The HOS Scientific Committee has reviewed its Survey Strategy which can be read here.
Breeding season records – including breeding evidence – is welcome for Nightingale, Turtle Dove, Cetti’s Warbler, Water Rail, Firecrest and any species that fall under the remit of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel.
2025 New Forest Waders Survey
HOS has been commissioned by Forestry England to survey breeding waders across the New Forest Special Protection Area in the spring and early summer of 2025.
As with other recent New Forest surveys, we have recruited a large team of volunteer surveyors. If you are interested in helping it may not be too late to help; please contact Nigel Matthews (nigel@matthews-online.co.uk), who is coordinating the survey.
We are surveying about 200 1km squares where Snipe, Curlew, Lapwing and Redshank are known to have bred or where suitable breeding habitat exists. Each square will need three survey visits, one in each of the following periods: 10th April – 30th April, 1st May – 21st May and 22nd May – 22nd June.
In 2019-21 a total of about 300 pairs was found, so it will be fascinating to see if the breeding density and distribution of these scarce heathland species has changed.
Hampshire House Martins
During 2025 HOS started a project to find out where House Martins are breeding in Hampshire.
House Martins were put on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern in 2021 following a 72% decline in the UK population over the last 50 years. We think the population in Hampshire has also shrunk dramatically but need to gather data to confirm this.
This website https://hampshirehousemartins.org.uk/ is designed to promote the project and collate nest site records from HOS members and the general public.
We are recruiting HOS volunteers to follow up on these reports and collect further information about the sites, nests and nearby habitats. If you would like to be part of this follow-up team, please let us know. We need volunteers in each of the main Hampshire towns and villages.
In future years we hope to offer artificial nest cups to extend existing colonies. This would save House Martins valuable time, make the nests more robust and hopefully boost breeding success. By running a more structured survey, we’ll also be able to compare the current House Martin breeding population with the national survey carried out in 2015.
Nigel Matthews and Helen Schneider
admin@hampshirehousemartins.org.uk