Our national conference for 2021 will be a virtual event held hosted by the BTO on Saturday 6th November on Farmland and Birds in Wales, which was the theme chosen for the cancelled 2020 conference. There’ll be a programme of presentations with the opportunity for questions and discussion, quizzes, the usual review from our President, Iolo Williams, and summaries of activity from the BTO and RSPB. The headline presentations will be by Ian Newton OBE (morning) and Gavin Siriwardena OBE (afternoon).

Although this is, sadly, not a face-to-face conference we still need to charge for this and prices are £7 for WOS members and £12 for non-members. Any surplus will be shared between the BTO and WOS for support for our research grants and student bursaries.

Booking is being handled by the BTO – click here to book your place. You’ll receive a link to the conference platform about a week before the conference, which will include advice on how to use Zoom if you are not familiar with it. Since this a partnership conference, personal details you supply when booking may be shared between WOS and the BTO, but only for the purposes of administering this conference.

Although the advantage of holding a virtual conference means that we can offer more places than usual, but we still advise early booking. Once you’ve booked, you’ll be able to participate in the whole conference, or dip in and out when you want to.

The provisional programme is shown below. All presenters have confirmed, but the timings may be subject to slight variations – we’ll keep you updated.

MORNING

10.00  Welcome by WOS Chair – Anne Brenchley

10.05  Introduction by WOS President – Iolo Williams

10.20  Birds and Farming – Ian Newton (30 minutes + 10 for questions)

11.00  Birds of Wales Online polling quiz (Part 1)

11.05  Coffee/Tea break until 11.45 (make your own!)

11.45  Welcome back

11.50  Birds of Welsh Farmland –  John Lloyd

12.10  Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) – Sorcha Lewis

12.30  The future for Welsh Farmland Birds – Arfon Williams RSPB

12.50  Questions for speakers

13.05  Birds of Wales Online polling quiz (Part 2)

13.15     Lunch break – sorry, it’s bring your own!

AFTERNOON

14.15  Introduction

14.20  Awards – Lifetime Achievement Award/Derek Moore Student Research Award

14:30 RSPB Cymru update – Neil Lambert

14:40 BTO Cymru update – Kelvin Jones

14:50 Gavin Siriwardena BTO – Agri-environment schemes in Wales: what do we know about their effects on birds? (30 minutes + 10 minutes for questions)

15:30 Birds of Wales Online polling quiz (Part 3) and answers

15.45 Final comments and goodbye

We look forward to welcoming you!