File this under “would that I were.” If you are, unlike me, fortunate enough to be attending Birdfair, the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water later this month, please do me a favor – give my best wishes to a few friends of mine whom I haven’t seen for far too long.
Say hello to Maria Chilvers and all her team from Country Innovation, who you’ll find in Marquee 2, Stands 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. While there, you might also take the opportunity to check out their superb Venture Waistcoat (“vest” to my own countrymen), an example of which has long been one of my favorite garments (in fact am wearing it as I type this very sentence). A recent e-mail message also informs me that they will be having a prize draw for 1,000 Pounds Sterling worth of gear.
After spending some time with the good people at Country Innovation, stroll around Marquee 2 until you see Stands 49 and 50, the Birdfair home of A Rocha. If you are not already familiar with A Rocha, they are an international Christian group working around the world on behalf of the Earth and all its creatures. Their list of projects is immense, so take some time to talk with their representatives at the fair to learn more about what they do, and perhaps even more importantly why they do it. If you come early on Sunday you can also join them at the morning service from 9:30 to 10:00 AM in the Events Marquee.
Then of course there are my friends at the NHBS Environment Bookstore (Marquee 2, Stands 15, 37 and 38) from whom I purchase all my editions of the New Naturalists. Please give them my regards. Next to NHBS’s display, in Stands 39 and 40 you should find Sheena Harvey and her team from Bird Watching, Britain’s best selling magazine on the subject. If you don’t already have a subscription to Bird Watching, you can certainly begin one here.
Should you have your fill of Marquee 2, Marquee 3 is just next door. While there, please offer a hearty ¡Buenos días! to the folks from Lynx Edicions, without whom the world would be without the Handbook of the Birds of the World, not to mention a number of other fine ornithological and natural history titles.
Of course, there are dozens and dozens more stands to visit at the Birdfair in which you will find so many friendly people representing a vast array of organizations, products, publications, travel companies, and just about everything else that can conceivably be associated with bird watching. You may even cross paths with one of the British birding community’s most interesting and amiable fellows (as well as one of my personal bird watching heroes), the famous Fatbirder himself, Bo Beolens.
Like me, you will almost certainly end your visit toting a backpack brimming full with flyers, booklets, books, and other collected items from all the displays you visited, as well as a lifetime’s worth of wonderful recollections of having attended the world’s largest assembly of bird watchers. These last are most to be cherished. I certainly do.
