The pinnacle of the birding year, a birder’s Glastonbury, has been and gone once again. And what an event it was, brimming with talks, walks, workshops and showcases. I’m going to need some convincing that there is another event that brings naturalists, conservationists, ornithologists and just general nature enthusiasts together quite like this. For me, it’s an amazing opportunity to meet new people, grow my confidence and look to advance my career in writing and conservation, and of course to have a load of fun.
Indeed, my whole year essentially leads up to it. It’s a fairly big undertaking for us, a family of five living in south-east Devon, but the 4-hour trip hasn’t failed to be worth it yet, and I doubt it will for a long time. Old-hand readers of the Bovey Birder will know the incredible things I’ve been able to do as a result of Global Birdfair, such as my trip to the Scottish Highlands two years ago, which still remains one of the best weeks of my birding life, maybe my entire life. It all happened thanks to Simon and Marion from the Grant Arms Hotel, who fate had me strike up a conversation with back in 2023, my first Birdfair.
Speaking of Scotland, Simon, Marion and Mark Pearson, who alongside Simon runs the acclaimed School of Birding at the Hotel, were the first people I met this year. As I’ve mentioned, they’ve been some of my biggest supporters for several years now, behind me for every step of the way, as I look to carve a career in nature writing and conservation. The Grant Arms, for anyone who’s wondering, is a magical place. It holds some of my fondest memories, and I only spent five days there! It’s not only a hotel designed specifically for birders, but it also puts on talks, offers guided walks and tours, and is well-placed to access some of Scotland’s prime birding spots.
It’s tricky to explore everything Global Birdfair has to offer in just two days, but we certainly gave it a good go! Wandering through the marquees peaked my child-like love of exploration, to the point that my senses’ defences were overwhelmed, sights, sounds and smells flooding over the battlements. Despite my wartime analogy, the atmosphere was one of welcome, likely because I knew that everyone around me shared my interest, my passion for the avian world. Bright, mosaics of colour covered some stands, others were more muted in their approach, but all waved you towards them, with the promise of either a friendly chat, a learning opportunity or a purchase.
One of the biggest and most inviting stands was the Zeiss section of the Falcon Marquee. An action-packed talk schedule, guided walks and the chance to try out their new, top of the range Apia 65 Scope, which is fantastic by the way. Don’t let its compact size fool you, it’s image quality and clear vision surpass many bulkier options on the market. It was also great to catch up with Zeiss ambassador Toby Carter, whom I was lucky enough to meet at a previous Birdfair. His talk on his trip to Georgia and Armenia was highly absorbing, and drew quite a crowd to the Zeiss tent! Still jealous of the Crimson-Winged Finch, which was only the 25th Ebird record for the area!
Speaking of Ebird, it’s an amazing tool for bird conservation across the world, creating pinpoint accurate maps of species distribution, population density and migration. It all comes from harnessing the power of the global birding community, showing how powerful citizen science can really be. The data is all open to the public in the Ebird website’s science tab, and advanced scientific visualisations for factors such as relative abundance and population trends are shown for over 3,000 species of bird. As birders globally continue to submit more checklists when they go birding, this picture will continue to be built up and to aid conservation efforts. That’s not the only appeal for birders, though. Ebird also allows people to track their life lists, year lists, or even their June 8th 1994 list! There are so many ways to organise your birding data, find new places to go birding and even meet new people in the global birding community that ebird creates!
One of my good friends, Dexter, is a brilliant young, knowledgeable conservationist (you might know him as the Mustelid Man from Instagram) who does everything from Adder surveys to sticking his hands in holes to check what small mammals are using them. His hands-on wildlife skills are second to none, and if you need any more convincing, he won the Mammal Society’s Young Mammal Champion Award this year. His talk on the teenage years and nature was thoroughly inspiring, demonstrating the good work that he, alongside local groups and organisations, does for nature in and around Wiltshire. We spent the afternoon on Saturday enjoying the wonders of a very warm Rutland Water reserve, alongside Harriet, another young nature lover who knew the reserve like the back of her hand, on account of her volunteering work there. We also beat her team in the pub quiz (more on that later!).
Rutland Water is one of the largest man-made bodies of water in Europe, and is nationally important for winter wildfowl numbers, and it’s also famous for a particular fish-eating raptor. 2026 celebrated 30 years since the Rutland Osprey reintroduction scheme began. 300 Osprey chicks have fledged from the area since 2001, a huge milestone following their extinction in England in 1847. Thanks to the efforts of organisations such as the Wildlife Trusts, we now have a small but self-sustaining population of these phenomenally piebald birds in central England.
