially due to greater promotion of Slack. The low overall attendance was potentially due to “Zoom conference fatigue” – it was noted that there was less pre-conference activity on Twitter, particularly from speakers,

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 18

and attendance at the ECR workshops and social was poor. The Meetings Committee and the BOU as a whole, including Council, had discussions throughout 2022 regarding the relative merits of in-person and Zoom events, and the apparent waning interest in the latter. We concluded that it was still valuable to have a mix of both types, but to look for ways to make each more engaging, in order to bolster flagging attendance rates. For Zoom events, one concern is that individuals feel isolated while attending, and then get distracted by their work commitments; a potential solution is to encourage virtual audiences to form hubs.

Despite the lower-than-expected attendance, it was an excellent event and the BOU wish to thank the conference Scientific Programme Committee led by Dr Ian Hartley (University of Lancaster, Chair), and supported by Dr José Alves (University of Aveiro, Portugal & BOU Meetings Committee), Dr Sarah Burthe (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology), Dr Becky Laidlaw (University of East Anglia) and Dr Rob Robinson (BTO & formerly BOU Meetings Committee).

2022 autumn conferences

Citizen Science and Birds (#BOUasm22) – 10-11 October 2022

2022 AUTUMN CONFERENCE

CITIZEN SCIENCE

10-11 October 2022 | Zoom & Twitter #BOUasm22

Image: Birdwatching notes | PJeganathan CC BY SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

The first autumn conference in 2022 was delivered on Zoom, on the topic of ‘Citizen science and birds: people powering ornithology’. Ornithology has a long history of participation by volunteers who undertake bird surveys and other research, and much of our knowledge of birds would not exist without ‘citizen scientists’. This approach has enabled studies to occur across wider areas and over longer time scales than would otherwise be possible. Linking citizen science with technological and analytical advances may further increase our capacity to study birds at scale and meet more of the challenges posed by modern ornithology. Innovative citizen science programmes have unlocked new ornithological data, for example in population ecology, phenology, tracking environmental change and migration. At the same time, new and diverse audiences are engaging in research and conservation. This has led to novel research on who citizen scientists are, how to motivate and support involvement and how to measure the impact of participation. Meanwhile, robust data collection and validation within citizen science programmes remain key areas for learning, particularly as new technologies start to automate much of what citizen scientists record.

This two-day meeting communicated what succeeds and fails in citizen science programmes, what technological advances are available to ornithology, the prominence of rigor and evaluation, and the social science of community participation in ornithology. An excellent programme was delivered including keynote talks by Dr Tom Auer (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology), Dr Corey Callaghan (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research), Dr Finn Danielsen (Nordic Foundation for Development and Ecology), Dr Alison Johnston (University of St Andrews), Dr Becki Lawson (Institute of Zoology), Dr Dave Leech (BTO) and Dr Suhel Quedar (Nature Conservation Foundation, India). The conference included an insightful discussion chaired by Prof Tom Hart (University of Gloucestershire) with a panel comprising Prof Juliet Vickery (BTO), Prof Ian Owens (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology) and Dr Mark Eaton (Rare Breeding Birds Panel).

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 19

TWITTER CONFERENCES

The BOU strives to make all our events inclusive and accessible. To help achieve this we run all in-person and virtual Zoom conferences as dual platform events, with a Twitter conference running alongside the main in-person/virtual event.

Every presenter at an in-person or virtual conference tweets a summary of their inperson/virtual presentation as part of the parallel Twitter event. We also include additional Twitter-only presentations during the breaks of the in-person/virtual event.

Our parallel Twitter events increase the accessibility of our conferences, requiring neither travel nor registration, and have delivered a like-for-like ‘in-the-room’ audience of up to 12x the in-person audience.

Presenters are provided with extensive guidelines on how to tweet a presentation on Twitter, and our Social Media Officer is always on hand to lend assistance.

The conference was attended by 134 people, which was somewhat lower than at previous BOU Zoom events (annual 2022 meeting: 168; autumn 2021 meeting on Monitoring: 217; autumn 2021 meeting on Conflicts: 150). On Twitter, we had 1,292 total engagements with the hashtag #BOUasm22 from @IBIS_journal, and an average of 384 impressions per tweet. As with previous Zoom events, overseas delegates formed a significant proportion (49%) of the audience, with 27 countries represented. The quality of the programme was high and we therefore do not believe that was the cause of the lower attendance. As with the annual conference, it may be that Zoom conference fatigue played its part. We are very grateful to the Scientific Programme Committee for delivering this excellent event, led by Dr Ellie Owen (RSPB), and supported by Dr Arjun Amar (Fitzpatrick Institute, University of Cape Town), Dr Tom Hart (University of Oxford) and Dr Joelene Hughes (RSPB).

Birds as Individuals (#BOUsci22) – 23 November 2022 (cancelled)

The second autumn conference in 2022 was due to take place on 23 November 2022 on the topic of ‘Birds as individuals’ (#BOUsci22 on Twitter), as an in-person event in Peterborough. Birds have a wide range of predictable and unpredictable challenges including climatic changes, food availability, habitat quality, social interactions and more. How individuals respond to these changes, through variation in morphology, physiology, behaviour or life-history strategies between (and within) individuals, can impact on the ecological and evolutionary success of populations and species, regardless of the source (i.e. genetic or phenotypic plasticity) of this variation. For example, among-individual variation in avian ‘personalities’ can be related to differences in physiological and behavioural responses, survival and reproductive success. The increased resolution provided by examining questions at the individual-level provides a mechanistic understanding of how and why responses to external and internal challenges vary. It also enables exploration of the extent to which individuals are able to adjust their phenotype (or not), and the consequences of such plasticity. This scales up to explain patterns at population and community levels. For instance, variation in individual traits within populations may generate individuals that consistently consume a small subset of the whole population’s resource base (individual diet specialisation). This strategy can allow for fitnessenhancing changes in individual foraging efforts that respond to variation in resource availability, which is a key stabilizing mechanism of complex food webs. Enhancing our knowledge of the consequences of individual-level variation touches on almost all aspects of avian ecology. It increases our ability to understand the dynamics of natural populations, and ultimately to develop more informed management for protection and restoration objectives.

A strong programme was developed on this topic including keynote talks from Prof Niels Dingemanse (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Prof Damien Farine (University of Zurich, Australian National University & Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior), Dr Aldina Franco (University of East Anglia), Dr Rosemarie Kentie (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, NIOZ) and Dr Rachael Miller (Anglia Ruskin University). The conference was due to be the first in-person BOU conference since the pandemic, and we advertised the event widely. However, sign

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 20

up for the event was very disappointing (24). Various factors were probably at play here, including the greater reluctance for people to travel since the pandemic, and the high travel and accommodation costs linked to recent price increases. It is possible that the programme was not sufficiently diverse, with a strong focus on a small number of bird groups. Despite the low attendance, it was agreed that the conference should go ahead. However, 11 days prior to the conference, the venue for the event, the Great Northern Hotel, announced that it was closing immediately, so we had no alternative but to cancel. We thank the Scientific Programme Committee led by Dr Thomas Bodey (University of Aberdeen, Chair), supported by Dr José Alves (University of Aveiro, Portugal and BOU Meetings Committee), Dr Karin Maldonado (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Spain) and Dr Ana Payo Payo (University of Aberdeen). Further discussions in the weeks that followed concluded that there is sufficient risk of low registration rates with this topic area that the event should be cancelled as opposed to postponed to a later date.

Future events

2023 annual conference – Evolutionary Responses (#BOU2023)

2023 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

EVOLUTIONARY

RESPONSES

4–6 April 2023 | Nottingham & Twitter #BOU2023

Alfred Newton Lecture to be delivered by Prof Jane Reid (University of Aberdeen and Norwegian University of Science and Technology).

Scientific Programme Committee cochaired by Dr Amanda Trask (Zoological Society of London) and Dr María Moirón (Institute of Avian Research, Germany).

