The Zeiss Young Birder Awards 2023

Last weekend, we took the trip of a lifetime to the UKs smallest county, Rutland to visit one of the greatest birding events in the world, the Global Birdfair. This whole field was filled with people and activities that all came together to celebrate one thing: the world of birds and nature. It was absolutely incredible, and the reason we were there was also pretty exciting. I had just won the under-11 category for the Zeiss Young Birder Awards (although, I bet you could have guessed that from the title)! And that was why we had travelled around 250 miles to be where we were! I had wanted to come for years, but it had never happened. But now we are already hoping to go next year! So please read on, and enjoy my account of the Zeiss Young Birder Awards…

Me and Bertie outside the gates of Birdfair

We walked into the large, canvas tent that enclosed the Osprey Events Stage towards the end of a Birds V.S Bugs quiz game, with a panel of bug experts facing off against a panel of great birdwatchers. As we took our seats at the back, the presenter launched into the next round, a rather tough ID challenge. On the bug side, I recognised Nick Baker, a well-known naturalist who was, for a while, based down in Devon. And on the birdwatchers panel, Mike Dilger, who is a brilliant ecologist and TV presenter. The challenge was cruelly hard. Even the experts struggled. And it went on like this for another 15 minutes, pouring through three different rounds.

And then, just like that, the quiz ended. Upbeat, bubbly music played as people came on to set up for the next show: the presentation of the Zeiss Young Birder Awards. Under-16s were asked to seat themselves in the front two rows with their parents, as Nick Baker prepared to give a talk on how to build a birder. After a couple of technical difficulties with the latest Apple software, we were underway and the awards had began.

Nicks talk was both insightful and cheery, and you could tell he knew what he was doing. He spoke to the audience of his experiences of nature as a child, and how his parents had helped him develop his passion, although in an indirect way. He said his parents were never into nature as much as him, but that they would take him out to all these wonderful places, where they would fish, or walk about. And he continued on about how parents of children these days should do the same.

Soon enough, the opening show was over, and there was no delay in the schedule. Stephen Menzie, a birder who currently works in Sweden (and the editor of British Birds) took the stage to begin the presentation. At first, he congratulated everyone who entered, and added that they were all incredible, and full of effort and time. This year, there were too many entries to just pick one winner, so he explained that they had chosen two runners-up as well in each category. But when he read out the runners-up for the under-11s, nobody replied. They had not been able to make it, and would receive their prizes through another channel.

However, following this announcement, it was my turn. Stephen proceeded to express his opinion on my work, discussing his impressed reactions and its detailed drawing. He said that the annotations around it really showed an in-depth observation, and he thought the writing was excellent. And then my name in bold came up on the screen behind him, along with an enlarged image of my piece. I had chosen to describe one of my first (and best) birding encounters. During Lockdown, we found a drake Garganey on our local fishing ponds, likely stopping over on Spring migration.

Then Stephen Menzie asked if I would come up and collect my prize, and the applause as I stepped onto the stage was immense. I collected my binoculars (8×32 Zeiss Terras; they’re really good) and book, and shook hands with Petra, a brilliant woman working for Zeiss. She congratulated me, and I walked back off the stage and back to my seat in the front row.

The presentation of the other two categories went by in a blur. 12-16 came next, and like before runners-up were announced and then the winner (although the winner wasn’t there either). They kept changing the presenter for each category as they went through. And the same passed for the 16-18s, and before I knew it everyone was leaving, and the winners and runners up were being asked to head to the Zeiss area in the Falcon Marquee for photographs. But the best thing came just after the show ended, and I actually got to meet Nick Baker! We shook hands and chatted a bit, before we took some photos of us together. Nick was brilliant, and I remember watching his lives during lockdown. He remembered all the instagram lives he had done, and was happy I had watched them. And then we said goodbye and we quickly began the two-minute walk across the field and entered into the blue and white of the Zeiss corner. The three younger ones (me and the two runners-up from the 12-16s) were ushered in front of the entire Zeiss team that had put together the award. Photos were taken, and then one of the runners-up from the 12-16 category came up to me and congratulated me. I said the same back, and suddenly a small and brief conversation was launched. His name was Levi Gravett, and he had already won the Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder award. He was brilliant, and really good to talk to.