Andy Webb has just posted this on Surfbirds:
<<<
Hi folks,
I've copied the original wording we used when we first set up the club
back in 1997. Don't bother with the hotmail address at the end - this
isn't being monitored if it even still exists.
I'm not sure if Surfbirds is going to insert control characters into
this message. If so, I apologise. I've sent Ilya a Word copy of the
text if anyone wants a copy as I will be away from my email for the next
12 days.
Good luck anyone who goes for a self-found list, enjoy your 4 months in
Shetland!
Andy
______________________________
Andy Webb
Knowledge Manager
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Dunnet House, 7 Thistle Place
Aberdeen AB10 1UZ
Rules of the UK 250 Club
The UK 250 Club is a club for people who have found at least 250 bird
species in Great Britain and Ireland (GB & I). The Club aims to promote
the skill of finding birds in the UK. It is intended as a fun and
different way of looking at lists, and must not be seen as excessively
competitive. UK 250 Club supports nature conservation by promoting the
submission of bird records to local bird recorders.
There are many definitions of what constitutes a find. The purpose of
these rules is to remove inconsistencies between these definitions and
allow comparison between find lists. Inevitably, the situations in
which people find birds are complex. Therefore the UK 250 Club must work
on the principles of honesty and genuine surprise.
In order to become a member of the UK 250 Club, you need to submit the
total number of bird species found by the rules listed below. The UK
250 Club Committee will request full lists from members in order to
carry out an initial check. These full lists will be made available to any
other UK 250 Club member who might request it. The UK 250 Club
Committee will adjudicate in the event of disputed finds.
1. The geographical limits all bird finds will be those of the Great
Britain and Ireland (GB & I). These are the political entities of
England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the
Isle of Man. The boundary extends offshore to 200 nautical miles, or if
closer, the median line between adjacent countries.
2. All bird species found, must be on categories A or C of the British
List as determined by the British Ornithologists Union.
3. All birds, if applicable, must have been accepted by the records
committee appropriate to the rarity and location of the find. This may
require a description of the bird to be submitted to the local records
committee, the Irish Rarities Committee, the NI Rarities Committee, the
Scottish Birds Records Committee, the Welsh Rarities Committee, the
British Birds Rarities Committee or the British Ornithologists Union
Records Committee. It is not sufficient to be named as an observer in the
relevant rarity report to count a species as a find.
4. The discovery of a bird must be a genuine surprise. Therefore, if
your find doesn't constitute an original observation, you must prove
that you were completely ignorant of the bird being present at that site.
For example, if you find a bird at a particular site, but learn later
that someone else had already found the bird there beforehand, you must
be able establish that you did not receive any information of the
bird's presence there.
5. A re-find must come as a genuine surprise. A re-find will
invariably involve a local or national rarity. If there is a sufficient gap in
time or place, such that the appropriate rarity report cites the
observation complete with the re-finders' names, then it can be counted as a
find.
6. All species which breed commonly in GB & I (i.e. not on Schedule 1
of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act) can be classed as found
without the principle of "genuine surprise" applying (Rules 4 & 5). All
other rules of the UK 250 Club still apply; in other words, these species
must still have been found and identified by yourself. A list of rare
breeding birds on Schedule 1 which can also be counted in this way is
given in Appendix 1 at the end of the rules. This is due to these
species being so sedentary and restricted in their geographical range and
habitat that finding them away from their well known breeding areas would
be virtually impossible. All other Schedule 1 species have to be found
away from known breeding areas by the normal finding rules of the UK
250 Club.
7. Under normal circumstances, the person who finds a bird will have
discovered it and correctly identified it. However, more than one person
can find a particular bird if any of the conditions in Rules 8, 9 or,
10 are met.
8. If the person who discovers the bird does not identify the bird to
the correct species, he or she must have ruled out all but the principal
confusion species to count it as a find. The person (or persons - see
Rule 10) who, having seen the bird, first correctly identifies it may
also count it as a find.
9. More than one person can claim to have identified a bird if they
vocalise or otherwise indicate that they have arrived at the correct
identification more or less simultaneously. Honesty is paramount when
deciding if the utterance given in the excitement of a find constitutes a
correct identification.
10. More than one person, but no more than three, can claim to have
identified a bird if the identification evolves over a period of time. In
these cases, the persons claiming this record as a find must all fully
contribute to the identification of the bird.
Appendix 1 Species on Schedule 1 of the W & C Act (1981) which can be
found without the principles of genuine surprise applying (see Rule 6).
Capercaillie
Ptarmigan
Dartford Warbler
Crested Tit
Chough
Scottish Crossbill
Cirl Bunting
Rules devised by Andy Webb, Ben Miller and Phil Hansboro
uk250clubAThotmail.com
UK 250 Club Rules 21/11/97
Copyright (c) UK 250 Club
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