Ringing Committee is responsible for the ringing operations of BTO. The Chair of Ringing Committee sits on the Board and is supported by two members of the Board, four members elected by ringers and two other members. The Committee meets twice a year.
The Ringing Committee currently has three sub-committees:
- Ringing Standards Select Committee
- Cannon-netting Technical Panel
- Special Methods Technical Panel.
Each subcommittee deals with a particular aspect of ringing activities.
Dr Jamie Dunning – Chair
Jamie is an ornithologist spanning academic research and commercial application of bird survey and ringing data. He completed his PhD at Imperial College London on the evolution of social behaviour in birds, using the long-term genetic population of House Sparrows on Lundy Island. Since then, he has worked across diverse interests, from behavioural ecology and visual signal evolution to the spread of zoonotic disease through wild bird communities.
Outside academia, Jamie co-developed recent bird survey guidance for commercial application and sits on the group overseeing their continued development. He runs Skopeo, a spin-out business consulting on technical ornithology, survey design and resourcing. Jamie is also a ringing trainer with a new group in central Bristol, covering Severnside and the important River Severn SPA. Much of his ringing has focused on long-term and single-species studies, and their value to research and conservation.
Jamie is a life-long birder and BTO supporter. He looks forward to bringing his experience bridging academic research and commercial practice to the BTO board, exploring how BTO data and volunteer effort can be applied in both sectors.
Helen Franklin
Helen started ringing in 2007 with the Northants Ringing Group, gaining her A permit in 2017. She has experience ringing both at home and abroad, having joined ringing teams in Malta, Portugal and Cyprus as well as undertaking annual trips to Skokholm Bird Observatory.
Helen worked in administration and finance and, prior to retiring, was office manager and PA to the director of the RSPB Midlands office. Following retirement, she volunteered as the minute secretary for the Board of Buglife for several years.
Les Hatton
Les started ringing in 1987, moving to Scotland in 1988, where he benefited from the highly collaborative and supportive regional ringing group structure. He now lives in Fife, where he rings with the Tay Ringing Group, is a ringing Trainer and holds a cannon-net endorsement.
Outside of ringing, Les is trying to retire from his job as a consultant ecologist, a role he took up after a 17-year career as a countryside ranger looking after the Eden Estuary. He continues to undertake some freelance work, though, mostly on international projects.
Peter Kirmond
Peter’s ringing career has been very much a game of two halves: he became a trainee in the 1970s under the expert eye of John McMeeking. A decade of varied activity included the early days of ringing at Treswell Wood, numerous Wash Wader Ringing Group trips and time as assistant warden at Dungeness.
Work (as a pharmacist and GP surgery Practice Manager) and family led to a 30-year sabbatical, and he returned to ringing five or so years ago. This return has included, amongst other things, heavy involvement in CES at Slimbridge, spells at Gibraltar Rock Bird Observatory, monitoring for Gloucestershire Raptor Group’s Kestrel nest box scheme, establishing a colour ringing House Sparrow RAS and winter CES in his garden and a community-based Swift nest box scheme around his village.
Jim Lennon
Jim started ringing in 1991 with the Severn Vale RG, but since the millennium has been based in Nottinghamshire. He is endorsed for, and trains, most types of ringing and has been involved in about 20 BTO ringing courses.
His ringing includes seabirds on the Shiant Isles, where they run four seabird RAS projects, farmland birds in the winter with local students who use the data as part of their studies, heron and egret pulli, a few hundred owl and kestrel boxes, plus garden ringing as a training tool.
Jim brings to the Ringing Committee experience of governance, partnership and funding issues within the public and voluntary sectors through his work with Natural England and RSPB.
Stephen Vickers
Stephen started ringing at Skokholm Island Bird Observatory in 2017. He subsequently trained with Gower and Mid-Wales Ringing Groups, getting his C permit the following year whilst back on Skokholm as a long-term volunteer and is now a qualified Trainer. He completed a PhD at the University of East Anglia in 2022, largely focusing on mechanisms of migratory connectivity in birds.
Now, alongside training, Stephen leads or contributes to projects across a wide range of species with a particular focus on colour ringing. He is active across a wide range of techniques, including mist netting, dazzling (with and without a thermal imager) and hand catching.
In his spare time, Stephen has developed a range of online tools for ringers to use to explore the BTO’s annual ringing report and their own ringing data, and he has also developed colour ring reporting apps that give instant life histories.
Roger Walsh
Roger first experienced ringing as a Voluntary Warden on Skomer Island 45 years ago. Subsequently, he spent time as Assistant Warden on the Farne Islands, broadening his experience and then developing his skills and knowledge over the following years in the UK and abroad.
For 35 years, he followed a career in education, which gave him a passion for training and development that he has since utilised as a Trainer. Since 2011, he has been involved in studying migrants and resident species in West Africa, participating and now leading the regular expeditions to Kartong Bird Observatory.
He is passionate about seabirds and has been involved in leading trips to remote Scottish Islands as well as other islands around the British coast. Other long-standing project work includes farmland birds, Barn Owls, Sand Martins and wetland birds.