Regional Network Committee is responsible for planning and supervising a long-term programme of volunteer surveys, ensuring that the concerns of survey workers are addressed in survey planning and evaluation, and monitoring prompt feedback to them.
It appoints Regional Representatives and liaises with the Surveys Team in supervising Regional and Country Representatives. The Chair of the RNC sits on the Board and is supported on the committee by two members of the Board and six other members. The committee meets quarterly including one in-person meeting at BTO HQ in Thetford.
Members of the RNC
Stephen Metcalfe - RNC Chair
Stephen is the Regional Representative for the Lothians and RO for the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and Heronries Census. He has been a birdwatcher since childhood, his early interest being boosted by a couple of residential YOC courses. In his late teens/student years he volunteered as an assistant at both Havergate Island and Minsmere reserves.
Although family and work (as a solicitor) responsibilities restricted birding opportunities for many years, since retirement he has taken on 2 Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) squares and a coastal Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) section, before becoming RR in late 2019.
He is also a member of the RSPB and the SOC, attending the Lothian Discussion Group (which plans and carries out many local surveys) of the latter. In 2024 he became a trustee of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, taking on the role of supporting the Trust's network of volunteers. Apart from birding, he is a keen amateur musician, cyclist and walker.
Helen Crabtree
Helen has been the BTO Regional Representative for Sussex since 2008 and the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) regional organiser in Sussex since 2005. She is also the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) local organiser for Sussex inland sites. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Sussex Ornithological Society and has organised many single-species bird surveys in Sussex on their behalf as well as organising and taking part in all BTO surveys.
She also runs a farmland bird monitoring scheme within the South Downs National Park and is a trustee for a local woodland nature reserve where she monitors 30 nest boxes. She lives near Brighton and spends most weekends walking long distances on the South Downs.
Annette Jarratt-Knock
Annette became the BTO Regional Representative for Warwickshire in late 2018. She has a lifelong interest in natural history and birds in particular which began by feeding and audio recording birds in her childhood garden.
In 2010 she embarked on the Birmingham University’s MSc in Ornithology. This re-introduced her to the BTO which she then joined, engaging for the first time in bird surveys. She has worked as a volunteer for the Warwickshire Bio-records Office and is currently employed in the Agricultural sector.
Evelyn Tigwell
Eve is the BTO Regional Representative, Heronries and WeBC Local Organiser for Somerset. She has been Honorary Secretary and Pension Fund Chair for the BTO, and was Chair of Somerset Wildlife Trust. Eve is currently BTO Representative and Treasurer for Somerset Ornithological Society and a Trustee for The British Birds Charitable Trust.
Wildlife has always been key to her life; involving everything from surveys and data to writing, painting, photography, and sheer enjoyment. Having trained as a biologist, Eve currently enjoys a career split between ecological and retail consultancies.
George Batho
George has been BTO Regional Representative for Hampshire since 2023 and has been actively engaged in BBS and other surveys in Hampshire for nearly 25 years. He is also a Trustee of Hampshire Ornithological Society and is active within the Wilder Fareham team, affiliated to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.
Actively interested in birds from the age of six, he retired from industry in 2021 after over 40 years service in senior roles in Human Resources. Keen not only on birds but the wider environment, he enjoys meeting with a wide range of people to further the aims of the BTO and wider wildlife concerns.
Grant Bigg
Grant has been Regional Representative for 'Yorkshire (Southwest)' since 2015 & 'Yorkshire (Southeast)' since 2018. He manages the regions' Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and Heronries Census, as well as South Yorkshire's Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). Grant has had a lifelong interest in the natural world, being an environment scientist and oceanographer before he retired in 2022, but he did not start serious birdwatching until 1996, with the start of the Garden BirdWatch.
Grant has surveyed BBS squares in Suffolk, the Peak District and now Norfolk, where he moved in 2022, as well as WeBS sites in Derbyshire and Norfolk. He has been active in many of the BTO's species-specific surveys, most recently the Woodcock Survey, Winter Gull Survey and the Winter Bird Survey, and usually is regional organiser for these. Having surveyed a number of tetrads in Derbyshire for the 2007-2011 Bird Atlas, he is looking forward to the 2027-2031 Atlas.
Grant lives near Hickling Broad in NE Norfolk and enjoys walking, canoeing, and birdwatching with his two border terriers. He still keeps his environmental science academic interests going, as well as starting a new career as an historical novelist.