Location: BirdFair, Rutland Nature Reserve I only discovered there was a Birdfair a few years ago and since then I have been eager to see what all the fuss was about. Renowned as the Glastonbury for birders we almost didn't go this year, but a last minute change of plans saw us travelling up to Leicester to attend the great event.
Seeing we were only attending the day (and not the whole weekend) we decided to try and do as much as possible; including a cruise with Simon King. Unfortunately the evening cruise was full so we had to attend the 6am one, this ment getting up at 3.30am and travel from our Coventry hotel to get to Rutland in time.
The harbour was pretty easy to find and we were relieved the weather was nice, infact there wasn't a cloud in the sky - great conditions to spot ospreys :)
Here are some pics from the cruise:
The Rutland Belle with the sun rising behind
Simon King spotting ospreys!
Common Tern
A gulp of cormorants!
Amazing Osprey taken pic by Dan
Dan, myself & Simon King aboard the Rutland Belle
The lovely message Simon wrote in my birding notebook.
"Lovely to have shared Rutland & the ospreys with you"Simon King
What a fantastic start to the day and we managed to spot several Ospreys! After the cruise we headed over to the main Birdfair event. We had no problem parking, grabbed some breakfast in the shape of croissants and orange juice (we had brought with us) and then excitingly headed into Birdfair 2017. All I can say is WOW, we looked at the event map and realised there was so much to see. So with limit time we set ourselves a sort of to-do list:
Attend Chris Packham's bird crime lecture
Go to the BTO tent to see them ringing birds
Meet David Lindo, Bill Oddie & Chris Packham
Check out the Art Marquee
...have fun!
I am pleased to report we did all these things and more, here are some pics from the great day...
Chris Packham leads the talk on 'Tales from the Frontline of Conservation' - an excellent report on wildlife crime in Malta, Cyprus and the UK. The footage and stats were heartbreaking and all bird lover needs to make a stand against this slaughter of our wild birds.
Chris gave us some Twitter accounts to contact, here they are on the screen.
All the heroes on stage: as well as Chris Packham, there's Ruth Tingay, Ruth Peacey,
staff from Birdlife Malta/Committee Against Bird Slaughter and Mark Avery
Below is an excellent video from Chris Packham's You Tube channel on the bird crime in Cyrpus. Some clips from this video were shown at the event and I encourage you to watch it to see the horrific reality these birds are enduring as we speak.
After the presentation I felt quite emotional, not only for the torture these birds are going through but the pure heroes these people are in all what they do for the protection of birds. This was my first ever lecture I attended at Birdfair and was so pleased I was able to witness it.
After this we decided to check out the BTO stand where they were ringing birds. There was quite a few people around the stand but we still got a pretty good view. As we waited for the next bird to be revealed a voice came over the tanoid saying the BTO stand was about to reveal something special...
The big reveal...what is the bird going to be?
Unbelievable! It's a sparrowhawk! WOW, what a stunning bird! She was a bit feisty with incredibly sharp claws, but still got ringed, weight, examined and then let free. What a treat!
The next bird was equally as feisty but just a little bit smaller: the adorable blue tit
After spending over half an hour at the BTO stand we decided to have a stroll around all the marquees. With so many different stands it was hard to choose which ones to go to: cameras, optics, charities, wildlife holidays, art, local produce, clothes, books. The art marquee was very inspiring and there were a few artist in that really caught my eye.
Everyone seemed so friendly and we talked to so many people. I even met my Facebook friend Stuart Pike whilst visiting the League Against Cruel Sports stall - it was great to finally met him and his partner Majella in person. The celebrities were lovely too, Bill Oddie signed my birding book and we all had a chat about bridge cameras - a legend!
Meeting Bill Oddie - what a lovely chat, we talked about bridge cameras and he signed my birder book :)
At the RSPB stall...here is Dan sporting a rather fetching puffin hat and I am a Roseate tern (complete with sand eels!)
Dan tries some virtual reality discovering puffins and terns on Coquet Island with the RSPB
The icing on the cake though was to finally meet my wildlife hero Chris Packham - he was signing his book so i queued up to meet him. What a gentleman, firstly he signed my copy of 'Fingers in the Sparkle Jar' and also my personal birding book. I explained I was doing the #My200BirdYear but was starting to struggle. He was so encouraging and said there was plenty of time with the winter birds due in the coming months and that I could definitely hit the 200 mark! He then took time to have a pic with Dan and myself. A experience I will never forget :) Thank you Chris!
The legend Chris Packham. I have so much admiration for this man, an inspiration to us all.
Dan and I so honoured to meet him
About to sign my copy of 'Fingers in the Sparkle Jar' book
The inspiring autograph and message (on the first page of my birding book) I will cherish all my life x
"Good luck with the 200!!!" Chris Packham
The day was coming to an end and we were starting to flag a little so we decided it was time to say goodbye to Birdfair. Before we went we managed to get one last pic with The Urban Birder - David Lindo. A great guy who knew where Swansea was (where he had actually been birding!). He signed a book for us and happily posed for a pic.
Dan, David Lindo and myself
So this was the end of our Birdfair experience and even though we were only there for a day we thoroughly enjoyed it and got to do and see so much. We will definitely be back next year, but this time we will plan to go for the whole weekend and make sure we get to see all the lectures we want to see. After Birdfair we decided to go to a different part of the Rutland Nature reserve - Lyndon.
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