In just a few hours I should be on an airplane leaving for England in order to attend the largest gathering of bird watchers anywhere in the world – the British Birdwatching Fair. I should be – but I won’t be. It just wasn’t in the cards (VISA or American Express) this year.
For those who have not previously had the pleasure of attending Birdfair, as the event is also known, it is difficult to fully explain. Think of Woodstock (the original good one not the drunken riot of recent memory) comprised entirely of bird watchers. Pavilion after pavilion of exhibits, seemingly uncountable presentations and lectures on every facet of bird study imaginable, events for all ages and levels of skill, and (something unimaginable to American bird watching event participants) not one single field trip. The very thought of being once again in the midst of thousands upon thousands of fellow bird watching enthusiasts in what is arguably the bird watching capital of the known world quickens my pulse.
Alas, I shall be absent from the festivities. Thus I will seek consolation in the natural history podcasts emanating from those two great British institutions – the RSPB and the BBC. The dulcet, smoky voice of Jane Markham guiding me through interviews and insights from the cream of British naturalists on the RSPB’s Nature’s Voice, and the bright, energetic duo of Philippa Forrester and Brett Westwood presenting a superb array of conservationists, zoologists, and others on the BBC Radio 4’s Best of Natural History Radio: World on the Move will help to assuage my longing to be once again in a hide at the edge of Rutland Water puzzling out unfamiliar waders.
To those lucky enough to be attending the event: enjoy your time there to the utmost of your ability. Deny yourself food or rest if it would prevent you from drinking one drop less from the vast cup of knowledge there to be gained. You are among the most fortunate of bird watchers and the envy of all those of us who will find ourselves elsewhere come this fourteenth day of August.
Peace and good bird watching.
