Whos else ended up going bird fair?

[Ukwildlifeo]

Just got back from the bird fair up at rutland. Fair to say (no pun intended!) I had a good time. First we wandered round the optics tent and I looked through all these lovely scopes and binoculars I'll never be able to afford and looked at lots of lovely books and displays in the other tents. Then we wandered up to the vistor centre and to the bird ringing demo nearby, where I nice chap was ringing a blue tit, which he then let one of the kiddies release, in which he domostrated how if they frlt pressur on their wings they would not fly off. he did this by laying the bird on its back and it just stayed there. Stupidly I didnt have my camera out yet
He then showed us how to record and ring a long tailed tit:



Which he then let another kid release this one too. He then moved onto the Willow Warbler and went quickly through how you could tell it was one and not a chiffchaff (shorter wings, orange feet).


Then as it was a migrant and needed to fatten up it had already been ringed etc and he asked if it was anyones birthday, which it wasn't so he then asked if it was anyones birthday this week and it was mine on Tues...so I got to release my first (definate) Willow Warbler that I had seen:


its behind my hand!


Its the yellow blur 45 degrees down from my chin!

I also went to a talk on dragonflys and on the way there, there was a crowd gathered round a green dragonfly, but I wanted to get to the talk so I banked on the cold weather keeping it there. 40mins later I came out and it was!:


Also while there we had a brief walk round to a couple of hides but there wasnt much on show. But in the hide opposite the vistor centre there was a few feeders outside on which I saw my first ever tree sparrows:

Sorry for the bad pic: a combination of bad conditions, limited Megapixels/zoom and bad photography

And groups of gold, chaff and green finch, including this group:


And as for no wildlife highlights I saw a small man that is Bill Oddie but he was always busy talking and I didnt have my camra out AGAIN! lol. But I did meet this man:

(its Simon King for you non-TV watchers)

and went to a talk by Nigel Marvin


All in all a nice day out despite the crummy weather

[Dan Salter]

Sounds like a brilliant day...thats two years now i have intended to go but not been able to for whatever reason....i absolutely WILL be there next year !....

Dan
Id love to meet simon king....hes superb!

[goosey]

Nice report ukwildlifeo with some great photo's, love the dragonfly - what a beauty. It sounds like a great day, and to have met the great Simon King in to the bargain! Thanks .

[John]

Excellent report Ukwildlifeo with some nice images to go with it.

This is the first time in six years that I haven't been, as I just have too much to do prior going on a Pelagic for a week from next Saturday. If there is anyone that hasn't done the Birdfair I urge you to give it a try as there is plenty to cover most tastes. It isn't just about birds but covers a whole range of subjects.

There are many highlights with some fabulous Wildlife celebrities that at times are very approachable. I was lucky enough to have Simon King approach me last year and we stood talking for 30 minutes before he was called away. It was a fabulous moment in my life and one that has been repeated for other visitors to Rutland as well.

John

[Fourwings]

I went along for a few hours yesterday and had a reasonably enjoyable time.
Personally I felt that it was not as good as past years, for me at least there were far too many holiday firms taking up the stands, I have nothing against this at all but its just a shame that there seems to be a bit less in the way of book stalls, main camera dealers, wildlife study equipment than there used to be.

Having said that it was good to catch up with some old friends and have a good browse in the optics marquee, I also came away with a couple of new books that I wanted and it didn't rain whilst I was there there.

[eeyore]

did anyone see one of mr rouses talks ? - I believe he was on the paramo stand - I was going to go soley for this reason but in the end was so tired i stayed in bed all day instead

[Gill Osborne]

I'm another one who's been meaning to go for years but never had the time/money/opportunity The past three/four years seem to have consisted of us selling our house and moving three times in as many years! Possibly next year....depends how soon we move to Cumbria and get ourselves settled somewhere

I'd love to meet some of the folks I see on tv.....though Neil and I have been to a talk by Bill Oddie in the past.

[Tormentil]

Originally Posted by eeyore

did anyone see one of mr rouses talks ? - I believe he was on the paramo stand - I was going to go soley for this reason but in the end was so tired i stayed in bed all day instead

Mr Rouse could n't rouse you, tut, tut !!!

[Wild-Woman]

We didn't go.
Wanted to so much too. A series of things cropped up. Eg-Chris not feeling top form, weather, realising how much uni stuff for our youngest is going to set us back again!

