We’re delighted to announce our brand new, one-off grant called the ‘President’s Special Award’. At £4,000 this is the largest single grant we have ever offered in our history.

We’re very grateful to Iolo Williams, WOS President, and wildlife photographer Gary Jones for giving us the opportunity to offer this grant. Every year, Gary hosts a charity fundraising evening with Iolo where a wildlife charity of Iolo’s choice receives the proceeds of an auction and raffle of bird paintings, photographs and equipment. This year Iolo selected WOS as the event’s beneficiary and, back in March 2024, at a packed house at Dewi Sant, Ewloe, 300 wildlife enthusiasts raised an astonishing £4,000. It is this ‘windfall’ that we would now like to use to benefit birds in Wales.

The photo shows Iolo sharing anecdotes about his career and wildlife experiences with Gary and the audience at Ewloe.

The criteria for this grant are the same as those for our current £1,000 Project Grant (https://birdsin.wales/small-grant-scheme/) and  Community Grants (https://birdsin.wales/community-grants-2/) so a great variety of projects are eligible for support.  Our hope is that the additional funding will enable the creation of a more ambitious project.

So far (March 2025) only one application has been received, from the Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru (INCC) for a Willow Tit Habitat Improvement project at Llwyndewi Nature Reserve, Carmarthenshire. The project will include installing specialist boxes for Willow Tits in areas of suitable habitat on site, improving the site’s potential for nesting Willow Tits by increasing the amount of small width standing deadwood through targeted ring barking of trees and creating extra pools and wetland habitat within the reserve by digging scrapes and selectively damning small ditches. The Grants Panel agreed to award the sum of £1,000 to this project. Monitoring and evaluation of the results of this work could provide valuable lessons for work elsewhere in Wales to benefit a species which has declined dramatically in the past thirty years.

WOS Council is currently deciding how to deal with the remaining funds allocated to the President’s Award and will announce a new closing date for further applications during 2025 and there are separate application forms for this, either as a Project Grant or a Community Grant.

In order to encourage applications, WOS can offer assistance with making an application, including advice and possibly an on-line workshop, although any assistance given by WOS will be on the understanding that such help does not guarantee a successful application. If you would like more information please register your interest by emailing: grants@birdsin.wales.

This is a great opportunity to make a difference – if you have any potential project in mind, please act now to take advantage of it. We look forward to hearing from you!