I had more beer, more conversations with nice people and went to some great talks – not all the talks I had planned to attend but a good proportion of them.
I missed Mark Carwardine’s talk but got to the joint effort by Chris Packham, Ruth Peacey, Ruth Tingay (of Raptor Persecution Scotland), BirdLife Malta’s Mark Sultana and CABS’s (Committee Against Bird Slaughter) Andrea Rutigliano. The events marquee was bursting – as I came in the back way there were people listening through the sides of the marquee who couldn’t see a thing and the crowd spilled out onto the grass. I was told there were getting on for a 1000 people there – and there were certainly more than I’ve ever seen in a Bird Fair talk before. They all got a standing ovation at the end and the passion in the room was huge. If only Michael Gove or even Jeremy Corbyn had been sitting in the middle of that crowd we would see more action on wildlife conservation issues pretty quickly. That’s one of the tasks for the Bird Fair in future, starting next year – become a conduit for that passion to influence the outside world, let’s not keep it in the bubble of the Bird Fair.
I met an old school chum, met the young Dara MacAnulty (and his mum), relived a ‘spanky’ male Hen Harrier seen in Israel with an American friend, and had conversations with loads of people. Great fun. Here are two enthusiastic guys who I met for the first time – known as the butterfly brothers (with their best stand award).
A word on food – lunch yesterday was a veggie burger with chips, and today was a cheese scone with chips! The food scene at Bird Fair has improved considerably in recent years and the veggie food outlet is handily next door to the fish and chips purveyor.
Many congratulations to David Lindo for winning the Bird Brain of Britain competition for OSME (23 points) ahead of Michael Mills, African Bird Club (22), Ashley Banwell, Oriental Bird Club (21) and Tim Jones, BTO (20). Stephen Moss chaired the event brilliantly but David Lindo deserved a bonus point for this answer:
Q: Why didn’t a man filmed killing a Hen Harrier get convicted?
A: Because the government’s on his side!
Priceless!
And then there was the Bird Photographer of the Year awards with a stack of brilliant images – buy the book to see even more of them (book review here) – where the winner was Alejandro Prieta Rojas with this image of American Flamingo (although the real image is even better).
As you are having each day “in the bag”, do you think Birdfair ought to be looking to reduce it’s plastic footprint and encourage exhibitors to follow the example shown in the food area? Food was served in paper bags and wooden utensils provided yet thousands of carry bags given away but none seemed to be of natural fibres.
As you are too modest to mention it, one of the conservationists getting the standing ovation at the end of Tales from the Front line was Mark Avery. There were lots of inspiring moments over the two days – it grieves me that so many MPs think that the most important issue currently is whether Big Ben chimes or not.
Lyn – I wonder how Nicholas Soames, who is a ‘Big Ben chiming’ MP, and who retweeted something last year which was rude about Chris Packham and about me, and who spoke in favour of driven grouse shooting in the Westminster Hall debate, I wonder how comfortable he would have felt in that packed marquee yesterday?
Perhaps if we all write to him & invite him to next years Birdfair he could be the ‘missing politician’? 😉 We would of course respect his views as we did Simon Lister (2016). But one might hope that he’d go away better educated and informed, aware that there is robust science behind the building ‘anger’ as well as understanding the reasons behind it? He might perhaps be able to offer a view on inadmissible video evidence etc.? Gosh, what would happen if he accepted?
In the interim to borrow his grandfather’s lines ….
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island [wildlife] whatever the cost may be,
We shall fight on the beaches,
We shall fight on the landing grounds,
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight in the hills;
We shall never surrender. [our wildlife to sport or cruelty]
Square brackets my words.
Other potential contenders:
Will Michael Gove still be in post and might it be appropriate for him to be invited after a year of sorting out farming payments etc.?
Any other’s we need to engage with and who might be genuine agnostics? Poachers turned gamekeepers to conservationists?
Tackling this kind of issue (including the food and farming issue) at the Birdfair has been excellent and clearly woken people up to wider issues, long may it continue. 🙂
One bag I was offered from one of the book stands was one of those degradable ones (degradable could be subjective I appreciate), so at least one stall tried to reduce plastic problem?
What about the coffee cups, even if they’re cardboard outer they have a plastic inner liner. Saw loads of single use plastic bottles too. I took a refillable flask because of my objection to SUPBs but that doesn’t help sales and therefore the Birdfair commission. I did buy food which was ok so it did at least generate income for the project beneficiary.
As many of the speakers suggested, we need to write to MPs to encourage them to take action to reduce and recycle more plastic 🙂
It’s as much up to us as consumers to refuse plastic as it is to encourage green ethical alternatives and bottom line comes down to cost.
Hi Mark! Lovely write up of Bird Fair, but ‘Ashley Banks’ should read Ashley Banwell!
Penny – so it should – changed. I was so tired when I wrote that. Thanks.
Just returned from my 3rd birdfair – revived and buzzing with energy as always but a bit sad to see so little support for the younger organisations and individuals this year.
I’d like to see more about support, social media groups etc to encourage young naturalists. And events to engage them. Other than A Focus On Nature, recent momentum seems to have been lost. I’m going to write to a few people I think can help. I’m fuzzy about the how, but appreciate you highlighting stars like Findlay etc too.
And I’ll be buttonholing colleagues about how we can do more too on Monday.
Get the impressions the New Generation Birderss have all grown up together and scattered far and wide without passing the baton on?