Further details at BOU.ORG.UK. Image: Siberian Stonechat | Mprasannak CC BY SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

The BOU annual conference in 2023 will focus on evolutionary and plastic responses of birds to environmental change and will be an in-person event in Nottingham. We are living in a time of rapid environmental change, where humans are altering the climate and transforming land cover. These anthropogenic changes are occurring worldwide and at unprecedented rates, with pervasive and irreversible consequences on biodiversity. This is particularly visible in avian communities, which may respond to human pressures in a variety of ways. In fact, while these environmental changes have resulted in the declines and losses of some birds, other species may be able to cope or even thrive in changing environments. Adaptation is a potential mechanism that could allow species to persist in the face of environmental change (i.e. ‘evolutionary rescue’). Rapid evolutionary responses of birds to environmental change can be seen in, for example, changes in beak size and shape in response to bird feeders; changes in migration timing in response to climate change; or resistance to novel and emerging pathogens. But evolutionary responses may be limited by, for example, low adaptive potential, plasticity, or using ‘wrong’ environmental cues. Furthermore, species may differ in their responses to environmental change, resulting in de-coupling of species interactions. Understanding which populations and species may be able to adapt fast enough, and under which conditions, is essential for predicting how birds, as well as the ecosystems they inhabit, will respond to future environmental changes.

The conference will have sessions on phenological changes, movement and space use, responses to environmental pollution, genetic and epigenetic responses, urbanisation effects, behaviour and morphology, species interactions and community responses. The Alfred Newton Lecture will be delivered by Prof Jane Reid (University of Aberdeen, UK & Norwegian University of Science and Technology). The keynote presenters are Prof Anne Charmantier (Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, CEFE, France), Dr Arild Husby (Uppsala University), Dr Caroline Isaksson (Lund University), Dr Samantha Patrick (University of Liverpool), Prof Ben Sheldon (University of Oxford), Dr Daniel Sol (Research at the

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 21

Centre of Ecological Research and Applied Forestries, CREAF, Spain) and Dr Rose Thorogood (University of Helsinki). We thank the Scientific Programme Committee for putting together an excellent programme. The committee is led by Dr Amanda Trask (Zoological Society of London) and Dr María Moirón (Institute of Avian Research, Germany), supported by Michela Corsini (University of Warsaw), Ferran Sayol (University College London), Jelmer Samplonius (University of Edinburgh) and Emily Simmonds (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).

2023 autumn conference – Global Flyways (#BOUsci23)

2023 AUTUMN CONFERENCE

GLOBAL FLYWAYS

21–22 November 2023 | on Zoom & Twitter #BOUsci23

Scientific Programme Committee co-chaired by Dr Wouter Vansteelant (University of Groningen) and Dr José Alves (University of Iceland, University of Aveiro).

Further details at BOU.ORG.UK.

Image: Dunlin, Grey Plover and Red Knot flock | Stephan Sprinz CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

The autumn 2023 conference will focus on global flyways, with the objective of providing a synthesis of bird migration research. This research topic is accelerating and diversifying at a very rapid pace. Novel techniques allow us to address new questions that would have been impossible to tackle just a few years ago. Much of this research is currently biased to species breeding in the Global North. Nevertheless, increasingly exciting discoveries are arising from understudied species and flyways, not least by disadvantaged researchers from the Global South.

This event aims to bring together experts tackling a broad range of pressing topics in migration ecology across different flyways, and from diverse perspectives. The conference will help set the research agenda on flyway ecology for the coming decade, by presenting/revising and summarising the current knowledge, and by identifying avenues for future research. To this end, we will promote explanatory research while also considering descriptive studies and basic natural history. We explicitly welcome contributions that seek to improve inclusivity and accessibility of flyway-scale research networks and enable collaborative studies across large spatial scales. To facilitate parallels across taxonomic and flyway boundaries, sessions will be organised according to broad themes, including physiology of migration and flight endurance, individual flexibility and environmental tuning of migratory behaviour, ontogeny of migration, seasonal survival, carry-over effects and demography, responses of migrants to accelerating global change, migrants shaping ecosystems and flyway conservation.

The conference will take place on Zoom to encourage participation from around the globe. It will run over a single 24-hour period, with sessions dedicated to the TransAtlantic, Africa-Eurasia and Trans-Pacific flyways, timed to coincide with relevant time zones. The conference Scientific Programme Committee is co-chaired by Dr Wouter Vansteelant (University of Groningen) and Dr José Alves (University of Iceland, University of Aveiro) and includes Dr Elly Knight (University of Alberta), Dr Camila Gómez (SELVA), Dr Yachang Cheng (Sun Yat-sen University), Sayam Chowdhury (University of Cambridge), Vojtech Brlik (Charles University), Dr Maria Dias (University of Lisbon), Steve Dudley (Consultant, Scotland), Dr Cat Morrison (University of East Anglia), Dr Elham Nourani (Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior). Further committee members, to cover the various flyways, will be added in early 2023.

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2024 annual conference – Urban Birds (#BOU2024)

2024 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

URBAN BIRDS

9–11 April 2024 | Nottingham & Twitter #BOU2024

Alfred Newton Lecture to be delivered by Prof Amanda Rodewald (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology).

Scientific Programme Committee chaired by Dr Christine Howard (Durham University).

Further details at BOU.ORG.UK.

Image: House Sparrow | Zeynel Cebeci CC BY SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

The 2024 annual conference will focus on the topic of urban birds. The expansion of urban environments is a key driver of global biodiversity loss and is likely to have an increasing impact in the future. By altering both the biotic and abiotic environment, the conversion of natural habitats into urban environments can profoundly affect the composition and persistence of avian communities. Yet, whilst urban environments present many challenges to birds – including the loss of natural habitats, and exposure to novel predators and stressors such as noise, light, and air pollution – they also present many opportunities. Milder climates and the availability of new resources has enabled some species to flourish. Although often regarded as highly degraded habitats, these complex ecosystems provide exciting opportunities to study ecological and evolutionary theory. With 20% of all bird species occurring in cities, it is essential that researchers, conservationists, and policy makers now come together to share their knowledge on the impacts of urbanisation on birds, and how avian diversity can be maintained in a changing world.

We are pleased to announce that the Alfred Newton Lecture will be delivered by Prof Amanda Rodewald, Garvin Professor and Senior Director of Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Department of Natural Resources & the Environment, Cornell University. The remainder of the programme for the conference will be developed over the course of 2023 by the conference Scientific Programme Committee, led by Dr Christine Howard (Durham University) and supported by Dr Davide Dominoni (University of Glasgow), Dr Caroline Isaksson (Lund University) and Dr Kate Plummer (BTO).

Improving BOU conferences

Our focus during 2022 was to further improve our delivery of online conferences following the success of our first Zoom conference in November 2020, and to deliver our first in-person event since the pandemic. We have been pleased with the strength of the programmes and delegate participation in our two Zoom events in 2022, encouraging us to continue with the policy to organise parallel Zoom and Twitter conferences, where we wish to maximise international reach and are willing to forego the advantages of in-person events to achieve this. However, we note the declining audiences at these events, and will be looking at ways to maximise registration and participation at our next Zoom event in autumn 2023 (Flyways). Following the cancellation of our planned in-person event in 2022 (Birds as Individuals, autumn 2022), we keenly await the level of interest in our in-person annual conference in 2023 on evolutionary responses, accepting that there remains some uncertainty about people’s willingness to travel and attend in-person events.

The BOU strives to make all our events inclusive and accessible. To help achieve this we run all in-person and virtual Zoom conferences as dual platform events with a Twitter conference running alongside the main in-person/virtual event. Every presenter at an in-person/virtual event is now required to tweet a summary of their presentation as part of the parallel Twitter event. We also include additional Twitter-only presentations during the breaks of the in-person/virtual event.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 23

Presenters are provided with extensive guidelines on how to tweet their presentation on Twitter.

