Sunday morning saw my Satnav taking me on a different route to Rutland from Boston in Lincolnshire. It clearly has a sightseeing mode I was unaware of, as I never travelled the same route on any of the four journeys I made. The countryside on the way made it well worthwhile, and a magnificent Red Kite that rose up from a hedgerow as I was driving down another country lane made of a good omen for my second day at the British Birdwatching Fair.
In an action replay of Saturday I walked into the main Events Marquee to see the end of a Jonathan Scott talk, this time it was based on photography in the Kenyan bush. Backlighting seemed to be the buzzword of the couple of talks I saw on photography.
I hooked up with my friend and fellow RSPB volunteer Bev. We were both there to see Jonny Kindgom’s talk about his latest exploits. The photo in this blog pretty much sums up the half hour of sheer entertainment that followed. We were treated to clips from his forthcoming (2015) series he has done for ITV. We were reduced to tears as we watched footage of this colourful septuagenarian attempting to film a Golden Eagle from a micro-light glider. It was definitely one of the highlights of BirdFair 2014. The two talks from Chris Packham and Jonny Kingdom really do sum up what BirdFair is all about for me. It has a very serious message, and raises a lot of money for conservation studies, but it is built around a wonderful feeling of friendship. The social aspect of the fair is the very key to its success.
Next up was the Wild Brain of Britain quiz, which in the true spirit of what I just described, is something quite serious wrapped up in a lot of fun. It is quite competitive to say the least. This year Dominic Couzens relinquished his two year reign as BirdFair Champion to Stephen Moss, who beat off a spirited challenge from Mike Dilger.
After lunch I decided to check out some of the smaller marquees to see what presentations were on there. The first talk I wandered into was Mark Avery’s - Fighting for Birds talk in which he updated us on his exploits of the past twelve months and his Hen Harrier campaign.
I then headed over to the Anglian Water Birdwatching Lecture Theatre to see a very entertaining talk by Nick Moran who runs the Birdtrack section of the BTO. There were many good tips on how to improve your bird ID-ing skills; although I am fairly sure he made the Semi Skimmed Plover up on one his slides! I have noticed that Nick is one of the speakers at this year’s Welsh Ornithological Conference; I will look forward to hearing an expanded version of this talk then. This presentation was followed by an optics Q&A hosted by Birdwatching Magazines Matt Merritt and David Chandler. There was plenty of useful buying advice, it was a bit of shame that the presentation was right at the end of BirdFair, which mean people didn’t really have time to act on it. I have started saving for next year’s fair!
I finished up a thoroughly enjoyable day with another talk by a professional wildlife photographer. It definitely reignited my passion for photographing good old Welsh wildlife!
And so a fantastic weekend came to an end. It was great to chat to some old friends. The mandatory name drop starts here now I warn you. I caught up with Mike Dilger, Iolo Williams, and Mark Avery and I finally joined the British Trust of Ornithology after a chat with Kelvin, the BTO Cymru director. I must confess I had an ulterior motive for joining. I had left my binoculars in South Wales, and you got a rather natty set after joining! I of course wandered by the RSPB Stand, where I bumped into someone I recognised but didn’t know from where. It turned out he visited Newport Wetlands regularly. Next year’s BirdFair is already pencilled into my diary (21st to 23rd August).
And those binoculars, they came in useful. The Monday after BirdFair RSPB Frampton Marshes reported that a Glossy Ibis had built a nest on the reserve. The first recorded instance of this in the UK. Unfortunately the prospective Mrs Ibis wasn’t impressed and flew off to Norfolk, leaving a love shorn male hanging around the reserve for a couple of days. We got some fantastic views of this wonderful bird!
Not a bad way to end the weekend!
All Images © Anthony Walton