Scottish Birdwatchers' Conference 2026
14 March 2026
Today, we headed, in the morning, to Dundee, for the SOC/BTO Scotland-run Scottish Birdwatchers' Conference 2026. Since Felix and I had a great time at last year's conference, we decided to meet up again at the new venue of Dundee. We arrived around half past nine, to quickly see some of the stalls on the way in. In the car park, we heard a few Greenfinches, before entering the Invercarse Hotel, where the conference was being held. We settled down at a table near the back, and, after a short delay, the talks commenced. Here was the programme for the different talks over the course of the day:
09:15 – Registration and tea/coffee
09:50 – Welcome and Introduction - Ruth Briggs, SOC President
10:00 – Montrose Basin through the seasons - Joanna Peaker, Montrose Basin Visitor Centre Site Manager, Scottish Wildlife Trust
10:35 – Restoring the River South Esk - Kelly Ann Dempsey, River South Esk Catchment Partnership
11:00 – Tea/Coffee
11:30 – The Lives of White-tailed Eagles - T1 & TZ - Richard Tough, Tayside and Fife Raptor Study Group
12:10 – An early 'heads up' about the forthcoming Bird Atlas - Dr Ben Darvill, Head of Development and Engagement (Country Operations), BTO Scotland
12:20 – Lunch
13:40 – Successful collaborations in the conservation and monitoring of raptors (Angus Glens) - Dan Spinks, Scottish Raptor Study Group
14:00 – RSPB Scotland in Angus: collaborating for nature - David Hunt, Senior Conservation Officer, RSPB Scotland
14:20 – Baselines and birds: an upland opportunity in Glen Prosen – Gareth Ventress, Environment Forester, Forestry and Land Scotland
14:40 – Q&A session with Dan Spinks, Gareth Ventress and David Hunt
15:10 – Tea/Coffee
15:40 – Who said reedbeds are a transient habitat? - Steve Moyes, Tay Ringing Group
16:10 – Raffle prize draw
16:20 – Summing up - Dr Chris Wernham, Head of BTO Scotland
16:30 – Close of conference
After a lovely set of interesting presentations, Felix and I headed out to Riverside Nature Park, only a few minutes drive away, to see what birds we could see. We were limited on time, since the sun was setting, and we soon had to go our separate ways, but before long, we spotted some Redwings, a species bird a haven't seen very much of this year. After that, we heard a Greenfinch, and a Skylark, and arrived at the first bird "hide" (though was really just a simple viewing screen), and only saw a couple of Moorhens.
After this initial, fruitless stop, we headed on to the next "hide", again just a screen, however we spent even less time since here, since the sun was directly in front of us, and the only birds were a couple of Carrion Crows. After this, we stopped slightly later, at a viewpoint over the Tay Estuary, where we finally found where all the birds had gone.
Despite them being quite distant, we could identify Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, a Grey Heron, a Cormorant, some Teal, Mallards, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew, a massive flock of Oystercatchers, and, flying upriver, an adult female Marsh Harrier.
As we scanned the birds in the fading light and cold wind, more birders arrived, some of them missing the Marsh Harrier by only a couple dozen seconds. While we stood in the cold, we had a few Long-tailed Tits pass by, one of which was collecting rabbit fur for its nest. A lovely finish the long day.
