Dawn Balmer and Andy Stoddart join BOURC

The British Ornithologists' Union has announced that Dawn Balmer and Andy Stoddart are to join its Records Committee (BOURC).

Dawn has been a keen birder since a child, and a trained bird ringer for over 20 years. She lives in Thetford, Norfolk, and enjoys local birding and other wildlife, with regular trips to the coast. She has special interests in migration and gull identification. Dawn 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 Editorial Board of British Birds, a Trustee of the Eric Hosking Charitable Trust and writes regularly for British Wildlife. The British birding scene has long been male-dominated, and Dawn becomes the first woman to be appointed to BOURC.

Andy is a lifelong birdwatcher. He has travelled widely but is most at home on his local patch of Blakeney Point in Norfolk. He has written four books on ornithological and environmental history and is a frequent contributor of papers, articles and book reviews to the birdwatching press, and is one of Birdwatch magazine's two identification consultants. He is Vice-Chair and a former voting member of the British Birds Rarities Committee and Editor of the Norfolk Bird Report.

The BOU's Records Committee (BOURC) is responsible for maintaining the British List — the official list of wild birds recorded in Great Britain. For more information on the List and the work of BOURC see here.