Nick Moran - WOS 2014

And finally we come to the reason we are up in the land of the Gog.

Today was my third Welsh Ornithological Society Conference. This year it was held in Ruthin. After Julian's plea last year for us South Walians to make the effort up North I was determined to go. It was a pretty good turn out. Dawn came with me this year, and I was worried what she would make of it all ... I needn't have worried. As always, there was a talk for everyone.

The conference had been overshadowed this year by the sad death of our chairman, Derek Moores MBE. I have of course met Derek on both previous occasions I have attended. I found him a warm and charming man, who took the time to talk to as many of the delegates as was humanly possible during each conference. He was of course a birder with boundless enthusiasm, and nature has lost a loud voice in the field of conservation. The funeral had been the day before the conference. In keeping with Derek's wishes, instead of having a minutes silence, which he would have hated, we had a minutes birdsong. Which was an absolutely brilliant idea!

After the formalities of the AGM and Iolo William's President speech we then got into the talks and presentations.

First up we had Stephen Bladwell of RSPB Cymru on the trials and tribulations of uplands management. This was pretty heavy stuff and I was worried about where I had dragged Dawn.

I needn't have worried as next up was Dawn's namesake from the BTO on what the Bird Atlas means for Wales. My Dawn loves graphs and statistics, and you can rely on a BTO presentation for a graph or two! There were some fascinating insights into the loss of bird life in some areas, and how populations are spreading and moving as our climate warms. Dawn almost squealed when the statistical analysis was put on the screen.

The pre-lunch talk was by David Saunders, who gave a tour de force of a talk on Skokholm Bird Observatory - The Pioneering Years. As I usually say in these blogs every year, I am always in awe of the people who dedicate their lives to conservations and long term studies.

Post lunch we had Nick Moran (pictured) giving his talk on Birdtrack. I saw Nick give a talk at Bird Fair this year, so I knew this would be entertaining. He didn't disappoint. Birdtrack is the greatest thing that has happened in birding in the short time I have taken up the hobby. To be able to log your sightings as you go around a nature reserve on your smart phone is a god send to a lazy birder like me, who can never be bothered to fill in a notebook.

The final session of the day contained a fascinating talk on Pied Flycatchers. Pete Coffey had been studying whether the white patches on the males head had any correlation with mating success. The enthusiasm in which he conducted this survey was plain to see. Many a camera trap had been jury rigged together to watch the birds. This clearly took months and months of hard work in all kinds of weather, and the result. There was no correlation at all! A negative result is still a result.

The day was wrapped up with a talk on the future of conservation by Arfon Williams. Now more than ever we need to keep the pressure on our elected officials to protect our wildlife. We have been lucky that the past couple of years have been mild. Some species are making small recoveries, but the balance is so perilous that it would not take much to tip things into decline again.

And that was that .. we had only overrun by half an hour. We had a chat to Julian at the end of the day, and thanked him for all his hospitality the previous day, and today. We would like to help WOS a little more using our admin skills, so watch this space on that one.

We only have one more night in North Wales and then its the trek back down the wonderful A470 tomorrow afternoon.

The 2012 WOS Conference Blip is here.

The 2013 WOS Conference Blip is here.