As previously announced and owing to the Corvid-19 pandemic, the 2020 meetings programme has had to be substantially adjusted. The current situation is that Prof. Diamond's talk, in conjunction with the Linnean Society has been deferred, subject to his availability, until a date in 2021. It is also looking distinctly uncertain as to whether the 21 September meeting, including the Annual Review, will be able to proceed. Should it do so, Dr Beth Okamura has most kindly provisionally agreed to give her previously planned talk on How birds shape freshwater biodiversity on that date. The talk scheduled for 16 November, which again had been planned in conjunction with the Linnean Society at their premises, is intended to be by Professor Jon Fjeldså, Univ. of Copenhagen, on the subject of the evolution of passerine birds. This talk had been designed to celebrate the 1,000th evening meeting of the BOC but, should it go ahead, will now be slightly ahead of the anniversary given the forced cancellation of prior 2020 meetings! At present, we remain very hopeful that this event will occur on schedule, but it is clearly too early to be definitive on this point, so please keep checking the website  https://boc-online.org/ for updates.

Robert Prŷs-Jones

The BOC has from 2017 become an online organisation without a paying membership, but instead one that aspires to a supportive network of Friends who share its vision of ornithology—see:  http://boc-online.org/. Anyone wishing to become a Friend of the BOC and support its development should pay UK£25.00 by standing order or online payment to the BOC bank account:

Friends receive regular updates about Club events and are also eligible for discounts on the Club's Occasional Publications. It would assist our Treasurer, Richard Malin (e-mail: rmalin21@gmail.com), if you would kindly inform him if you intend becoming a Friend of the BOC.

Since volume 137 (2017), the Bulletin of the BOC has been an online journal, published quarterly, that is available to all readers without charge. Furthermore, it does not levy any publication charges (including for colour plates) on authors of papers and has a median publication time from receipt to publication of five to six months. Prospective authors are invited to contact the Bulletin editor, Guy Kirwan (GMKirwan@aol.com), to discuss future submissions or look at  http://boc-online.org/bulletin/bulletin-contributions. Back numbers up to volume 136 (2016) are available via the Biodiversity Heritage Library website:  www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/46639#/summary; vols. 132–139 are also available on the BOC website:  http://boc-online.org/

BOC Occasional Publications are available from the BOC Office or online at info@boc-online.org. Future BOC-published checklists will be available from NHBS and as advised on the BOC website. As its online repository, the BOC uses the British Library Online Archive (in accordance with IZCN 1999, Art. 8.5.3.1).