Surveys & Conservation

Surveys

The Hampshire Ornithological Society (HOS) is the lead body in organising and coordinating all bird surveys within Hampshire. This part of the website tells you a little about the surveys that are currently in progress or planned for the next few years, and how to find out more or get involved. We’ve also included some information about surveys that have been undertaken in the past.

Useful links to other organisations involved or supporting bird surveys can be found here.

In Hampshire, bird surveys are planned and managed by the Scientific Committee of HOS, guided by and in liaison with a joint group that has representatives from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT), Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB), British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre (HBIC), and the Game Conservancy Trust (GCT).

Conservation

HOS does not own or manage any reserves, but is in regular contact with a range of conservation bodies in order to forward bird conservation in the county. To this end we have a Conservation liaison officer.

The Conservation Liaison Officer within HOS acts as a focal point for conservation-related activities on behalf of HOS members, in the following areas;

  • advising on conservation issues and policy that may affect the Society and influence our directions and activities
  • responding to enquiries from agencies regarding what HOS might be doing or could do on particular issues or in specific areas
  • acting as the HOS point of contact for conservation-related information and input from the various agencies
  • communicating to the HOS membership, about how we are making a difference to bird conservation in Hampshire

Please send your views on conservation issues to Andy Lester. For address details, please see the Conservation Liaison section of the Scientific Committee page.

Colour ringing projects

The BTO ringing strategy encourages species-specific projects and many Hampshire ringers participate in a number of important studies. Many of these projects involve colour-ringing so that individuals can be identified in the field and other birders can make important contributions by reporting any colour-ringed birds that they see. Care should be taken to record the colour and position of the rings accurately and photographs can be extremely helpful to scheme organisers in verifying the colours. Please report sightings to the organisers listed in the deocument below. For other species, sightings can be reported at www.cr-birding.org.

The following schemes are currently known to be operating in Hampshire. Click here to download the document.