The use of blind review of submissions continues to work well for BOU conferences. We have published a conference Code of Conduct (see https://bou.org.uk/about-the- - bou/code of conduct/) and continue to implement equality, diversity and inclusiveness initiatives (https://bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/equality-diversity/) into all of our activities, working with the Engagement Committee’s Equality and Diversity Working Group. For example, 2022 saw the adoption of a pronoun visibility initiative across BOU activities, which included inviting conference attendees to provide their pronouns for inclusion in conference materials. As such, the BOUasm22, BOUsci22 and BOU2023 programmes all listed pronouns for those presenters that provided them, and pronouns will similarly be included on name badges from BOU2023.

Grants Committee

GRANTS COMMITTEE

Chair

BOU.ORG.UK/FUNDING/

This Committee advises Council on the selection of research grant and bursary applications that the BOU should support.

Dr Sonya Clegg (University of Oxford)

The Committee considers applications for:

Members

Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence (RSPB) Dr Davide Dominoni (University of Glasgow) (from July 2022) Mr Steve Dudley, BOU COO (to July 2022) Dr Ilya Maclean (University of Exeter) (to July 2022) Dr Sam Patrick (University of Liverpool) Dr Martin Sullivan (Manchester Metropolitan University) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO (from May 2022)

The Committee met twice via Zoom in 2022. The meeting to consider research grant and career development bursary applications was held in February, and the meeting to consider applications for the Brenda and Tony Gibbs Award, and the final John and Pat Warham Studentship was held in June. The remainder of the Committee’s business was conducted by email.

Committee Membership: Prof Ilya Maclean completed his term as an ordinary member after the June meeting. Dr Davide Dominoni was confirmed as an ordinary member in the July Council meeting. Dr Leila Walker replaced Steve Dudley as the BOU’s Chief Operations Officer and as ex-officio member of the Committee from July.

Small Ornithological Research Grant scheme

The Committee received 45 grant applications (54 in 2021, 51 in 2020). One application was rejected due to breaches in submission criteria, leaving 44 to be assessed ahead of the annual meeting held on 2 February 2022. Two qualified for

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 24

FUNDING ORNITHOLOGY

Two of the species being researched by projects funded by the BOU in 2022.

From the top:

Common Eider Somateria mollissima Marton Bernsten CC BY SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons

Toco Toucan Ramphastos toco Bernard Dupont CC BY SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons

funding consideration under the Brenda and Tony Gibb bequest. Each application was scored by two committee members and, based on these scores, the associated comments and on-the-day discussions, the committee determined which projects to support.

Council approved six awards, totaling £10,068, to be made in 2022:

Michał Jezierski (Polish) | £1,500 (amount requested) PhD student, University of Oxford, UK

The spectacular diversification of the British wrens.

Verónica Méndez Aragón (Spanish) | £1,500 (amount requested) Academic Director, University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland Within population variation in feeding ecology of Common Eiders in Iceland.

Klara K. Nordén (Swedish) | £1,885 (amount requested) PhD student, Princeton University, USA Evolution of iridescent feather structure in Common Cuckoos.

Teresa Pegan (USA) | £1,683 (amount requested) PhD Student, University of Michigan, USA

The influence of migration distance on molecular evolutionary rates in birds.

Roman Alberto Ruggera (Argentina) | £1,500 (amount requested) Profesor Adjunto, Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas, Argentina Ecology and conservation of the Toco Toucan as a flag for environmental education and urban planning.

Kristen Wacker (US) | £2,000 (amount requested) PhD student, University of Michigan, USA Evaluating the effects of relative geographic barrier strength on avian diversification using Neotropical wrens.

Brenda and Tony Gibbs small research award

Separate to the main Gibbs Award (awards up to £20,000 – see page 29) we will use the remainder of the bequest left to us by Brenda and Tony Gibbs to fund smaller awards for applications within the parameters of the Gibbs bequest coming in through our small grant scheme.

One award was made in 2022:

Olufemi Oluboden (Nigeria) | £1,955 (amount requested) PhD student, Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, South Africa Territory size and spatial use patterns of the Pygmy Falcons .

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Career Development Bursary scheme

The Committee received six applications (the scheme was not offered in 2020 or 2021, 7 in 2019, 5 in 2018, 10 in 2017) and all were assessed by the committee. Council approved two awards totaling £4,949:

Anap Isphaku Afan (Nigeria) | £2,449 (amount requested) Research Associate, AP Leventis, Nigeria Honeyguides, honey-eating and the current state of human-honeyguide mutualism in Nigeria .

Project location: FitzPatrick Insitute, Cape Town University, South Africa Supervisor: Jessica van der Wal and Claire Spottiswoode

Chima Josiah Nwaoga (Nigeria) | £2,500 (amount requested)

Junior Research Fellow, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Impacts of long-term changes in rainfall on the breeding season of African birds Project location: James Cook University, Australia Supervisor: Martijn van de Pol

John and Pat Warham Studentships

Of the four fully funded studentships available, three have been appointed in previous years. Updates on these projects are provided below. Two applications were received for the final Warham Studentship. The studentship was awarded to:

A/Prof Rohan Clarke | £85,000 (amount requested) Monash University, Australia Recovering the critically engendered Beck’s Petrel Project country & student recruitment: Papua New Guinea

Kirsty Franklin, University of East Anglia, UK (commenced 2018) The ‘Round Island petrel’ conundrum

WARHAM STUDENT

Our 2018 Warham Student, Kirsty Franklin , University of East Anglia, UK.

Principal supervisor: Prof Jennifer Gill

Kirsty told us the following in her end of year communication:

PhD thesis submitted!! I’m very pleased to have submitted my thesis in December 2022 and wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who made this journey possible and such a wonderful experience. A special thank you goes to John and Pat Warham, and the BOU, for funding my PhD and providing me with this opportunity, and to my five supervisors, Jenny Gill, Malcolm Nicoll, Norman Ratcliffe, Ken Norris and Simon Butler for their help and support along the way. I have loved every minute of this project!

The last year of my PhD was a busy one. I wrapped up my PhD thesis and finished three more data chapters, with the overarching aim of exploring the factors influencing the within- and between-individual variation in migratory strategies, and their consequences for the conditions experienced, by Round Island petrels. One of these data chapters involved building on my published petrel chapter which revealed individual petrels to consistently undertake very different migratory strategies to

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 26

different areas across much of the Indian Ocean (see end for link to paper). In this chapter, I described the range of migratory strategies (parts of the Indian Ocean used by individuals on their migratory journeys) for 198 geolocator-tracked petrels and identified the factors that drive this variation. For example, Round Island petrels breed all year round and consist of a hybrid complex (of at least three species of Pterodroma petrel), and so I have explored whether birds following more similar migratory strategies also have more similar genetic composition or timings of departure from Round Island. This has only been possible because of the hard work by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) and National Parks and Conservation Service (NPCS; Mauritian Government) in deploying and retrieving hundreds of geolocators. But to me, perhaps one of the most exciting chapters made use of all the immersion data provided by the geolocators, to investigate how petrel nighttime behaviour varies spatially across the Indian Ocean and with the lunar cycle. All petrels showed strongly lunar-structured night-time activity patterns, with petrels spending lots of time on the water during the new moon and progressively less as the moon waxes and wanes. I’m looking forward to getting this, and my other chapters, published post-viva!

White-throated dipper ( Cinclus cinclus ), the subject of our second Brenda and Tony Gibbs Award (see page 29). Image | Ron Knight, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

The camera traps and stands which I deployed during my fieldwork on Round Island in 2019 to monitor petrel breeding attempts successfully continued capturing images (despite experiencing very strong winds from multiple tropical cyclones!) for the duration of my PhD. In total, these cameras generated over 180,000 images and this work has been an exciting addition to my PhD. The challenges of processing the wealth of photographic information this technique produces has led me to make many new collaborations, and I’m currently still supervising two Masters students and an undergraduate student based in the School of Computing Sciences at University of East Anglia, who are testing several machine learning/computer vision algorithms aimed at automating the detection and counting of petrels in the images. We are hoping to build an online application through which more camera images can be uploaded and processed with the machine learning going on in the background. I’m excited to head back to Mauritius (and Round Island!) to share all the results of my PhD with MWF and NPCS in early 2023, as well as examining the state of the camera stands and catching up with my petrels. Fingers crossed for a few more petrel geolocator recoveries too!

