The British Birdwatching Fair
The British Bird watching fair is held at Rutland Water every year of which my wife and I have been visiting since 2002. It is a Mecca for all things to do with Wild Birds and the natural world. It follows a similar format to most large outdoor venues with massive marques,catering supplies,portable toilets and the usual stalls which are ready to take your hard earned money....but very friendly they are! The number of stalls which showcase wildlife holidays is increasing every year so we now have to limit our time there as the amount of national drinks handed out can leave you slightly light headed.
The many tents include most of the major optics sellers where it is great to be able to test a lot of optics all together. I bought my first real set of optics. Leica 10x42BR after seeing them in 2004 at the fair.
Lectures and talks are also included in the entrance fee and are of a very good standard with a lot of topics being discussed. I would imagine that most cravings for info would be satisfied as topics can cover Conservation Work, Holidays Watching Wildlife, Photography & Digiscoping and even the lesser Digibinning,
Birdfair Website HERE
Birdfair TV HERE
YEAR PROJECT
2010 Saving southern Ethiopia's endemic birds
2009 Saving the World's Critically Endangered Birds
2008 Saving the World's Critically Endangered Birds
2007 Saving the World's Critically Endangered Birds
2006 Saving the pacific parrots
2005 Saving Gurney's Pittas and their Forest Home
2004 Saving Northern Peru's Dry Forest
2003 Saving Madagascar's Fragile Wetlands
2002 Saving Sumatra's Last Lowland Rainforests
A special lecture is held on a Friday night at a venue outside of the Bird Fair and this is often a well known personality in a field linked closely with Wildlife or it's many surrounding topics. In 2004 I was lucky enough to see Lars Jonsson my favourite bird artist...by a mile! Sadly after taking many pictures of him at work my computer failed that year and I lost all my images I had taken. I will give a few links at the bottom of the page to sites I hope you will find of interest
YEAR SPEAKER TITLE
2010 Mark Carwardine "Last Chance To See"
2009 Simon Barnes "A quantum of wild civilisation- and how to live with it"
2008 Sir David Attenborough "An Evening with Sir David Attenborough"
2007 Simon King "A life in the wild"
2006 Ian Wallace "Swansong and other ditties"
2005 Richard Mabey "A natures cure"
2004 Lars Jonsson "Painting birds in the field"
Pictures Of Friends, Relatives and the odd celeb old & new
Sir David Attenborough Simon Barnes
