I spent yesterday at the BTO Conference at Swanwick and left feeling slightly foolish. Foolish, because although I have attended many BTO Conferences in my time, that is the first for a good many years, and I enjoyed it so much that I felt foolish for having missed out over recent years.
The conference theme was the coming BTO/SOC/Birdwatch Ireland Bird Atlas. I’ll not mention all the speakers – but all did a good job in building up my expectations for the results of this breeding and winter atlas based on fieldwork from 2007-2011. Simon Gillings, in particular, did a great job in his A-Z talk.
Through the day we heard of how the fieldwork was done and how the results might be used. We heard of insects (‘birds are wimps’ Prof Chris Thomas bravely told a room full of birders) and bats around Norwich. We saw provisional Atlas maps which showed increases and decreases in range.
I had wondered at the beginning of the Atlas project how surprising the results might be – don’t we know already what it will show I had wondered. To some extent we do, and that’s a measure of progress of bird monitoring and recording over the years. Whereas the first breeding and winter atlases were firsts, and as such disclosed an awful lot of previously unknown (or poorly or not widely-known) information, surely this new atlas would be telling us what we do know? To some extent that is bound to be true but I am now eagerly awaiting the chance to flick through the pages of a new book.
To whet your appetite here are some snippets. It’s clear that the situation in the island of Ireland will sometimes be strikingly different and sometimes strikingly similar compared with that in Britain. Stock doves have bombed and the Fields of Athenry no longer have their curlews (a fact which will come back to me each time I hear the song being sung by Liverpool or Celtic fans as I listen to football on Radio 5 Live). But some facts of island biogeography which I had thought immutable are changing in this changing world; swallows have colonised Shetland, coal tits have colonised Lewis and Harris, great-spotted woodpeckers have colonised Ireland (what next – snakes?) and nuthatches have colonised the Isle of Wight (what next – grey squirrels?). What is the world coming to?
The prestigious Witherby Lecture was given by Sarah Wanless who gave us a fascinating update into the fate of seabirds on the Isle of May and the UK as a whole, the impacts (big ones) of climate change on the marine world and the types of new information being delivered by new technology on where auks go and what they do in the winter.
The BTO gave its Tucker Medal to Mick Marquiss who was visibly and audibly moved to receive it (which we all liked very much).
Barbara Young made an uneventful AGM feel like another great talk by inviting us to decide whether the minutes of the last AGM were ‘co**lers’ and mentioning a cocker spaniel.
One of the main points of going to a conference is to meet old friends and make new ones and the day was full of those moments. I met my local BTO rep for the first time even though I feel I know him quite well as he keeps sending me over the top to do another year of BBS surveys or participate in another BTO survey. It was fun to swap impressions with him of Northants birders, little owl numbers and future surveys (as well as the result of the Corby and east Northants by-election) over lunch.
The NHBS were selling Fighting for Birds and a steady stream of books came my way for signing (I can’t help it – it’s still a thrill each time!). And I spotted the following people at the conference who are mentioned in Fighting for Birds ( Ian Newton Page 122), David Gibbons ( pp 61 & 64), Barbara Young (pp 212 & 245), Andy Gosler (p10), Ian Bainbridge (pp 45 & 259), Robert Gillmor (p275) and Ken Smith (pp 109 & 137).
I caught up with old friends and met some new ones including some raptor workers who were good value. I talked of redpolls and niger seed with Fred Cooke, of recuperating Mike Harris (reading Fighting for Birds) with Sarah Wanless, of Scotland with Ian Bainbridge, of chairing sessions with Dave Parkin, of former colleagues and Irish birds with Alan Lauder, of American birds with Frank Gribble, of Coquet roseates with Tom Cadwallender, of our joint book (watch this space) with Keith Betton, of foreign trips with David Kings, Ian West and Barnaby Briggs, of radio interviews with Andy Clements, of noses and an interesting future paper in British Birds with Denis Summers-Smith. And as I left there were many familiar faces that I had spotted but not had the chance to talk with.
Driving down the M1 I almost wished I were staying. However, old blokes make up rather too much of the attendance list, although the BTO is clearly trying to do something about this, and if I had stayed for today I would have seen evidence of that (as well as adding to the imbalance). When I first went to a BTO conference I was a young researcher and there were quite a few of us in that category – there weren’t so many of those in evidence yesterday. And there would have been more RSPB staff at the BTO Conference in the past but then I can’t remember RSPB AGMs or Members’ weekends seeing many BTO staff attending. But the BTO seems to me to be in fine form in these difficult economic times. I talked to lots of BTO staff who are bright and full of ideas – that bodes well for the future. And I am eager to read that Atlas!