As the majority of my PhD was spent during a global pandemic, I was very happy to attend and present a talk at an in-person conference, the 15th International Seabird Conference in Cork in August 2022. It was a great reminder of how important conferences are for networking and was exciting (but also rather terrifying) to present some of my PhD results. I was very pleased for my talk to be ‘highly commended’ and if you’re interested, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/NxudVleHqAw.

I’m very grateful to the BOU for allowing me to take a short break from my PhD. Last summer, I spent 2.5 months along the Flamborough and Filey coast (in Yorkshire) to undertake a seabird tracking job with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Despite the difficulties with Avian Influenza, we were

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 27

very lucky to get some GPS tags deployed on kittiwakes, and I was able to expand and diversify my skillset in seabird tracking and monitoring.

It has been an incredible year, and I’m very grateful to have been provided with a Warham Studentship. Now I am excited for the next step in my career, where I am back working with the same lovely team at the RSPB as I did last summer, as a Conservation Scientist on various seabird tracking projects. Best of luck to Paige, Émile, and the next Warham student with their projects!

Franklin KA et al. (2022). Individual consistency in the migration strategies of a tropical seabird, the Round Island petrel. Movement Ecology, 10: 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-022-00311-y

Franklin KA et al. (2022). Individual repeatability of avian migratory phenology: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Animal Ecology, 91: 1416-1430. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13697

WARHAM STUDENT

Our 2019 Warham Student, Paige Green , undertaking Little Penguin fieldwork off Tasmania (Photo: Olly Dove).

Paige Greene, University of Tasmania, Australia (commenced 2019) Quantifying the ecological factors under-pinning population trends in crested penguins

Principal supervisor: Prof Mark Hindell

In her end of year communication with us, Paige wrote:

I am currently in the process of wrapping up as much as I can of my thesis as I start working full time at the beginning of February. I am 90% complete but I will go part-time with PhD to have a little extra time to hand in a quality product.

Last year (2022) was a fantastically productive year: I published two papers (see below). I have drafts for two more which I can hopefully submit this year for publication. I attended two online conferences to present my work (International Seabird Conference and the Biologging Conference). I have been incredibly humbled by the input and support from Eudyptes penguin researchers across the world who have given me data and feedback along the way to publishing. I’m now on “email chat” terms with researchers I have admired and looked up to for years! This has been a project of international collaborations and the penguin researchers of the world have welcomed me with open arms. They’re just so cool!

We successfully collected data from Antipodes Island and now we finally know where Erect-crested Penguins and Eastern Rockhopper Penguins from Antipodes Island overwinter- which is not only a huge step for the management of New Zealand Island seabirds but for marine predators in the Southern Ocean as a whole. Over my project I may have had some Covid-related setbacks, but I have come out the other side with a thesis I am incredibly proud of and worked with incredible marine ecologists across the world.

My studies have focused on answering questions about theoretical ecology (relating to niche partitioning), movement energetics, and the potential for species redistribution due to climate change. In the rapidly changing marine environment

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 28

that these penguins exist in, it is important that we try to understand how they use their environment and how this may change with climate change. In the wrap up of my thesis I am currently writing my Final Discussion chapter and we still have so much left to find out! I think this is the truly magnificent nature of science- to do research that answers questions but that also leads to new questions. There is still a vast amount we need to find out about Eudyptes penguins and I hope I have not only added knowledge but that my research will encourage others to explore more about these fascinating penguins.

Only a few months to go! Wish me luck!

Green C-P et al. (2022). The role of allochrony in influencing interspecific differences in foraging distribution during the non-breeding season between two congeneric crested penguin species. PLoS ONE, 17(2): e0262901. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262901

Green C-P et al. (2022). Potential for redistribution of post-moult habitat for Eudyptes penguins in the Southern Ocean under future climate conditions. Global Change Biology, 29: 648-667. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16500

WARHAM STUDENT

Our 2020 Warham Student, Émile BrissonCuradeau, re-capturing a penguin equipped with a GPS device, after it had returned from its foraging trip (Photo: Institut Polaire PaulÉmile Victor).

Émile Brisson-Curadeau, McGill University, Canada (commenced 2020) Foraging behaviour of King Penguins under extreme climatic events Principal supervisor: Dr Kyle Elliott

In Émile’s end of year communication, he wrote:

A year ago, I was writing this same report from a boat, heading towards my field site. It was with a little bit of nostalgia that I travelled to the subantarctic island of Kerguelen, as it was going to be my last of three consecutive field seasons. The fieldwork was successful, as we deployed more GPS devices on King Penguins – my study species – than we ever had since the inauguration of the program 25 years ago. Now back home, this has been my first Christmas in four years that I have not spent surrounded by penguins. While I am happy to see my family for the holidays, I can tell you one thing: I will miss those big awkward birds!

As I spend more time in Canada, where my university is located, my focus will be on analysing the data and writing papers to share the results of our findings. On that note, I’ve been off to a great start, as my second paper was published recently in none other than Global Change Biology! This paper looked at the long-term dataset of King Penguins, asking if climate change had affected the breeding or foraging success of the population. What we found was quite surprising: penguins there actually do very well, despite the obvious air and ocean warming occurring in that region. This is a huge contrast with the neighbouring island, Crozet, where the same species has definitively suffered from global warming. The different responses of the two populations can be explained by the fact that the oceanic currents used by foraging penguins have very different dynamics in the two places. In Crozet, the currents shift away from the colony with warming climate, out of reach for the breeding penguins. In contrast, the positions of the currents are not affected by

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 29

RECORDS COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr James Gilroy (University of East Anglia)

Secretary

climate in Kerguelen. That study provided a good example of how even neighboring populations can have very different responses to climate change.

The third paper I am currently working on will look at a large breeding failure that occurred in the King Penguin colony in 2009 and 2010. I am hoping to better understand what happened during those two catastrophic years, where almost all chicks at the colony died. If everything goes well, this paper should be published in the upcoming months!

Dr Chris McInerny (University of Glasgow)

Members

Mr Chris Batty (Lancashire)

Of course, spending less time in the field will also mean more time available for conferences! I am hoping to participate in a few next summer. This is particularly of interest now that I start to have more published results from my research. Stay tuned!

Dr Pierre-Andre Crochet (French National

Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)) Mr Steve Dudley, BOU COO (to July 2022) Mr Paul French (BBRC Chair)

Brisson-Curadeau, E, Elliott, K & Bost, C-A (2022). Contrasting bottom-up effects of warming ocean on two king penguin populations. Global Change Biology. 29: 9981008. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16519

Mr Mark Golley (Norfolk, UK)

Dr Alex Lees (Manchester Metro University) Mr Andrew Stoddart (Norfolk, UK) (to July 2022)

Mr Mark Thomas (RSPB (from July 2022) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO (from May 2022)

Brenda and Tony Gibbs bequest

We received and assessed 20 applications. The combined scores and comments from Committee members were used for the basis of the on-the-day discussions at a meeting on 27 June 2022.

Council approved a single award of £20,000:

BOURC CATEGORY F SUB-COMMITTEE (BOURC CFSC)

Dr Joanne Cooper Prof John R. Stewart Dr Dale Serjeantson

Stuart Sharp (Lancaster University)

Lecturer, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK

Natal dispersal in a riverine bird: using next generation tracking to transform our understanding of juvenile Dipper movements.

Records Committee

BOURC CONSULTANTS

Steve Dudley (Category C)

Dr Bob McGowan, National Museums of

Scotland (museums) Keith Naylor (historical records) Andrew Owen, Chester Zoo (captive bird trade)

BOU.ORG.UK/BRITISH-LIST/

The Records Committee is responsible for maintaining the British List, the official list of birds recorded in Britain.

