The clouds spat slightly as we strolled through the car park of the Kettering hotel. The car rumbled out of its confining white lines, and turned onto the road. We were on our way to the greatest birding event on the planet. Global Birdfair…
The field (serving as a car park) was saturated with brown, murky, muddy water. It didn’t help that it was constantly getting churned up by passing vehicles. We ambled along until we reached the admissions tent, and entered through the large opening. Our tickets were checked briefly (they were completely free thanks to an award I won; see my previous post) and we were off, into the huge field that housed Birdfair. The scene was dominated by huge canvas tents, and food trucks lined up to our left.
We began by swerving off to our right, towards the nearest tent: the Robin Marquee. We stepped in, and were amazed by all the stalls packed into the space. This tent appeared to be for travel agencies and tours, and it went from exotic to more closer to home, such as Trinidad to Scotland, or Ghana to France. We ended up stopping and talking to many people, such as a stand representing Valencia, another for Ecuador, and another for the Falkland Islands. Throughout all this we were receiving a constant stream of freebies: pens, leaflets, rulers, bookmarks, maps, sunglasses, and even bags to put it all in!
Eventually, we moved on and started ambling through the Swallow Marquee just next door, full of art and incredible artists. There were sculptures, carvings, sketches, paintings, photographs, felt and even someone who painted stunning artworks onto feathers! Everything in there was breathtaking, and to create some of these things, such as weaving wire to make sculptures, or carving the tops of canes, must have taken a lot of time and effort. But we failed to spend a long time in there during that particular spell, as we had something marginally more important to do at that time. You see, we were off on a nature walk with Lucy Lapwing, a naturalist, conservationist and self described nature nerd!
We reached the Leica stand (the allotted meeting point) with plenty of time to spare, so we decided to explore the somewhat smaller Falcon Marquee it was housed in. Optics was this tents speciality, and all the companies that had spaces in here had binocular try-out stations as well! They had put up pictures of birds on fenceposts and trees, some close and some a fair distance, guaranteeing views and giving chances to try out some potential new binoculars! All the companies here had utilised this idea, including Viking, Swarovski, Zeiss, and of course, Leica. But what was really exciting was the fact that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and ebird had both set up their stands here! The woman on the Ebird stand turned out to be part of the Young Birder Awards team, and we had a nice chat about Ebird and its app, and then more about the awards. We even received a small bundle of stickers!
Time really flies when you are engrossed in something, and by the time we had left the Marquee, it was time to head straight back inside and prepare for our nature walk. A small group of about 10-15 had amassed there, all there for the same purpose as us. The Leica representative gathered us all outside, and alongside Lucy Lapwing, began to hand out Leica branded hats, and binoculars for those who had not brought their own. And so the leading of the group was handed over to Lucy, and we set off! First we ducked behind a tent and continued behind it until we came to a metal fence with a slight gap in it. So we slipped through that and found ourselves out in the saturated car park we had began our day in, with an overgrown hedgerow to our right, and many stationary vehicles to our left. We walked on, and somebody pointed out a bee. It seemed an ordinary bee. But this was no bee, but a Cuckoo Bee.
These insects resembled bees in most ways, but were very different indeed. These bugs are similar to Cuckoos in their behaviour, laying their eggs in the nests of other bees. Telling them apart required close observation. This was a brilliant find, but grey and black clouds were mounting above us, preparing for an assault. So we turned on our heels and walked hurriedly back to the Falcon Marquee. Literally the second the last person stepped inside, the heavens opened and you would not believe it! Lightning bolts flashed regularly over the neighbouring field, and the rain was just beyond belief! The amount coming down was insane, and the thunder sounded awfully close. It really was quite the downpour!
After around twenty minutes, the weather took mercy and slowed its onslaught. This happening outside, we took the opportunity to dash across to the next Marquee, named after the Nightingale. This one was shaped like a T, and we entered along the left of the top line. Bertie and Felix were immediately drawn to the huge display of soft toys on the first stand, Button and Squirt, and ended up rushing over there, while I checked out some of Fujifilms latest photography products. The cameras and lenses were huge, and some of the price-tags also. But for such a brilliant item, it looked to be worth it.
And we continued down the top of the T, until we reached the designated stand for one of the best bird migration spots in the country, maybe even Europe. Spurn Bird Observatory regularly received scarcities, rarities and megas! We paused for a look around, and ended up having a lengthy conversation with a man who worked up there. It was really insightful, and I feel like he really listened to me. He was brilliant, and hearing about what he did up there at Spurn was incredible. He explained that he also helped with the Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder event, which is a contest with the finals held at the Spurn Migfest, where the finalists are taken out onto the peninsular and tested on their knowledge. He told me that I should apply, and I said I would sometime. And in the end, he just took a book from the stall and gave it to me, just like that!
After saying goodbye, we continued down the top of the T and came to a stand for the Grant Arms Hotel, a birders hotel in the Cairngorms (Scotland) where Nick Baker did some of his tours. We looked around for a bit, before a man came up to us and started yet another conversation. But this one felt a bit different. He introduced himself as Simon Pawsey, a birdwatcher and tour guide up at the hotel. He seemed really impressed with me, and we spent about 20 minutes just chatting about the Birdfair and just birding in general. But at the end, he said to me as he shook my hand that we need more people in the world like me. That felt really special. And Simon proved to be a fixture for the rest of the fair, meeting up with us multiple times. But that is for another blog.
And now, I fear we have reached the end of this Saturday Birdfair account. But stay tuned. More is to come.
The Bovey Birder 