Welsh Ornithological Society Conference 2012

What a wonderfully entertaining and fascinating day.

I was asked by Daniel Jenkins-Jones (Head of Public Affairs for RSPB Cymru) a couple of weeks back, if I would accompany him to the WOS Annual Conference in Llandovery. All I had to do was man the RSPB Stand during the times there was no talks on. I have to be honest I had no idea what I was letting myself in for, but I was dead chuffed to be asked to go.

It was quite a line up of speakers for the day. Iolo Williams (who I must admit is a hero of mine) is the president of WOS, and opened the day with a state of play with bird numbers and breeding success for the year. It was quite a depressing listen, with the weather claiming large numbers of fledglings.

This was followed by a talk on the work of the rare migrants committee, who adjudicate on whether a rarity sighting can be confirmed as official, and added to the national bird list.

The guest speaker was Roy Dennis, who a lot of you will know from Springwatch and Autumnwatch and his work on satellite tagging of the Ospreys from the Dyfi Estuary and Scotland. It was an incredibly interesting talk on the interpretation of the data and how it is changing their understanding of how these birds migrate.

After a stunning lunch, Dan and Kelvin Jones did a round up of their respective organisations, in Kelvins case, the recently formed BTO Cymru. Dan and Dr. Andy Clements (Chairman of the BTO) signed a new memorandum of co-operation between the two organisations. Andy then gave an update on the Cuckoo satellite tracking project (again featured on Springwatch 2011). In my humble opinion this is one of the greatest public projects the NGO's have done to date, Andy said during his talk that rarely a day goes by that a newspaper doesn't ask for an update.

The afternoon session was concluded with a talk on Wood Warblers by Danae Sheehan of the RSPB.

By now the conference was running massively over time. The evening session had two of the most interesting talks of the day. Tony Cross did a presentation his work on ringing and tagging Woodcocks. There are estimated to be between a quarter to half a million of the birds in the country around now, but you would have rarely seen one, as they are secretive nocturnal birds. They are Britain's most abundant wader! I've only ever seen one, when I had a fly over in the garden here shortly after we moved in.

The final talk was one the migration patterns of Manx Shearwaters and other pelagic birds. The tags they now use are so small that they could actually mount three on one bird and could record its flight time, time in the water and the time spent diving. We really live in an age of new discovery for the study of so many species of birds, it is quite incredible, and the more we understand, the more specific you can target your conservation of the species.

The whole day was a huge success, and I am now a signed up member of the WOS. I had Iolo Williams sit next to me on the RSPB Stand for the afternoon session, and a good old natter to him. I shook Roy Dennis hand, a man who has lived one of the most fascinating lives there is, and I ended up having a pint and a meal with Andy Clements to finish the day.

None of this would ever have been possible if not for RSPB Cymru's faith in me to help out, and to which I will continue to support and help in anyway I can. It looks like me and dad will be going up to a school in Usk to try and help promote the Big Garden Birdwatch and the sighting of their feeds etc.

It's almost twelve months since I shook a bucket for RSPB Cymru in Queen Street, if someone would have told me I would have had some of the experiences I have had since then I would have not believed them, and for that I thank Dan, Emma and Dana immensely. This is one happy Cyclops!

More photos from the conference.