Makes sense – I was approaching it from the other direction which is far harder (been a long day!)

Agreed – its on my (long) list of things we need. As you say the biggest problem would be defining the area, I had this conversation recently with some people and the "Erewash Valley" covers a large area, do we count the tributaries for example? – strictly speaking we should. So really the Erewash Valley would include some of Attenborough (although where the Trent catchment starts and Erewash's finishes will be difficult to work out without a decent GIS layer) . But to be honest that wouldn't be the biggest block – its more someone having the time to research the checklist.

I'm going to borrow the BMG reports off a friend and so I'll try and there's also the old Erewash Valley Birders reports I can try and get too. Any input greatly received. Mark – are there any other sources (aside from the county recorders) you think might help? I can then try and put it all together as soon as I get free time.

I'd love to get an Annual Report done this year too, no matter how sparse it is as it would give us something to build on – but I agree its probably best on the smaller, more achievable aim of getting the checklist done then take things from there…small steps.

 (I might be out of action/offline over the next couple of weeks due to personal circumstances but I'll pick up any replies once I'm able to)