This has even paved the way for other Osprey reintroduction projects in England, with a Poole Harbour edition beginning in 2017. There are now two breeding pairs of Osprey in the area, with CJ7 and 022 having fledged four chicks last year at Carey’s Secret Garden. Such a milestone was a huge boost for the project, with Ospreys only usually fledging 1 or 2 chicks in a season. 3 is very good going, but 4? I tip my hat to those birds. It’s even paved the way for a Devon Osprey project! Starting very recently in late 2024, the Devon Osprey Partnership has built several tall nesting platforms like those in Poole Harbour, and migrating birds passing through have been seen landing and investigating these potential new nesting sites. Fingers crossed we’ll have breeding Osprey soaring in Devon skies once more very soon!
On a quick trip to refill water bottles, me and Dex bumped into someone I hadn’t seen since the Nature Writing Retreat at Cameron’s Cottage last year. Kabir Kaul is a wildlife conservationist and writer, who’s done so much to advocate for urban nature and green spaces, especially in the capital, London. He’s been an inspiration to me for a while now, somebody I can relate to, and it was amazing to catch up with him. I was on a roll with meeting old hands from the Writing Retreat now, Emily Hunt up next. The highly skilled writer and poet led a workshop on creative writing all about migratory birds. Several brilliant pieces of writing, about species such as the Arctic Tern, Cuckoo and Swift emerged from the session, and it was great to catch up with Emily too!
On our return from Rutland Water, Birdfair was on the countdown to one of its main events, the 7:30PM Pub Quiz. Hosted by Stephen Moss and Neil Glenn, and helped to cultivate some ‘friendly’ competition between the incredibly knowledgeable attendees this year. We even managed to make up a five-strong team with an average age of around 13, and we still beat a fair few of the more experienced groups! Given the quiz was very much aimed at the older generations, with some questions on topics such as 1960s music involving birds, I feel like we did quite well! It’s always a highlight of the show, and I can’t wait for next year! I’d hardly seen Henry Day (Naturetastic, two Henrys does get a bit confusing) all show, but he came up clutch brilliantly here, managing to recognise several bird calls half of the adults in the room had no clue about.
On Sunday morning, we embarked on a Zeiss nature walk led by Toby Carter (who I mentioned earlier) and Bonner Black, a spectacular singer-songwriter and also an ambassador for Zeiss nature. She had performed a brilliant acoustic set the night before on the Osprey stage, leading seamlessly into the aforementioned Pub Quiz. The way she blends her music career and her birding together is an inspiration to everybody who comes across her, and it was amazing to finally meet her, having followed her journey for a long time.
The walk didn’t lead to much, with most of the birds around sheltering from the now scorching sunshine. However, the butterflies, damselflies, dragonflies, crickets and grasshoppers were all out in force. You couldn’t walk through the long grass for more than five paces before seeing a grasshopper or catching one on your trouser leg. A huge Emperor Dragonfly came soaring over a bramble bush, seemingly investigating our group before whizzing off up the hill. Common Blue Damselflies were everywhere, and even a few Large Reds attempted to blend in with their different-coloured cousins. At least they were enjoying the immense heat!
I met several other phenomenal people during the last day of the show, one of them being Jon Mason, AKA the Early Birder. Another person who I’d followed on Instagram since the beginning, it was fulfilling to finally meet him in person. He’s also supported me since I started out on social media, commenting on some of my earliest posts and driving me on! Thanks Jon! Someone who I’d met several Birdfairs before, and had been looking forward to seeing this year, was Harry Read, a wildlife photographer and filmmaker who works with Leica. I was unable to join him for his nature walk this year, so I only bumped into him on Sunday, but it was still great to catch up!
I hope that I’ve managed to prove to you that Global Birdfair might just be the greatest event that’s ever existed. The sheer amount of people I met, talks I watched and fun I had; I’ve hardly scratched the surface here! Huge thanks to everybody who made it happen. It’s the equivalent of a second Christmas for me, and something I look forward to every year. It was warm, almost too warm this year, but in previous years we’ve had thunderstorms, downpours of rain and just mild, overcast weather, the sort you’d expect from Britain. Wonder what it’ll be like next year? Anyone for snow?
The Bovey Birder 