Who we are and what we do
The Bucks Bird Club was formed in 1981, and our objectives have remained pretty unchanged ever since. They are just as important now as they were back then. In fact, with the natural world currently under threat from so many different sources, our objectives have greater relevance than at any time in living memory.
The club commits to:
- Advance the education of the public in the knowledge and understanding of ornithology in the county of Buckinghamshire.
- Help towards the conservation and preservation of wild birds and their environment in the county of Buckinghamshire, for the benefit of the public today and in years to come.
But how do we achieve these objectives?
- Encouraging the study and recording of birds in the county.
- Acting as a focus for all birdwatching activities in Buckinghamshire.
- Publishing an Annual Report which would include the annual county bird and bird ringing reports. The report also includes the results of local surveys and papers on local birding matters.
- Publishing a monthly newsletter bulletin for its members.
- Promoting the publication of a county avifauna and the organisation of local surveys including a tetrad analysis of breeding birds in the county. Already referred to elsewhere, The Birds of Buckinghamshire has been published in two editions, in 1993 and 2012.
- Working with the BTO to promote national surveys such as the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS), Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) etc. and to encourage participation locally by club members.
- Actively encouraging an interest in natural history in the younger generations.
- Promoting the collection of data which is of conservation value on Buckinghamshire bird habitats as a resource for Natural England, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and the Berkshire, the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), along with any other relevant organisations.
- Promoting a responsible attitude in all those who watch birds in the county.
- Running a programme of indoor meetings by local and nationally known speakers on ornithological topics and running a programme of outdoor field trips.
- Distributing funds to projects and/or organisations which the club considers that meets its objectives.
- Seeking out new opportunities to further promote ornithological education and conservation in Bucks.
One of the most rewarding things the club does is to reinvest its membership fees and other funds into conservation projects with a county focus. Recent examples have included supporting local ringing groups, providing seed for the supplemental feeding of farmland birds, and considerable support for a wider project aimed at saving the Corn Bunting from extinction in Bucks.