The Committee met twice (remotely) during the year with other business conducted by email.

Andrew Stoddart retired as a member of the Committee in July 2022. Andrew has been an enormously valued and hard-working member during his time on the committee, and we extend our gratitude to Andrew for all his hard work over the course of his term, not least in leading or contributing to a number of publications on the Committee’s work. We welcomed Mark Thomas as a new member – Mark is an experienced birder and A permit ringer with a particular passion for migration and weather, and we look forward to his contributions to the Committee. Dr Leila Walker replaced Steve Dudley as the BOU’s Chief Operations Officer and as ex-officio

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 30

member of the Committee from July.

NEW PAPERS RELATING TO THE BRITISH LIST

The birds of ancient Britain: first recommendations for Category F of the British List / Joanne H. Cooper, John R. Stewart, Dale Serjeantson / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13066

Assessing vagrants from translocated populations and defining self-sustaining populations of non-native, naturalized and translocated avian species / Christopher J. McInerny, Pierre-André Crochet, Steve P. Dudley, on behalf of BOURC & AERC / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13067

Changes to the British List

The 10th edition of the British List was published in June (IBIS 164: 860-910), shortly before the Committee’s 54th Report covering the period from October 2021 to April 2022 (IBIS 164: 929-931). This announced a number of changes to Category A of the British List, including:

(alpestris/praticola/hoyti) – subspecies group added to the List. Subsequent to the publication of the 54th Report, the Committee announced the addition of two further species and one subspecies to Category A of the British List (to be included in the 55th Report):

In total, these changes to the British List, together with taxonomic changes in line with IOC taxonomy (detailed in IBIS 164: 929-931) bring the total to 630 species as at 31 December 2022.

In June 2022, the BOURC Category F sub-Committee published the first formally and critically reviewed list of bird species in Britain prior to 1800 (IBIS 164: 911-923). This major undertaking reveals an impressive range of 242 taxa for which we have robust evidence of historical presence, and the paper yielded many insights into the considerable changes occurring in the British avifauna through time.

Zino’s Petrel Pterodroma madeira , admitted to the British List in 2022. Image © Danni & Zac Hinchclife

Also in June 2022, members of the Committee together with others from the Association of European Rarities Committees (AERC) published a new set of guidelines for assessing vagrants from translocated populations, including criteria to define self-sustaining populations of non-native, naturalized and translocated avian species (IBIS 164: 924-928). Using recent extralimital records of Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus as a case study, the paper promotes consistency in approaches taken to such records, and sets out a clearer framework for future decisions about species admitted to Category C of the British List.

Links with other groups

The Committee maintains close links with the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC). The BOURC Secretary continues to work closely with BBRC’s Secretariat and other European committees, and close links are maintained with Association of European Records Committees (AERC).

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 31

BOURC online intranet

Acknowledgements

The Union would like to extend its thanks and gratitude to the following who have assisted with the many BOU activities throughout the year:

all those members of Council and our committees as listed throughout the report who give up their time willingly to develop, oversee and deliver our wide range of activities;

Raurie Bowie, Richard Fuller, Jenny Gill, Rebecca Kimball, Dominic McCafferty, Ruedi Nager, Jeremy Wilson, Patrick Smith, all Associate Editors (listed in each issue of IBIS) and the hundreds of reviewers (listed annually in IBIS) for their invaluable work for IBIS;

Richard Sale (on behalf of the Alexander Library, Oxford University) for his editing of the IBIS book reviews;

The Committee operates an online intranet site that is used for the storage of images and documents to assist with its work.

Membership

At the end of the year our total membership stood at 1,017 (946 at 31 Dec 2021) comprising 721 full members (666 at 31 Dec 2021) and 296 reduced rate subscribers (280 at 31 Dec 2022) made up of 273 early career researchers (ECRs) and 23 from developing countries.

26 resignations were received during the year (55 in 2021), and Council noted, with sadness, the following deaths: Dr Einhard Bezzel, Dr Walter Bock, Dr Margaret Carswell, Mr Robert Gillmor, Mr Michael Holdsworth, Mr Wolfgang Rohr and Mr Mike Wilson.

As ever, we remain extremely grateful for the continued support of our members.

Prof Christopher Perrins and Neil Bucknell for arranging the obituaries published in IBIS;

Farhath Jabeen, Andreas Petersen, Janany Sudarshan, Joanna Borysiak, Graham Allen and colleagues at Wiley, for their help in delivering our high quality journal;

Leica (UK) for their support of our IBIS early career researcher award;

Nigel Crocker, Richard Price and Stephen Rumsey for their excellent management of the Union’s investment portfolio;

Dr Ian Hartley (University of Lancaster), Dr José Alves (University of Aveiro, Portugal), Dr Sarah Burthe (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology), Dr Becky Laidlaw (University of East Anglia) and Dr Rob Robinson (BTO) for their work preparing the programme for the annual conference (Avian reproduction);

Dr Ellie Owen (RSPB), Dr Arjun Amar (Fitzpatrick Institute, University of Cape Town), Dr Tom Hart (University of Oxford) and Dr Joelene Hughes (RSPB) for the planning and delivery of our ‘Citizen Science and Birds’ autumn conference;

Dr Ian Hartley (University of Lancaster), Dr José Alves (University of Aveiro, Portugal), Dr Sarah Burthe (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology), Dr Becky Laidlaw (University of East Anglia) and Dr Rob Robinson (BTO) for their work preparing the programme for the annual conference (Avian reproduction);

Cont/.

Financial review

Graham Appleton, Honorary Treasurer

2022 was another year of frustration for the BOU, with Covid still having major impacts upon the scope of our work. We had to cancel two conferences, making a significant loss when we gave up our deposit for the residential conference in Nottingham.

With no face-to-face events, we spent less on engagement than we had budgeted for, which helped to reduce losses. At the end of the year we received a larger transfer than expected from Wiley, reflecting a good year for IBIS.

The BOU’s total funds dropped by £101,345 during 2022. The underlying operating loss during the year was £15,362, when payments made from Restricted Funds (£56,339), the loss made on unrestricted investments (£39,644) and a new restricted donation (£10,000) are excluded.

Income

Membership income increased by £4,830 but this is partly due to a change that we made in the accounts for 2021, reflecting the recent introduction of anniversary renewals. In my 2021 report, I highlighted my concern about the fall in membership numbers during that year and it is pleasing to note that there was an increase in numbers during 2022, nearly taking us back to the level of 31 December 2020. Council has discussed the long-term drop in membership numbers and set up a working group, chaired by Dr Mark Eaton (Honorary Secretary) and involving the

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 32

Acknowledgements

CONT/.

Dr Ellie Owen (RSPB), Dr Arjun Amar (Fitzpatrick Institute, University of Cape Town), Dr Tom Hart (University of Oxford) and Dr Joelene Hughes (RSPB) for the planning and delivery of our ‘Citizen Science and Birds’ autumn conference;

Dr Thomas Bodey (University of Aberdeen, Chair), Dr José Alves (University of Aveiro, Portugal, Dr Karin Maldonado (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Spain) and Dr Ana Payo Payo (University of Aberdeen) for planning our sadly cancelled ‘Birds as individuals’ autumn conference;

Sarah Binnie, Ryan Burrell, Camilo Carneiro, Kirsty Franklin, Ros Green, Triin Kassiku, and Natalia Zielonka for their excellent delivery of our two virtual events across Zoom and Twitter;

Yachang Cheng and Zhu Lei for running our Weibo account in China;

Sophie Detchon, Robert Bogdan, Stoycho Stoychov, Brian Edwards and Charlie Douglass at Douglass Digital for maintenance and development of the BOU website;

Maria Rogers and the conference staff at the University of Nottingham Conferences for working with us on the ongoing postponement of our in-person annual conference;

Chas Holt (BBRC Secretary), Louise Bacon (BBRC Secretary), Patric Lorgé (AERC Chairman), Bob McGowan (National Museums Scotland), Keith Naylor, British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC), and bird records committees across Europe under the auspices of the Association of European Records Committees (AERC) who have assisted BOURC during the year;

Karen Kragesand Thomsen at Kovsted & Skovgård;

and Caroline Gillis, Tracey Richardson and colleagues at Azets (accountants and auditors).

