BTO/SOC Scottish Birdwatchers’ Conference, Stirling, 18 March 2023

Thanks to the hard work of BTO Scotland and SOC staff and volunteers, over 120 delegates were able to enjoy this year’s joint Scottish Birdwatchers’ Conference at the wonderful Albert Halls in Stirling. The theme of the conference, ‘Ornithological highlights from the heart of Scotland’, meant we were treated to a delightfully broad range of talks and speakers, with sessions ably chaired by SOC President Ruth Briggs, Head of BTO Scotland Chris Wernham, Ben Darvill (BTO) and Steve Willis (BTO).

The conference opened with Rachel Steenson’s talk entitled‘Unravelling the plight of the Dipper’. Iconic and highly specialised river birds, well adapted to spending their whole life around moving water, Dippers’ close association with rivers makes them a fantastic bioindicator whose presence can suggest a healthy river system. Historically, Dippers have been negatively affected by processes such as acidification, but despite improvements to air and water quality in the early 1980s, populations have been in steady decline since around 1987. The cause is not clear, but is likely a combination of factors that affect life stages differently. Through nest monitoring at several sites in Scotland and in combination with open-source data, Rachel plans to investigate as part of her PhD at the University of Stirling how the environment might cause differences in breeding success. Over a two-year period, the team observed more than 40 pairs at a series of sites in Midlothian as they attempted to raise young in interesting and often difficult circumstances. From nesting near wastewater treatment plants, to using an old pipe in a culvert, from dealing with predation or spate river flows to building a nest from grass, these birds proved just how adaptable they are. Having