The Bird Fair is great; it’s always great, and it was great over the last three days too.
But great doesn’t mean perfect.
And great doesn’t mean invulnerable.
I think, but I might well be wrong, that the Bird Fair was a little quieter this year than last year, and it was a little quieter last year than the year before. It’s certainly the case that after a ‘biggest-ever’ amount raised for conservation in 2015 (£330,000), followed by another ‘biggest-ever’ in 2016 (£350,000) there was a dip last year (back to £330,000) – let’s see what the final figure will be for 2018. Whatever the figure, it is a big boost to international nature conservation (though I still feel that it would be a smart move, and a fair move, for UK nature conservation to get a share of that pile of cash one year (none out of 30 so far!)). And I still feel that it need not necessarily only be BirdLife International that benefits (I speak as a trustee of the World Land Trust!).
I learned that next year Countryfile Live is planning to expand to a second site, at Castle Howard, and that they have chosen the weekend that will clash with the Bird Fair for their new event. Of course, no-one owns a weekend, and there aren’t that many of them in the school summer holidays (and a bit of a wake-up call won’t necessarily do the Bird Fair any harm) but this isn’t good news for the Bird Fair. You and I might always choose Bird Fair over Countryfile Live (a pretty awful TV programme in my view) but some of the celebrities who go to Countryfile Live are paid to attend and no-one is paid to attend the Bird Fair. What would you do if you had the choice of a well-rewarded weekend in Yorkshire or an unpaid weekend with your mates in Rutland?
There are some long-standing Bird Fair stand-holders who were missing this year. I was sorry to find that LACS had decided not to attend and I fear this marks a move away from aligning themselves with conservation causes which, if true, would be a shame. It was a shame for me, as I thought they’d be sure to get lots of signatures against whaling on their stand! On a personal note, I had put in a good word for LACS as attendees at the Bird Fair probably a decade ago when I was still at the RSPB. The organisers feared that LACS might be too radical for the Bird Fair crowd – I think the last decade has shown that they weren’t at all.
I think the Bird Fair will have to have a good think about next year in order to make sure that it doesn’t end up in decline.
At 1pm I’ll stick my neck out and dare to make some comments on gender balance at the Bird Fair. And later today I will touch on politics and some more personal observations.
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Posted by Mark Avery on behalf of Richard Ebbs who can’t get it to work (anyone else having problems?) – Very interesting to hear that Countryfile Live may have a second venue next year. Lyn and I have volunteered on the RSPB Stand for the last three years. Very busy and exhausting with the last two years also very hot. We have mostly been involved with entertaining young children with various tasks vaguely relating to wildlife. In previous years we had more interesting activities such as owl pellet dissection and moth trapping and various artefact IDs.
The main thrust of the RSPB is to attract new family membership while we keep the kids occupied and the staff attending are mostly trained in sales with targets, must say they are pretty good at it. That generally means that there are no really knowledgeable conservationists present, which I find is in contrast to Bird Fair. For instance we had a visit from a group of four trainee Gamekeepers with their mentor and the staff suddenly became very busy. I thought I better have a word or two and spent a very interesting ten minutes or so chatting to them. They were polite and interested and particularly liked the moorland display about Curlew conservation. I thought that in a different working environment these guys would make excellent guides and wardens and could enjoy a much better relationship with the visitors. Not quite so sure about the older guy, thought he was a bit uneasy and shifty (I have photos)!
My point is that Countryfile Live is important to the RSPB as a recruitment opportunity and they would be reluctant to abandon it. Personally I would prefer a different emphasis, but I’m not a financier! Pretty sure they wouldn’t abandon Bird Fair.
If I was a Presenter, I would much prefer a weekend with my mates than the rather odd atmosphere of Countryfile Live, even if paid. I watched the programme last night, total waste of time I thought, gave up watching long since.
I don’t visit the Bird Fair any more as I feel it has become the Foreign Holiday Fair now! I prefer to spend my hard earned cash on local wildlife charities etc. I gave up on Country Files years ago as well!
As a Yorkshireman, I can already hear the resounding cries of “ ‘Ow Much?!!! Too bloody much!” in the Howardian Hills. Countryfile Tickets cost three times more than Birdfair (up to 10 times more if you need a concierge, proper toilets and privileged(?) parking). Whereas Birdfair is powered by scores of volunteers, children get free entry and parking is free. It really is exceptionally good value.
I’d agree Birdfair programmers need to refresh their ideas, but I don’t see Birdfair’s current visitors choosing to pay £92-£262(!) per family to visit C-file for the day, instead of £27 for a ‘family’ at Birdfair. Unless they are obsessed with John Craven.
As a Yorkshireman, Jamie, you would also acknowledge that folk could choose to attend neither. If there is a possible conflict of allegiance it is always easiest to avoid both.
I also feel they Birdfair was a little stale this year and feel that it is becoming a bit comfortable, especially for old gimmers like me. Lots of travel companies promoting “easy birding” and nice cuddly stuff for sale. Easy to avoid the “difficult” issues if you just wanted a nice time. On the other hand maybe this represents the state of birding and birders in the UK nowadays. Possibly it is comfortable to just regard oneself as a border and, hence, one of the good folk.
I was very surprised to find that LACS were absent when the NT and Hawk and Owl Trust felt confident enough to attend. Maybe Countryfile is the modern constituency?
Mark, I’m not sure you will pick up on this as the blog entry is quite old now. The BirdFair attendance figures are now out. You commented that “the Bird Fair was a little quieter this year than last year, and it was a little quieter last year than the year before.”. Anecdotal evidence is always a dangerous thing. You know, like the claim that crimes against birds of prey are declining. So here are the figures. BirdFair tell me that last year’s attendance was 24,466 largely due to our busiest Sunday ever as it was Steve Backshall’s first appearance at Birdfair but this year’s attendance is larger than the previous three years (2014-2016).
2018 2017
Friday 8405 8330
Saturday 8129 8189
Sunday 6536 7947
Total 23073 24466
As for later comments about debates, I can’t see any value in having debates where the “other side” are present. Who are you going to be trying to convince? The audience, I assume, and how many BirdFair attendees are going to be in favour of killing birds of prey and mountain hares so that birds can be shot for fun? Or that countries like Malta and the Lebanon should be left alone to continue killing migrants. The issue is not the debate, it’s the solutions that are (or should be) for debate and that’s exactly what the sessions at BirdFair can do. Other comments on here are about the various stalls and what they offer. What does that have to do with BirdFair? It’s not there to have debates, although they have a place. It’s not there to shore up our failing national government bodies like Natural England and SNH. The whole point of Birdfair is to raise a whole load of cash for important conservation work around the world and – yet again – it has done so most successfully.
Andy – so it was quieter than last year. ‘I think, but I might well be wrong, that the Bird Fair was a little quieter this year than last year’
I’ll have a £10 bet to charity with you that the financial donation from the Bird Fair to charity will be lower in 2018 than in 2017 (which was lower than in 2016). Are you on?
The value of any debate, like this one, is to test the arguments of both sides. Kinda obvious really.