We apologise to anyone we have inadvertently omitted.

outgoing President (Prof Juliet Vickery) and her proposed successor (Dr Graeme Buchanan). All committees have been asked to discuss ways to actively promote membership within their respective areas.

IBIS income exceeded expectations, rising from £96,793 to £108,752, thanks to a high through-put of papers and Transformational Agreements negotiated by Wiley. These country-wide contracts make Open Access freely available to authors in a growing number of institutions, although this does exclude some of our key IBIS contributors, especially those working for NGOs. During 2022, we concluded negotiations with Wiley for a four-year extension of the contract to publish the journal. This will take us through to the end of 2027, on broadly similar terms, and creates a sound basis for medium-term financial planning.

Conference income was low, with no opportunities to meet in person during 2022. The impact on our finances has been reduced by the provision of on-line Zoom and Twitter alternatives and I am grateful to everyone involved in providing these, often at short notice, when plans needed to be changed.

Expenditure

Steve Dudley’s work as COO has been pivotal to the financial strength of the BOU for the last 25 years and Council members were keen to ensure that we retained access to his expertise during a two-month hand-over period and via a call-off arrangement, which will operate through to the end of March 2023. This ensured the delivery of the new IBIS contract with Wiley and a very smooth account/audit process at the end of the year. These arrangements are reflected in a larger salary bill for 2022.

There are changes to the presentation of salary costs because Dr Leila Walker is a Danish resident; this somewhat complicated the ways in which we account for national insurance and tax payments. We are grateful to Azets, our accountants/auditors, and to Kovsted & Skovgård in Denmark, who had the expertise to help us with these changes.

Grants, bursaries and travel awards provide vehicles for the BOU to invest in the future of ornithology, with £15,017 being spent on grants and bursaries, using investment income and general funds, £34,384 from the John and Pat Warham Fund and £21,955 from the Brenda and Tony Gibbs Fund. From 2023 onwards, extra grant payments can be made using some of a generous donation of £10,000 that was received in 2022. There were no travel grants in 2022 but Council agreed to make £5,000 available for member conference attendance grants in 2023.

During 2022, signatories of bank accounts were updated, to reflect the change in COO and Officers. We took this opportunity to simplify our banking arrangements by closing our Scottish Widows account.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 33

Investments

The value of investments dropped by 8%, which is less than might have been expected, given the turbulence in world markets, associated with Russia’s attack on Ukraine. We are grateful to Nigel Crocker, Richard Price and Stephen Rumsey for their work as Investment Trustees. The BOU relies on a mix of income and capital from investment funds to pay for grants and for the Brenda & Tony Gibbs Awards. Council agreed that, as a temporary measure, Gibbs payments should come out of core funds, with a transfer from the Gibbs investments to take place when investments recover to pre-Covid levels. We sold investments in the John and Pat Warham Fund at the end of 2021, which meant that we had already set aside cash to fund a fourth studentship between 2023 and 2027.

Looking forwards

The BOU’s Trustees are committed to reducing the amount of savings we hold, in line with the expectations of the Charity Commissioners. For the last few years, Council has been setting budgets that have been designed to be negative and this will continue into 2023 and beyond. Council has agreed that we should be aiming to reduce Unrestricted Funds to £350k, in the medium term, representing one year of operations (£200k) and a buffer of £150k.

In summary, the loss in 2022 is lower than we expected, largely due to the success of IBIS. We have coped with Covid constraints by being flexible in our planning and budgetary decision making. If we can arrest the medium-term decline in membership and re-establish a successful programme of in-person conferences then the BOU will continue to be in a healthy financial position.

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Responsibilities of the Trustees

The Members of Council are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The law applicable to charities in England and Wales and in Scotland requires the Members of Council to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that year.

In preparing these financial statements, the Members of Council are required to:

The Members of Council are responsible for keeping sufficient accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Staff remuneration is reviewed annually in January by the principal officers (President, Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary). The decision on whether to make a pay award is contingent on affordability and the 12-month average CPIH for the previous calendar year. Benchmarking of pay and pension against comparators within the same sector, including the main avian research charities, is undertaken periodically according to availability and affordability of information.

Approved by the Council on 1 March 2023 and signed on their behalf by:

Prof Juliet Vickery President

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 35

Independent auditor’s report

to the members of the British Ornithologists’ Union for the year ended 31 December 2022

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of British Ornithologists' Union (the ‘ charity ’ ) for the year ended 31 December 2022 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet and the notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our

responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC ’ s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity ’ s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Members of Council with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The Members of Council are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 36

knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of Members of Council

As explained more fully in the statement of Trustees' responsibilities, the Members of Council are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Members of Council determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the Members of Council are responsible for assessing the charity ’ s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Members of Council either intend to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and report in accordance with the Acts and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council ’ s website at: https:// www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 37

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above and on the Financial Reporting Council ’ s website, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud.

We obtain and update our understanding of the entity, its activities, its control environment, and likely future developments, including in relation to the legal and regulatory framework applicable and how the entity is complying with that framework. Based on this understanding, we identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. This includes consideration of the risk of acts by the entity that were contrary to applicable laws and regulations, including fraud.

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud, we designed procedures which included:

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.

Other matters

Your attention is drawn to the fact that the charity has prepared financial statements in accordance with "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (as amended) in preference to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice issued on 1 April 2005 which is referred to in the extant regulations but has now been withdrawn.

This has been done in order for the financial statements to provide a true and fair view in accordance with current Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

Use of this report

This report is made solely to the charity ’ s trustees, as a body, in accordance with part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 38

2008 and regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity ’ s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Tracey Richardson BSc (Hons) FCA (Senior Statutory Auditor) Chartered Accountants

10 March 2023

Statutory Auditor

Ruthlyn House 90 Lincoln Road Peterborough Cambridgeshire PE1 2SP

Azets Audit Services is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 39

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Current financial year
Notes
Income from:
Donations and legacies
3
Charitable activities
4
Investments
5
Total income and endowments
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
6
Charitable activities
7
Total expenditure
Net gains/(losses) on investments
12
Net (outgoing)/incoming resources
before transfers
Gross transfers between funds
Net movement in funds
Fund balances at 1 January 2022
Fund balances at 31 December 2022		 Unrestricted
funds
£
37,967
129,240
19,321
186,528
57,738
139,690
197,428
(39,644)
(50,544)
5,633
(44,911)
650,736
605,825		 Restricted
funds
£
10,000
–
4,323
14,323
–
56,339
56,339
–
(42,016)
(5,633)
(47,649)
362,098
314,449		 Endowment
funds
£
–
–
1,472
1,472
–
–
–
(10,257)
(8,785)
–
(8,785)
162,443
153,658		 Total
2022
£
47,967
129,240
25,116
202,323
57,738
196,029
253,767
(49,901)
(101,345)
–
(101,345)
1,175,277
1,073,932		 Total
2021
£
33,596
117,312
31,619
182,527
55,126
173,651
228,777
71,024
24,774
–
24,774
1,150,503
1,175,277

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure is derived from continuing activities.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 40

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Prior financial year (2021)
Notes
Income from:
Donations and legacies
3
Charitable activities
4
Investments
5
Total income and endowments
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
6
Charitable activities
7
Total expenditure
Net gains/(losses) on investments
12
Net (outgoing)/incoming resources
before transfers
Gross transfers between funds
Net movement in funds
Fund balances at 1 January 2021
Fund balances at 31 December 2021		 Unrestricted
funds
£
33,596
117,312
26,339
177,247
55,126
96,164
151,290
50,599
76,556
7,749
84,305
566,431
650,736		 Restricted
funds
£
–
–
3,854
3,854
–
77,487
77,487
–
(73,633)
(7,749)
(81,382)
443,480
362,098		 Endowment
funds
£
–
–
1,426
1,426
–
–
–
20,425
21,851
–
21,851
140,592
162,443		 Total
2021
£
33,596
117,312
31,619
182,527
55,126
173,651
228,777
71,024
24,774
–
24,774
1,150,503
1,175,277

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure is derived from continuing activities.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 41

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2022
2022
Fixed assets
Notes
£
£
Investments
13
519,707
Current assets
Debtors
15
47,702
Cash at bank and in hand
545,662
593,364
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
16
(39,139)
Net current assets
554,225
Total assets less current liabilities
1,073,932
Capital funds
Endowment funds-general
General endowment funds
20
153,658
Income funds
Restricted funds
19
314,449
Unrestricted funds
605,825
1,073,932		 2021
£
52,408
617,383
669,791
(60,320)		 £
565,806
609,471
1,175,277
162,443
362,098
650,736
1,175,277

The accounts were approved by the Members of Council on 1 March 2023.

