The SOS Young Birders’ Support Scheme aims to encourage young people between the ages of 16 and 25 to develop their interest in birds. Grants may be made to help with the cost of training courses and travel expenses, and binoculars, kindly provided by Opticron, are also available.

The first successful applicants have been using the support provided by SOS to increase their knowledge of birds in the county and to assist in carrying out surveys.

Further applications are welcome, and may be made throughout the year. Applicants must live, work or study in Sussex.

Forms are available from Mya Bambrick: myabambrick10@gmail.com

Earlier in the year, we launched the Young Birders’ Support Scheme, to encourage the next generation to develop an interest in birding. The Scheme offers funding up to £500 for equipment, field guides, training and travel costs.

The first seven successful applicants have now been selected. Aged between 18 and 24, these young men and women all impressed us with their enthusiasm: some are keen to learn more about ringing and taking part in surveys, others wanted to improve their identification skills (by sight and sound) and most asked for help with funding courses. SOS is planning to host two training days to cover these topics, with the first one, on bird identification, taking place in June. We will also be covering costs of courses run by BTO and Field Studies Council, as requested.

We have provided binoculars, scopes and field guides to several of the applicants, who have all been keen to let us know of the feedback they will provide to show how they have used the support we have provided.

We will be accepting further applications later in the year, with a closing date of 1st October.

Thanks to Opticron for their generous sponsorship of the scheme.

For further details and an application form contact Mya Bambrick