Go surfing for Wales' birds
Birdwatchers in Wales are marking the start of spring by relaunching the Welsh Ornithological Society (WOS) website, www.welshos.org.uk. Spring signals the start of a surge of summer migrants arriving in Wales from southern Europe and Africa, and WOS is keen to encourage birdwatchers to use the website to increase the exchange of information across the country.
Red Kite, Gigrin Farm, Powys (Photo: Marcus Conway — ebirder)
Among the features included on www.welshos.org.uk are:
- Rarity Tracker, enabling visitors to check the presence and status of rare birds in Wales
- Newswatch, compiling stories from across the web involving birds and their conservation in Wales
- An archive from the journal British Birds covering ornithological discoveries in Wales from a century ago
Derek Moore, chair of the Welsh Ornithological Society, said: ""Wales is blessed with a terrific avifauna studied by a large number of individuals, most of them doing so in their own time. Through its work, and in particular this website, WOS aims to enable them to communicate easily and exchange information."
Web editor, Julian Hughes, said: "The relaunched website is one part of WOS fulfilling its ambition of linking together birdwatchers and conservationists across Wales. Much of this is achieved locally, so we've put the counties at the heart of the site. We're also providing a web presence for Bird Clubs affiliated to WOS that do not currently have their own websites."
The new website is just one of several initiatives planned for 2010, which also include helping to co-ordinate studies of birds of prey and rare breeding species in Wales, working with county recorders to improve national reporting of birds of conservation importance, and culminating in November with a national conference on Wetlands in Wales, in partnership with RSPB Cymru and BTO Cymru in Powys.