Prof Juliet Vickery President

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 42

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

1 Accounting policies

Charity information

The British Ornithologists' Union is a registered charity in England and Wales (249877) and Scotland (SC044850) and is unincorporated.

The charity is a public benefit company.

The charity's place of business is: PO Box 79, Pembroke, SA72 9AX, United Kingdom.

1.1 Accounting convention

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the charity's trust deed, the Charities Act 2011, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.

The financial statements have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a true and fair view. This departure has involved following the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities applying FRS 102 rather than the version of the Statement of Recommended Practice which is referred to in the Regulations but which has since been withdrawn.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2 Going concern

At the time of approving the financial statements, the Members of Council have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the Members of Council continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

1.3 Charitable funds

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Members of Council in furtherance of their charitable objectives unless the funds have been designated for other purposes.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular future project or commitment.

Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure declared by the donor or through the terms of an appeal, and fall into one of two sub-classes: restricted income funds or endowment funds.

Endowment funds are subject to specific conditions by donors that the capital must be maintained by the charity.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 43

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

1.4 Income

1.5 Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is classified under headings of the statement of financial activities to which it relates:

All costs are allocated to expenditure categories reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities they contribute to on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 44

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Overheads

Overhead costs are allocated to the relevant cost centres in the following proportions:

A F Langford L Walker S P Dudley
Office costs remuneration remuneration remuneration
Conference costs 15% 7.5% 22.5% 22.5%
Management and administration 45% 47.5% 60% 60%
IBIS publishing costs 37.5% 45% 15% 15%
Research costs 2.5% – 2.5% 2.5%
100% 100% 100% 100%

These proportions were decided upon by the trustees, who believe that they represent a fair reflection of the resources expended by the charity on each activity.

1.6 Fixed asset investments

Unlisted equity investments are initially recorded at cost, and subsequently measured at fair value. If fair value cannot be reliably measured, assets are measured at cost less impairment.

Listed investments are measured at fair value with changes in fair value being recognised in income or expenditure.

1.7 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

1.8 Financial instruments

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 45

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Basic financial liabilities

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Derecognition of financial liabilities

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

1.9 Employee benefits

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

2 Critical accounting estimates and judgements

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the Members of Council are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

3

Donations and legacies
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
£
£
Donations and gifts
738
10,000
Subscriptions
37,229
-
37,967
10,000		 2022
£
10,738
37,229
47,967		 2021
£
1,197
32,399
33,596

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 46

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

4
5
6
7		 Charitable activities
Publication income – IBIS
Other publication income
Conference income
Investments
Unrestricted
funds
£
Income from listed investments
17,099
Interest receivable
2,222
19,321
For the year ended 31 December 2021
26,339
Raising funds
Fundraising and publicity
Management costs – purchases
Management costs – wages and salaries
Management costs – employer's NIC
Management costs – pension costs
Fundraising and publicity
Charitable activities
Research – administration costs
Publication costs – IBIS
Conference costs
Grant and bursary funding of activities (see note 8)
Share of governance costs (see note 9)		 Restricted
Endowment
funds
funds
general
£
£
4,323
1,472
–
–
4,323
1,472
3,854
1,426		 2022
£
108,752
71
20,417
129,240
Total
2022
£
22,894
2,222
25,116
2022
£
5,774
47,070
1,244
3,650
57,738
2022
£
1,861
59,281
46,723
107,865
71,356
16,808
196,029		 2021
£
96,793
10
20,509
117,312
Total
2021
£
31,595
24
31,619
31,619
2021
£
6,718
41,973
2,227
4,208
55,126
2021
£
1,774
57,498
19,216
78,488
82,607
12,556
173,651

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 47

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

8 Grants and bursaries payable

9

Grants and bursaries payable
Awards payable (eight in 2021):
Michał Jezierski (PhD student, University of Oxford, UK)
Verónica Méndez Aragón (Academic Director, University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland)
Kristen Wacker (PhD candidate, University of Michigan, US)
Klara K. Nordén (PhD student, Princeton University, US)
Teresa Pegan (PhD student, University of Michigan, US)
Anap Isphaku Afan (Research Associate, A P Leventis, Nigeria)
Roman Alberto Ruggera (Profesor Adjunto, Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas, Argentina)
Chima Josiah Nwaoga (Junior Research Fellow, University of Groningen, Netherlands)
Olufemi Olubodun (PhD student, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, South Africa)
Jethro George Gauld (PhD student, University of East Anglia, UK)
Olivia Hicks (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre d’Etudes Biolgiques de Chize, France)
Hannah Moon (PhD student, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA)
Benjamin Murphy (PhD student, Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, South Africa)
Rohit Naniwadekar (Researcher, Nature Conservation Foundation, India)
Çağla Önsal (Masters Student, Koç University, Turkey)
Petra Sumasgutner (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Konrad Lorenz Research Centre, Austria)
Riva Riley (President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Maryland, USA)
Reversal of grants accrued for payment in prior year as projects cancelled:
Amparo Herrera Dueñas (Freelance scientific researcher, University of Glasgow, UK)
Kate Rogerson (Formerly PhD candidate, University of East Anglia, UK)
Grants to institutions (four in 2021):
University of East Anglia, UK (John & Pat Warham Studentship – Kirsty Franklin)
University of Tasmania, Australia (John & Pat Warham Studentship – Paige Green)
McGill University, Canada (John & Pat Warham Studentship – Émile Brisson-Curadeau)
University of Tasmania, Australia (Brenda & Tony Gibbs Award – Jennifer Lavers)
Lancaster University (Brenda and Tony Gibbs Award – Stuart Sharp)
Support and governance costs
Support costs
Governance costs
£
£
Audit fees
–
5,220
Legal and professional
–
2,585
Accountancy
–
3,036
Costs of trustees' and committee meetings
–
1,217
Support Officers honoraria
–
4,750
–
16,808
Analysed between
Charitable activities
–
16,808		 2022
£
1,500
1,500
2,000
1,885
1,683
2,449
1,500
2,500
1,955
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
9,289
25,095
-
20,000
71,356
2022
£
5,220
2,585
3,036
1,217
4,750
16,808
16,808		 2021
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2,000
1,527
1,450
1,111
1,499
1,488
1,500
1,425
(2,400)
(2,480)
10,550
23,086
21,851
20,000
-
82,607
2021
£
5,150
–
2,614
542
4,250
12,556
12,556

Governance costs includes payments to the auditors of £5,220 (2021 - £5,150) for audit fees and £3,036 (2021 - £2,614) for other services.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 48

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

10 Members of Council

None of the Members of Council (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year.

During the year none of the Members of Council were reimbursed expenses (2021 - 1 member reimbursed £4). These expenses represent travelling costs incurred by the Members of Council in the performance of their duties.

