Announcing our President’s Special Award
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.
WOS Photo competition 2023 – winners and report
The 2023 competition generated a record 167 entries from photographers aged between 8 and 80 years of age, with pictures of a record 85 species, including ten different birds of prey. Once again, partly given the nature of the Flocks category, Puffin (14 photos) and Starling (11) were the most popular choices. For the first […]
An urgent message from Iolo Williams, WOS President – If you do only one thing for Welsh wildlife in 2024 . . . please do this.
In December, the Welsh Government launched a consultation that could pave the way to a brighter future for wildlife in Wales. But, to make sure that happens requires us all to raise our voices for nature before 7 March. Will you join me in doing that?
November/December 2023: ‘Storm’ Wigeon on Anglesey and Waxwings galore
Wildfowl, unsurprisingly, took to the fore across Wales during the winter months, with a stunning-looking ‘Storm Wigeon’ on Anglesey a particular highlight.
Milvus 2.1 is finally published on the website for members, to join Scarce and rare birds in Wales 2022 and the Welsh Bird Report 2022
It’s unusual for Milvus issues to be published out of sequence, but we’re pleased finally to add Milvus Volume 2, issue 1 to join ‘Scarce and Rare Birds in Wales, 2022’ (Milvus Volume 2, issue 2) and the Welsh Bird Report (Milvus Volume 2, issue 3). The links to the PDFs will only show if you are logged in as a WOS member.
September & October 2023 – the most extraordinary influx of extreme rarities for Welsh birders
Autumn 2023 will go down in the history books as the greatest ever period of scarcities and rarities for Welsh birding, with the largest arrival of American landbirds in recorded history. WOS strongly condemns the behaviour of a small number of twitchers which was in breach of the birdwatchers’ code.
David Saunders MBE
All the Welsh birding fraternity is saddened to hear of the death of David Saunders MBE – we have lost too many Welsh birding stalwarts this year and David, the first President of WOS, is one who has contributed a huge amount to conservation in Wales and across the UK. This post gives a very brief summary of some of his contributions: a fuller appreciation will follow later.
The 2023 State of Nature report for Wales – 18% of species are threatened with extinction
Wales, along with the other countries of the UK and like most other regions worldwide, has experienced a significant loss of biodiversity. The trends presented in the State of Nature 2023 report cover, at most, 50 years, but these follow on from major changes to Wales’ nature over previous centuries. As a result, Wales is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth. 18% of all species are threatened with extinction.
A magical time at the Skomer Young Birders’ week
The Skomer Young Birders’ Week at the beginning of September provided fun, learning and magic for all who took part. Here’s what three of the participants had to say about their experiences.
‘The most remarkable week in Welsh birding’
We normally publish a Scarce & Rare report after the end of each month, but the past week has been so exceptional that, if you don’t know already, it’s worth summarising now.