[paulchandler6]

Have not been for the past 2 years now, all previous ones though. A good place to meet people and the odd celebrity, spending money etc. However I found that there were too many holiday firms trying to coax you onto rather expensive organised tours. Having said that its always a good day out. Cheers

[Ukwildlifeo]

A nice chap who was watching the bird ringing demo happened to be taking a photo of me releasing the willow warbler with his nice DSLR and has emailed me the photo:

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

you should have held on tighter - remember a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

[Carp-angler]

Managed to make it for the first time this year (normally on my 2 week fishing trip) Well worth the trip even took my 81 year old mother and she enjoyed it although she was well Kna****ed by the end of the day.

[WhiskyBottle]

Not been for two years now, but used to go every year. Just wasn't anything I needed, and I was up that way the previous week (Hello Steve).
Holiday firms are OK - you've just got to put your name on the forms and WIN the holidays, as I did when I went to Switzerland a couple of years back
I went to an Andy Rouse talk at 'Focus on Imaging-Canon stand' when he insulted every group in the audience in the name of entertainment. As a result I bought into the Nikon system, not Canon when I went digital, and would not go to one of his talks again.

Talking Nikon - who's going to be first with a 500VR

On another occation at the bird fair. Having done the fair I had a walk around the hides. One hide had a warning on the door - Hornets nesting inside. I opened the door carefully, and it hit something. The hide was packed full of birdwatchers, there was a part built hornets nest just above head level. The hornets were coming in through the front flaps, around the bird watchers and their scopes, and carrying on with the nest regardless. I got a few shots of the nest but because of the low light level inside the nest appeared empty (no flash). It was great to watch them at close range.

[Brian Snail]

This was the first year that we went to the bird fair got Simon King's calendar, and Andy Rouse's Wildlife Travel Photography Book managed to get both signed. I also purchased a Bino/cam Harness for my binoculars to ease the weight off my neck. an excellent day should have attended years ago.

[john4760]

I went for the first time this year,with my 14 yr old daughter in tow,and we had a most enjoyable time except for the predicted downpour on the saturday afternoon,although the free plastic macs from the pentax stall did keep us dry just!!

[john4760]

Originally Posted by Fourwings

I went along for a few hours yesterday and had a reasonably enjoyable time.
Personally I felt that it was not as good as past years, for me at least there were far too many holiday firms taking up the stands, I have nothing against this at all but its just a shame that there seems to be a bit less in the way of book stalls, main camera dealers, wildlife study equipment than there used to be.

Having said that it was good to catch up with some old friends and have a good browse in the optics marquee, I also came away with a couple of new books that I wanted and it didn't rain whilst I was there there.

I noticed that too fourwings,also i thought there would be more stands dedicated to wildlife gardening,if i remember rightly i did not see any

[goldie]

catching and holding these little birds must cause them some distress and i think it is cruel why do they need to do this sort of thing why dont they just leave the little birds alone without any disturbance

[John]

I don't want to upset you but you obviously do not understand why this is done.

First of all ringers are highly trained and are trained for at least two years before they are allowed a licence to ring birds.

There is a great need to do this as it gathers huge amounts of data that can be used to see what happens with our birds. They are rung, weighed and measured, aged and condition of the bird checked, and all this information goes into a data base. Each ring has a number on it and if that bird is caught again (be it in this country or abroad) it tells us what its movements are.

Birds can be tracked down to where they migrate to, what condition they are in and also if the birds return to the same area, again either here or abroad.

You can monitor their movements whilst they are here and also what condition they are in. Dead birds that are found can be analysed and tracked. It also gives up to date information about the possible declines in our our birds and all this from the various ringing stations around the country.

This is a very necessary addition to collating how are birds are doing and without it we would be in the dark on what is happening to our birds.

John

Originally Posted by goldie

catching and holding these little birds must cause them some distress and i think it is cruel why do they need to do this sort of thing why dont they just leave the little birds alone without any disturbance

[Adam Cheeseman]

The data collected can also be used to advise on what changes to management, if any, is needed on reserves etc. Ringing also allows us to ascertain population health and fluctuations on sites and the combined info from sites across the country gives us a better idea of our national populations.

Cheers,

Adam

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by goldie

catching and holding these little birds must cause them some distress and i think it is cruel why do they need to do this sort of thing why dont they just leave the little birds alone without any disturbance

As previously stated the work they carry out is important. The benefits gained from explaining to people about the need to look after our birds will help more than the one bird being shown and ringed, by educating the public.

Also having held the bird in my hand I saw no signs of distress - im not saying it was entirely happy, by the experts know from experience it does no harm