11 Employees

Number of employees
The average monthly number employees during the year was:
Employment costs
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Other pension costs		 2022
2
2022
£
84,488
2,222
6,809
93,519		 2021
2
2021
£
75,824
3,993
7,601
87,418

No employee received employee benefits of more than £60,000 during the year (2020 – nil).

12
Net gains/(losses) on investments
Revaluation of investments
Gain/(loss) on sale of
investments
13
Fixed asset investments
Cost or valuation
At 1 January 2022
Additions
Valuation changes
At 31 December 2022
Carrying amount
At 31 December 2022
At 31 December 2021		 2022
2021
Unrestricted
funds
Endowment
funds
TotalUnrestricted
funds
Endowment
funds general
£
£
£
£
£
(39,644)
(10,257)
(49,901)
45,005
20,425
–
–
–
5,594
–
(39,644)
(10,257)
(49,901)
50,599
20,425
Listed investments
£
565,806
3,802
(49,901)
519,707
519,707
565,806		 Total
£
65,430
5,594
71,024

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 49

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

14
Financial instruments
Carrying amount of financial assets
Trade debtors
Other debtors
Bank and cash
Measured at cost
Listed investments
Measured at market value
Carrying amount of financial liabilities
Other taxation and social security
Accruals
Measured at cost
15
Debtors
Amounts falling due within one year:
Trade debtors
Other debtors
Prepayments and accrued income
16
Creditors
Notes
Amounts falling due within one year:
Other taxation and social security
Deferred income
17
Accruals		 2022
£
45,676
766
545,662
592,104
519,707
519,707
604
14,141
14,745
2022
£
45,676
766
1,260
47,702
2022
£
604
24,394
14,141
39,139		 2021
£
31,553
8,057
617,383
656,993
565,806
565,806
2,152
34,154
36,306
2021
£
31,553
8,057
12,798
52,408
2021
£
2,152
24,014
34,154
60,320

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 50

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

17 Deferred income

Other deferred income

2022 2021
£ £
24,394 24,014

Deferred income relates to subscriptions received in advance of £19,698 (2021 - £20,189) and income received in advance for conferences in future years of £4,696 (2021 - £3,825).

18 Pensions and other post-retirement benefits

Defined contribution pension plans

Contributions to defined contribution plans are recognised as an expense in the period in which the related service is provided.

The charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution plans was £6,809 (2021 - £7,601).

19 Restricted funds

The income funds of the charity include restricted funds comprising the following unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust for specific purposes:

Balance at
1 Jan 2021
£
Research Fund
75,779
John & Pat Warham Scholarship Fund
233,457
Brenda & Tony Gibbs Bequest
134,244
443,480
Balance at
1 Jan 2022
£
Research Fund
79,633
John & Pat Warham Scholarship Fund
172,421
Brenda & Tony Gibbs Bequest
110,044
Small grants
–
362,098		 Movement in funds (2021)
Income
Expenditure
£
£
3,854
–
–
(55,487)
–
(22,000)
3,854
(77,487)
Movement in funds (2022)
Income
Expenditure
£
£
4,323
–
–
(34,384)
–
(21,955)
10,000
–
14,323
(56,339)		 Transfers
Balance at
31 Dec 2021
£
£
–
79,633
(5,549)
172,421
(2,200)
110,044
(7,749)
362,098
Transfers
Balance at
31 Dec 2022
£
£
–
83,956
(3,438)
134,599
(2,195)
85,894
–
10,000
(5,633)
314,449		 Transfers
Balance at
31 Dec 2021
£
£
–
79,633
(5,549)
172,421
(2,200)
110,044
(7,749)
362,098
Transfers
Balance at
31 Dec 2022
£
£
–
83,956
(3,438)
134,599
(2,195)
85,894
–
10,000
(5,633)
314,449
314,449

Restricted funds include the Research Fund. This includes the income arising from investments held in the Endowment Fund.

The John & Pat Warham Scholarship Fund is to be used for research on Sphenisciform and Procellariiform seabirds and the income arising from investments.

The Brenda and Tony Gibbs Bequest is to be used for research on tracking and migration studies including the use of new technologies.

The transfer to the unrestricted fund represents an administration fee of 10% of the grants awarded from the John and Pat Warham Scholarship Fund and the Brenda and Tony Gibbs Bequest.

The small grants fund represents a donation that was received in the year that is to be used to award small grants in future years.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 51

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

20 Endowment funds

Endowment funds represent assets which must be held permanently by the charity. Income arising on the endowment funds can be used in accordance with the objects of the charity and is included as restricted income. Any capital gains or losses arising on the assets form part of the fund.

L & MT Fund
Research Fund
Hutt Legacy
L & MT Fund
Research Fund
Hutt Legacy		 Balance at
1 Jan 2021
£
110,739
9,910
19,943
140,592
Balance at
1 Jan 2022
£
128,596
11,236
22,611
162,443		 Movement in funds (2021)
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Revaluations gains
and losses
Balance at
31 Dec 2021
£
£
£
£
£
1,426
–
–
16,431
128,596
–
–
–
1,326
11,236
–
–
–
2,668
22,611
1,426
–
–
20,425
162,443
Movement in funds (2022)
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Revaluations gains
and losses
Balance at
31 Dec 2022
£
£
£
£
£
1,472
–
–
(8,372)
121,696
–
–
–
(626)
10,610
–
–
–
(1,259)
21,352
1,472
–
–
(10,257)
153,658		 Movement in funds (2021)
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Revaluations gains
and losses
Balance at
31 Dec 2021
£
£
£
£
£
1,426
–
–
16,431
128,596
–
–
–
1,326
11,236
–
–
–
2,668
22,611
1,426
–
–
20,425
162,443
Movement in funds (2022)
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Revaluations gains
and losses
Balance at
31 Dec 2022
£
£
£
£
£
1,472
–
–
(8,372)
121,696
–
–
–
(626)
10,610
–
–
–
(1,259)
21,352
1,472
–
–
(10,257)
153,658
153,658

The Landsborough and Mary Thomson Research Fund and the Hutt Legacy represent funds set up by individual donors. The purpose of the L&MT Research Fund was to fund research. Income arising from the capital held in investments within Endowment Funds is credited to the restricted Research Fund. The Research Fund represents permanent capital, the income from which is transferred to the fund of the same name in Restricted Funds to be spent solely on research activities (e.g. grants and bursaries). The Hutt Legacy is intended for the general purposes of the Union and interest arising from this item is credited to General Unrestricted Funds which itself represents investments and net assets which are held for the daily running and maintenance of the charity.

21 Analysis of net assets between funds

Unrestricted
funds
Fund balances at 31 December 2022 are
represented by:
£
Investments
248,052
Current assets/(liabilities)
357,773
605,825		 2022
Restricted
funds
Endowment
funds
£
£
117,997
153,658
196,452
–
314,449
153,658		 Total
2022
£
519,707
554,225
1,073,932

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2022 | 52

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

21 Analysis of net assets between funds (continued)

Analysis of net assets between funds(continued)
Unrestricted
funds
Fund balances at 31 December 2021 are
represented by:
£
Investments
266,995
Current assets/(liabilities)
383,741
650,736		 2021
Restricted
funds
Endowment
funds
£
£
136,368
162,443
225,730
–
362,098
162,443		 Total
2021
£
565,806
609,471
1,175,277

22 Financial commitments, guarantees and contingent liabilities

During the year the charity awarded the final John and Pat Warham Studentship grant of £85,000. This Studentship is due to run from 2023 to 2027.

23 Related party transactions

There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2020 – none).

Remuneration of key management personnel

The remuneration of key management personnel including employer pension contributions is as follows:

2022 2021
£ £
Aggregate compensation 56,154 52,148

Transactions with related parties

During the year payments of £1,842 (2021 - £nil) were made to Professor J Gill, wife of G Appleton, a Trustee. This was for IBIS editorial services and the transactions were on an arms length basis.

A donation of £10,000 was received in the year from a Trustee. No benefits were provided to the Trustee in respect of this donation.