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The comment that I picked up on was the lack of ‘youngsters’ at the meeting. I suspect that this will not be a phenomenon related purely to the BTO but in all organisations from Scouting to Music.I for example cycle with a club and the average age of members bust be 40 plus!! . I might like to suggest a few ways engagement may be successful to the modern ‘enthusiasts’
Create a ”Web based conference” or Webinar as they are called – Give a younger member of the BTO the responsibility of building its presence. Create a Twitter LIST for the BTO which includes and actively pursues younger members.
Create the same urgency and sympathy people have for the plight of Polar Bears with a directed campaign using a wild bird who’s numbers are falling. Here you have to be clever by choosing the bird with the strongest connotation for the general public as a masthead for the whole issue in the same way that Polar bears represent global warming.
I would suggest since they are actually declining the birds selected and likely to have the greatest impact would be along the lines of ‘Imagine Xmas without Robin Redbreast’ for the summer it’s more difficult as blue tits numbers have risen and people may not even be aware of the Chaffinch in the first place.. Or perhaps just concentrate on the Robin all year round – After all the Polar Bear is used all year round.
This would create an emotional tie to raise awareness of the issue and the opportunities for media would be simple as the bird is so strongly recognised. Pictures of xmas cards with Robins missing etc etc pictures of Robins hitchhiking at the side of the road etc etc The possibilities are endless. A Robin in a cardboard box homeless begging on the street you could go on forever. . . and indeed I just have lol
Mark – welcome and thank you. I think the BTo is doing some of this (maybe at this very moment in Swanwick).
A couple of points Mark(s). I totally agree with Mark Sheerin’s comments about the age problem. I have recently was present at the winding up meeting of my local RSPB Group after 40 years. I was also at the first AGM when I was one of the youngest in the group. 40 years later I was still one of the youngest in the group. The comments about marketing species is a good one.
Mark A. A new book yes but the time is coming in the very near future that Atlas style recording is standard and the outcome is available to all on line at any time. Could this be the last ‘Atlas’ as a result. I hope not but it would make the bookcase lighter and the wallet heavier.
A Mark Avery / Keith Betton book – I am now really intrigued.
Bob – I think the BTO really is trying to tackle the age problem. Maybe we older ones should just go out and shoot ourselves?
Yes, maybe this will be the last Atlas book – but then I think I might have said that about the last one…
And I’m glad you took the bait about the Avery/Betton book…
NO MARK, IT’S A SIMPLE ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT THAT IS NEEDED. Sorry but it’s as simple as that.Period. It’s OK for members of the BTO to say we need more younger members and some do great work, have a look at this blog by a 10 year old http://www.wildeaboutbirds.blogspot.co.uk so some at the BTO are doing good. When was the last time you went to a school to talk about nature Mark?
When was the last time the BTO done a mist net session at a school and went along with some captive owl or something?
I’m sorry no youngster were at the BTO meeting, invite only I guess?
Still it’s good you met someone else from Northants, I was with some other Northants birders and despite the cold we all noticed our ears were very warm 🙂
It’s a shame that you weren’t able to stay for today Mark as you would have seen some excellent presentations by young ornithologists, including an outstanding presentation by 16 year old Alex Rhodes who spoke more confidently than many people several times his age do.
I first attended a BTO conference in my mid-teens and people were complaining that there were no young people getting involved at that time as well. Many, many years later I do think that the situation is any worse and if the presentations today are anything to go by, they are a lot better. The future is much brighter than many would have us believe.
Tony – thanks and welcome to this blog. Good to see you on Saturday. That Alex Rhodes is great isn’t he? I think the BTO are doing a lot to address the age-gap and I’m very pleased to see that. I have no doubt that there are lots of great young people out there – come back tomorrow for an example.
If you would consider visiting a primary school please come up to Derbyshire and visit my daughter’s primary school-Etwall Primary, a lovely school on the edge of Derby, but sadly in need of nature lovers amongst it’s pupils I fear! Or maybe they just haven’t been shown how good nature is!
Hi Mark,
I fear I may fall into the gap at the BTO, no one of the old school and a new member of the BTO but at 35 (a young 35, I hasten to add!) I’m not really into the same stuff as the hip, young things of today, and I am on facebook/twitter etc (some would say obsessively so) but I don’t feel I fit in with the ‘oldies’ of the BTO – am attempting to enthuse my peers about BTO, garden birdwatch et al, but it’s a hard slog.
I think we are the first generation who were brought up being separated from nature, now most of my peers have children but they can’t help their kids to ID birds in the garden, ‘cos they don’t know themselves. I feel like a bit of a lone voice in my friendship groups sometimes!
Sorry to have missed BTO conference – was working that weekend, hoping to attend 2013.
Merry Christmas!
Lv
Lisa
Lisa – welcome! And I’ll see you at Swanwick next year.