British Birds is owned and published by BB 2000 Ltd, the Directors of which are Adam Rowlands (Chair), Dawn Balmer, Paul Marshall, and Chris Spooner.  All BB 2000 Directors are unpaid volunteers.

BB 2000 Limited is wholly owned by the British Birds Charitable Trust (registered charity No. 1089422) whose trustees are Neil Bucknell (Chair), Tim Birkhead, Peter Marren, Adrian Pitches and Eve Tigwell.

Below are short profiles of the Directors and Trustees,

Adam Rowlands

Adam is the senior site manager at the RSPB’s flagship Minsmere reserve, in Suffolk. He has had close links with British Birds for many years, chiefly through the Rarities Committee; he joined the Committee as a voting member in the 1990s and was then Chairman for ten years until 2015.

Adrian Pitches

Adrian is a BBC TV journalist who lives on Tyneside. A birdwatcher since childhood, Adrian grew up in Leicestershire, a long way from the sea, so now revels in birding the Northumberland coast. His particular interests are the birds of Asia and Africa, and British rarities; he was the co-author of Birds New to Britain 1980–2004 (Helm 2005). Adrian has compiled News & comment in BB since 2001, was a BB Director from 2006–17, and joined the BB Trustees in October 2021.

Chris Spooner

Chris lives in Hampshire and is the Treasurer and a Trustee of the African Bird Club. A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales he retired from full time employment in 2012 and now spends more time travelling and getting involved with various conservation charities. A BB subscriber since 1973 he was delighted to be asked to join the board and get involved in his favourite birding publication.

Dawn Balmer

Dawn Balmer lives in the Brecks in Norfolk and is a keen birder and ringer and enjoys local birding as well as the occasional twitch farther afield. She has worked for the BTO since 1992 on a wide range of census, fieldwork, ringing and online bird recording projects. She was the Atlas Coordinator for the Bird Atlas 2007–11 project and is now Head of Surveys. Dawn also represents BTO on the Rare Breeding Birds Panel. In her spare time, she is on the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee, a Trustee of the Eric Hosking Charitable Trust and writes regularly for British Wildlife.

Eve Tigwell

Eve has been the BTO Regional Representative for Somerset for many years, organising a whole range of surveys in the county; she organised and co-authored The Somerset Atlas, and is currently Treasurer of the Somerset Ornithological Society. She has served as BTO Honorary Secretary and Chairman of the Pension Fund Trustees. Eve is particularly interested in research into the populations of commoner birds, and how they respond to habitat changes. She earns her living as an international garden retail consultant.

Neil Bucknell

Neil lives in Berkshire, and is a solicitor practising in Guildford. He was president of the Berkshire Ornithological Club from 2012 to 2018. He is co-author of The Birds of Berkshire, has served as Hon Secretary of both the BOU and BTO, and is a vice-president of the BOU. He is particularly interested in inland waterbirds, having covered the same WeBS sites for over 30 years, and after involvement with two local atlases is involved with putting the information to use in local conservation.

Paul Marshall

Paul joined the BB Board in February 2021 as ‘Digital Champion’. A birder since he could hold a pair of binoculars, Paul is a big fan of wildlife and wild places, with a particular fondness for all things migration, seabirds and wetlands. He considers himself fortunate to have always worked with wildlife. Starting in environmental conservation, then moving to the travel industry where he spent time working as a tour guide and developing his digital skills, before settling in the charity sector. He currently works for WWT in a marketing and communications role, where he combines his passion for the environment and digital skills to encourage others to connect with and understand the importance of nature. .

Peter Marren

Phil Woollen

 

Rob Sheldon

Rob Sheldon is a lifelong birder and has worked in conservation for 30 years, including for the RSPB, ZSL and as a freelance consultant. He is currently based in south-west Saudi Arabia working as the Nature and Ecosystem Director for Soudah Development. Since 2008 he's been a Council member of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME), including the last 10 years as Chairman.

Roger Safford

Roger Safford has been watching birds all his life and now does so mainly around his home on the Scottish coast. For 35 years since graduating he has been involved in bird conservation world-wide, working for BirdLife International from 2000 to 2023 including ten years as coordinator of its Preventing Extinctions Programme. He was lead author of the Birds of Africa volume on the Malagasy Region, and an accompanying Helm field guide.

Tim Birkhead

Tim Birkhead is emeritus Professor of Zoology at the University of Sheffield, where he’s been since 1976. His research has focussed  on the reproductive biology of birds, the shape of birds’ eggs and the history of ornithology. He has maintained a long-term population study of guillemots on Skomer Island, in Pembrokeshire, since 1972.

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