Award for Friends of Skokholm and Skomer

Skokholm photo by Sid Howells

At a ceremony in London on 29th October, The Friends of Skokholm and Skomer were awarded the Marsh Award for Local Ornithology in recognition of the huge amount of work they have done to put Skokholm Island back onto the British ornithological map. The award was presented by The Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony hosted by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) at the Mall Gallery in London.

Skokholm Island, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, is home to internationally important wildlife populations, and is particularly well known for its seabirds. It was the first Bird Observatory in Britain, but lost its Observatory status in 1976. The island was bought by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales in 2007, by which time the buildings and ‘birding’ infrastructure were in complete disrepair and non-functional. Thanks to the Friends this is no longer the case. The work took four years to complete and almost 20,000 hours of voluntary labour.

The Friends are incredibly important to the islands of Skomer and Skokholm and since 1981 the membership has grown to over 400. Members help finance essential work through their subscriptions, but more importantly, many have taken part in voluntary work parties to help bring Skokholm back to its former glory and its return to official Bird Observatory status in 2014. Some of The Friends often act as voluntary wardens on both Skomer and Skokholm, helping with practical maintenance tasks, wildlife recording and research studies and are currently engaged in digitising the daily bird logbooks which date back to 1933. Well done all you hard workers!

Natur Cymru at the Unknown Wales Conference

This year’s Unknown Wales conference was held on Saturday (11^th) at the National Museum in Cardiff; it is a joint event with the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and is sponsored by the Welsh Government. Entry was free and the seven 30-min talks ranged widely over a variety of topics, from the diatoms and dung beetles of Wales, reintroduced sand lizards on Welsh dunes to the Barry Triangle where rare deep-sea fish suddenly turn up! For the full programme, see http://www.welshwildlife.org/unknown-wales-2014/

Natur Cymru was well-represented, as shown in the photo taken by a helpful bystander; from the left Geoff Gibbs (North Wales), Ken and Delcie Simkin (Mid Wales), Jane and Ivor Rees, and Kate Gibbs (all North Wales). Everyone in the audience (around 200) was handed a bag of goodies including a back number of Natur Cymru, and during the lunch-break we recruited five new subscribers.

It would be good if this conference could be more accessible to a wider audience throughout Wales – would people be happy to sit in a venue in Bangor or Aberystwyth to watch the event on a screen if all the speakers were in Cardiff? In any case, we can heartily recommend the event as a great day out for anyone interested in Welsh wildlife and environment; roll on next year!

Unknown Wales Conference 2012

Following on from the success of last year’s Unknown Wales Conference, the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW) and the National Museum Wales (NMW) have decided to hold the Unknown Wales Conference again in 2012.

Trevor Theobald - 2011 conference

Over 200 delegates attended the 2011 conference, which was opened by naturalist and television presenter Iolo Williams and covered a wide variety of wildlife topics. It is hoped that the Unknown Wales Conferences will become an annual event – dedicated to celebrating Welsh Wildlife and encouraging people to enjoy nature.

This year’s Unknown Wales Conference will take place on Saturday the 19^th May 2012 at the National Museum Wales from 10.00am until 4.00pm and is free to all. The presentations will again cover a host of taxa in Wales from lichens and ancient Welsh trees, to marine fish and brown hares.

Accompanying the conference this year will be a poster competition (Friday 18^th May) and various conservation and local recorder stands in the main hall (Saturday 19^th and Sunday 20^th May). Natur Cymru will be there at least for the Saturday. 

For further information about the conference and for booking, please contact: Rob Parry, Conservation Manager, Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales r.parry@welshwildlife.org