SUSSEX PEREGRINE STUDY - Key Persons

Bart Atfield was born on the 30th June 1958 in Horley, Surrey. After attending infant and junior School at Shottermill, Haslemere and Preparatory School at Newells and Desmoor on the Handcross Park Estate, he went to Ottershaw School, where thanks to the broadmindedness of his teachers, he developed his fascination for wildlife and in particular, birds of prey. He kept Jackdaws, Little Owls, Tawny Owls, Kestrels and one Sparrowhawk. On leaving school, barely 16 years old and after a short stint working at an antiques shop in Hindhead, Bart moved to Britwell Salome, Oxfordshire where he became an underkeeper. Bart moved to Sussex in 1975 and his passion for falcons emerged, during this period he made regular visits to Scotland to watch Peregrines. In 1988 he acquired and trained a female prairie falcon and together with his pointer ‘Clay' began hunting game, this was one of several large falcons he would use for both falconry and breeding. In 1989 he acquired his first tiercel (male peregrine). Occasionally during the winter of 1989-1990 when Bart was hunting with his tiercel on the downs, a wild female would fly over and hang around near them, sometimes on consecutive days. There had been sightings of Peregrines in this area before, individual adults and juveniles were being reported all along the coast but the significant difference was that this bird was behaving territorially; The first confirmed sighting in the area of an adult male was in August 1988, it is likely this was the first one to take up the territory and pair with the female Bart was watching. A survey of the cliffs during the breeding season of 1990 confirmed that a pair had in fact produced at least two young; it appears however that only one female survived the fledging period. The Sussex Peregrine Study had begun.

Chris Broadbent was a skilled observer and concentrated mainly on his Peregrine prey studies, he shared data with the Sussex Peregrine Study for several years and was always the best of company on our birding trips, both at home and abroad, studying Gyrfalcons. His untimely death was a shock to us all but his enthusiasm and boyish charm lives on with us.

Climber and expedition advisor. Dave is an expert Ice-fall climber with a passion for climbing the local chalk cliffs. He co-ordinates the climbing activities for Sussex Peregrine Study

An early interest in the Tubenose family of birds led to a first encounter with Peregrines on the coast of Pembrokeshire in 1973 whilst returning from the island of Skokholm. That proved to be the first step in a 40 year study of Peregrines Read More

Hazel is an evolutionary biologist based at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent. Hazel is looking at the population genetics of the Sussex Peregrines

Now retired after teaching in the UK university sector for 40 years, Mike is a a published environmental educator and consultant. His academic interests include evolution, taxonomy and genetics of birds of prey.

Job Titles:

• Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University. Rodrigo Is Using Molecular DNA Techniques to Look at the Genetic Variation in the Peregrine Population

Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University. Rodrigo is using molecular DNA techniques to look at the genetic variation in the Peregrine population

Jason is a Police Officer with Sussex Police, and one of his roles is that of Police Wildlife Crime Officer. Jason has worked with Sussex Peregrine Study to protect Peregrine eyries and also records data on Ravens in Sussex

Jon was a founder member of the Sussex Peregrine Study

spent all his working life in Suffolk. Since retirement he has taken the opportunity to become involved in field work and photographing peregrines in Sussex Read More

Job Titles:

• Director of Kingston University 's Medical

Mark is the director of Kingston University's Medical, Veterinary and Food Microbiology Research Group