The Bird Fair tends to be dominated by ageing men with beer bellies and grey hair (if they have any hair) – that might be why I like it so much – but the image above suggests that as well as more political debate and better food there may be another wind of change blowing through the Bird Fair. Jess French is a TV presenter who specialises in invertebrates and children’s programmes at the moment but clearly has a wide range of talents.
Henry’s never known anything quite like it before.
And this was a bit new for Bird Fair and Henry too…
And this group of giggly young ladies – Henry told me they were babes ( so terribly politically incorrect!) – are all, you notice, wearing Hen Harrier T-shirts and Hen Harrier badges and holding Hen Harrier leaflets and Hen Harrier beer mats. When I spoke to them, to apologise for Henry’s politically incorrect language, two of them said they hadn’t been to a Bird Fair before, but three had been to Hen Harrier rallies. Henry will be asking Tim Appleton for a cut of gate receipts next.
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I’ve seen a few of Jess’ shows on CBeebies, she’s very good.
Mark, you haven’t been following Chris Packham’s other campaign! He got 3 young birders on stage last year – Georgia Locock and Josie Hewitt were involved this year, joined by Beth Aucott. All members of AFON as well as Lucy Lambert who starred as Bagheera in Jungle Book on Sunday afternoon.
More power to the elbows of young birders and naturalists! Let’s hope the BBC can catch up with Birdfair!!
I was proud to be one of the female speakers at Birdfair. I agree that there were many more men than women who presented talks. Tina Lindsay contacted me about giving a talk and was brilliant. Perhaps other organizers could try and attract more female ornithologists and conservationists? There are many inspirational women who I’d to hear talks from. Or maybe more women could put their name forward for a talk? There was definitely more female attendees this year. And it was fantastic to see Natalie Bennett, Georgia Locock, Jess French, Lucy McRobert and Helen Meech presenting in the main events tent. Equally, there were many inspirational men who presented talks, too.